The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-02-04

questions that might come into my head
not for information at all, but just fo1
the purpose of having some, one to talk
to. Blu. Susan had doubtless been ord
cred to hold no converse with the lodg
ers, and therefore her replies we're I'M
necessarily short and by no means en-
couraging. Slamming down or whisk-
ing off the things, she abruptly took her
departure. At length I had recourse to
the landlady herself, and found her so
much more communicative that [ SUD
denly conceived the wild idea of being
able to select from her "reminiscences
the materials for a story with which l
h I'd already resolved to delight the pub
lie and make the fortune of such perloC-
ical as should be so fortunate as to secure
the thrilling production-if could only
think of plot. She was not at all dis
inclined to speak. Indeed, / believe
she would have no scruple in telling ne
the story of each and every one of her
numerous dodgers, from the epoch when
things began to settle down after the
Norman Conquest; for it was to some
such period that I referred in my own
mind the first appearance in her window
of lodgings to Let" But somehow
her dodgers had no history to relate.
To-, 10 So
every now and then, brought her in
news from the political world to the eff
feet that there was a movement on foot
to memorabilia Congress to impose a
tax on furnished lodgings. This was a
very exciting subject, and one upon
which the little, spare, neat landlady al
| ways worked Ill a great deal of en-
| thusaism-indeed, she did not hesitate
| to set the whole National Government
at defiance, saying, in answer to my
caution, that ''if she aCas took up IN such
| a cause she would soon let them know
they had got the wrong pig by the carp
But since my Iandlady had q story
| why not tell it? There was in it a
young gentleman-and young lady
mother-and a journey and a-legacy;
| all the requisite materials, in shorten
| " not mixed. It would be something
new, at any rate, wouldn't it, to give a
| love story without a word of love, with
an incident and without a denouement :?
Such was any landlady's story, and we
will get it out of her.
''The lady and her daughter" said
she, "Well, I don't know as there is any
thing in particular to tell abont them.
they were respectable people and excel
lent dodgers; their rent was as punctual
in coming as the Saturday: they stayed
fourteen months, and then they went
away"
You have not mentioned their
name 70
''Their name? Well surely I must
have known their name when 7 went af-
ter the reference, but as they knew no.
body and were known to nobody, soon
forgot it. we called the mother the
Parlor and the daughter the Young
Lady; for you see, at that time there
was no other young lady in the house.
Their occupation? AS for that, the
mother marketed and the daughter sew
ed, sittingin their chair at the window.
Sometimes they walked, sometimes they
read, sometimes they chatted. They
did nothing else as [ know of. They
lived on their means like other dodgers.
All dodgers that stay fourteen mouths
have means. You be so green, mister,
you make me laugh right out -
81 only wanted to know what was
their station, how they lived, and"
"Lived? Oh, very respectable A
baked shoulder, we shall say, on the
Sunday, with potatoes underit; Monday,
cold; Tuesday, hashed; there may be
pair of pigeons for the Wednesday;
Thursday, a dish of sassengers; Friday,
little mackeril, or, perhaps, Goldfish
balls, and on Saturday just little nice
lunch of bread and butter and tea made
up the week.
every respectable. I know what a
lady is, mister the landlady
fixed her eye upon me severely, "and
them acre ladies -
81 have no reason to doubt-in fact,
I don't doubt it at ALL, I replied, feel
ing her gaze still fixed upon me; ''and
the young man, of course, was some
thing like themselves %
''He was nothing but mystery over
the way. 1 don't know even as he acre
a young man. He might just as well
have been a middle-aged man or an cid
erly man. There he sat at the parlor
window opposite, with a book in his
hand; but it was easy to see it was our