American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-12-18
They Carr led 1t Too Far.

MR.. BUTTERwICK called in to see me tn
other day, and in the course of the con
I'm going to ' ~ t to me sam am,
those ThoffpspBs, next oo~- " -onle !;
longer. They're tbs awfullest Pc.
borrow things that I ever cav; Coffee
and sugar, and butter, and -four eoti't
mind so much, although when womat
borrows high priced sugar and Java
coffee, and sends back sand and chickory,
q man naturally feels bilious and mad
thing in the house. First it's one thing
and then It's another, from morning till
night, right straight along. Now there's
the poker. A poker's piece of machin-
cry that you'd think anybody might &c
around and buy, or if they couldn't afford
it they might use fence paling to shake
up the fire But Mrs. Thompson seems
to banker after our poker. She borrows il
fifteen or twenty times day, and last
She pays a boy two dollars a week to run
| over and borrow that poker; and She
used it so much that it's all bent up like a
corkscrew.
"Now take chairs, for instance. She
asks us to lend her our chairs three times
day at every meal, and she borrows
the rocking chair whenever she wants
to put the baby to sleep. A couple OF
times she sent over for sofa, and
when the boy came back with 1t he
said Mrs. Thompson was mad as thun-
der and kept growing around the
house all day because there were no castors
on it. Last Monday she borrowed our
wash boiler, and we had to put off our
washing till Tuesday. She did her pre-
serving in it, and the consequence was all
our clothes were full of preserved peach
es. I've got on an undershirt now that I'm
mighty doubtful if I'll ever get off, it's
then she has company, and then she Dor
rows our hired girl and all the parlor fur
niture once, because wouldn't carry the
piano over for her and take down the
chandelier, she told our girl that there
were rumors about town that was a re-
formed pirate.
Perfectly scandalous! They think
nothing of sending over after a couple of
bedsteads or the entry carpet; and the
other day Thompson says to me: But
terwick, does your pump-log pull up
it did, he said: Well, I'd like to borrow
it for few days till 1 can git one, for
mines all rotted away The only wonder
to me is that he didn't try to borrow the
well along with it.
"And then, on Thursday, Mrs. Thomp-
son sent that boy over to know If Mrs.
Butterwick wouldn't lend her our front
door. She said theirs was away being
painted and she was afraid the baby
would catch cold. When l asked him
what he supposed we were going to do to
keep comfortable without any front door
he said Mrs. Thompson said she reckoned
we might tack up bed-quilt or some
thing. And when / refused, the boy said
Mrs. Thompson told him if wouldn't
send over the front door to ask Mrs. Bu:.
terwick to lend her a. pair of striped
stockings and hOrse-hair hustle and to
borrow the coal-scuttle till Monday.
What in the name of Moses she is going
to do with a hustle and "a coal-scuttle l
can't conceive.
" But they're the most extraordinary
people! Last Fourth of July, was it?
Yes-last Fourth of July the boy came
over and told Mrs. Butterwick that Mrs.
Thompson would be much obliged if she'd
lend her the twins for few minutes. Said
Mrs. Thompson wanted 'em to suck off a
new bottle-tOp, because it made her baby
sick to taste fresh india-rubber! Cheeky,
wasn't it? But that's her way. She don't
mind it any more! Why, I've known her
to take off our Johnny's pants when he's
been playing over there with the children,
and send him home barelegged to tell his
mother that she'd borrowed them for
pattern. And on ThompsOn's birthday
she said her house was so small for party
that if we'd lend her ours we might come
IN late in the evening and dance with the
company if we wouldn't let on that she
didn't live there! Yes, sir; I'm going to
move. I'd rather live next door to
lunatic asylum and have the maniacs
pouring red-hot shot over the fence every
hour of the day. Indeed, 1 would."-
Va s,n