The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-09-02
What Upset Mrs. TitmOuse.
There was dreadful upset the othe
Sunday morning at TitmOuse's.

| lncT6 WAS u uIcduIul upScI tuc OIucI
Sunday morning at Ttmouse's.
By-the-way, though, it is likely enough
that you never heard of the Titmouses
before. "The world knows nothing of
its greatest men," somebody says. Al
though Mr.. Titmouse was not, in the
sense of stature, absolutely gigantic,
still in his own locality he was by no
means insignificant. In his own line,
Mr.. Titmouse was not to be despised.
His line was stationery; he kept shop,
or rather Mrs. Titmouse kept it for him.
Domestic affairs and shop affairs form a
troublesome combination, and frequently
this combination upset Mrs. Titmouse.
Now, the Titmouse family, which COM
prised Mrs. T., Mr.. L. and Master IT,,
aged three and quarter, were what is
called "good-living people," They never
paid their rent in advance, nor charged
more for their goods than they could get,
and always went to church on Sunday
morning.
They were in rather struggling way
just now, for it is astonishing what lot
of pens, ink and paper people could ex-
pect for their money in these days. The
Titmouse stock hung on hand good
deal, which was probably why it was
called stationery. They kept no servant,
and vasS ai..olnt of generalship was
required to make the Sunday morning
arrangements of the Titmouses. And
this, too, often upset Mrs. Titmouse.
AS master Tommy must necessarily be
got ready to 90 out first, Mrs. Titmouse
was nearly always little behind; and
it was 80 on this particular occasion.
There was good deal of fuster about,
one way and another, after breakfast |;
and at last that lrdy said to her husband,
"Now, Mr.. t., you take Tommy and
start off to church first, and I'll come on
presently. You take the key, and l will
bang the door behind me. shall very
likely catch you before you get there.
l don'l like to be la.e at church." To
tell you the truth, dressing to go out
almost always upset Mrs. Titmouse.
Mr.. TitmOuse obeyed. He put the key.
in his pocket, took Master TitmOuse by
the hand, and reached the church with
out being overtaken by his wife. Nor
did she appear during the service; and
Mr.. TitmOuse began to be very uneasy
in his mind as to what could be the mat
ter.
The fact was that Mrs. Titmouse had
never left her own door. Sac finished
her toilette in hurry, came down stairs
with rush, her dress flying out behind
her, and, in accordance with her pro-
gramme, she shut the door with bang.
Unhappily she also shut in between the
door and the door-post about three-quar-
tiers of yard of her wedding silk.
Here was nice situation for an i'm
petuous female, in hurry to get to
church. More than anything which had
been mentioned hitherto did this seem
to upset Mrs. Titmousc.
What was to be done?
First, she pushed at the door. Per-
haps it was not shut? 1t was as firm as
a rock. Then she tugged at the dress.
Perhapsit would bear being pulled out?
Not it; the silk might have been grown
there for aught it would move.
Mrs. Titmouse had two alternatives
remaining. She could leave her skirt
behind in the door, and 60 to church
without it, or she could stay where she
was till her husband came home, taking
her chance, meantime, of what the
passers-by might say.
The very thought of these two alter
natives again upset Mrs. Titmouse.
She concluded, however, to adopt the
latter. 1t was then 1880 a. m. For
two mortal hours from that time mat
ronly female in lavender silk might
have been observed lounging in an APP
parently careless attitude against her own
door, endeavoring to appear as though
she were quite accustomed to spend her
Sunday mornings in that manner, and
rather preferred it than otherwise.
But when at last Mr.. Titmouse ar
rived, in great state of alarm, and asked
hastily what was the matter, he hardly
got satisfactory answer, at any rate out
side.
What happened to the little man
when he fished up the key from his
pocket and had fairly unlocked the fatal
door, and it was again closed behind the
Titmouse family, is one of those mys-
teries which will never be revealed.
Whenever you ask Titmouse about it, he
only shudders and says, in an imploring
tome Hush