The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-06-08
Borrowers.

OF the conversation he SAID;
1 am going to move. 1 can't
stand those Thompsons next door
to me any longer. They are the
awfuIlest people to borrow things l
ever saw. Coffee and butter, and
sugar and -four, 1 don't mind so
although when a woman Dor
rows high priced sugar and Java
coffee and sends back sand and
a man naturally feels bill
icus mad. But they've borrowed |
nearly everything in the house.
First it's one thing and then an
other, from morning till night, right
along.
Now there's the poker. A poker
is a piece of machinery that you
would think anybody might go
around and buy, or if they couldn't
afford 1t, they might use a fence
pailing to shake up the fire. But
Mrs. Thompson seems to banker af
ter our poker. She borrows it fif-
teen or twenty times a day, and last
Saturday she sent for it thirty-four
times. She pays boy 50 a week
to run over and boI~ow that poker,
and she's used it so much that it's
all bent up like a corkscrew.
Now, take chairs for instance.
She asks me to lend her our chairs
three times a 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 a sofa. and when the boy came
back with it he said Mrs. Thomp
son was as mad as thunder, and
kept growing round the house all
because there were no casters on it,
and on Monday she borrowed our
wash boiler and we had to put off
our washing till Tuesday. She did
preserving in it, and the conse-
quence was all our clothes were full
of preserved peaches. Pve got on
an undershirt now that I'm mighty
doubtful if I'll ever get of, it's
stuck to me so tight.
Every now and then sue has COM
pany land then she bOrrows our hired
girl and all the parlor furniture;
once because 1 would not carry the
piano over for her aud take down
the chandelier, she told our girl that
there were rumOrs about town that
1 was a reformed pirate.
Perfectly scandalousl They
think nothing of sending over after
a couple of bedsteads or the entry
carpet, and the other day Thomp-
son says to me:
'Butterwick, does your pump log
pull up easyP
And when I said thought it did,
he said:
well, would like to borrow it
for a few days TIL I get one, for
mlne's all rotted away"
The only wonder to me is that he
didn't try to borrow the well along
with it.
And then on Tuesday Mrs. Thomp-
son sent,that boy over to know if
Mrs. Butterwick wouldn't lend her
our front door. She said theirs
was being painted, and she was
afraid the baby would catch cold
When asked him what he supposed
we were going to do to keep com
Portable without any front door, he
said Mrs. Thompson said she reck-
oned we might tack up bedquilt
or something. And when l refused,
the boy said Mrs. Thompson told
him if 1 wouldn't send over the
front door, to ask Mrs. Butterwick
TO lend her a pair of striped stock
ings and . horse-hair hustle and to
borrow the coal scuttle till Monday.
What in the name of Moses she
is going to do with the hustle and
coal scuttlo 1 can't conceive.
But they're the most extraordi-
nary people! Last Fourth of July
the boy came oyer and told Mrs.
Butterwick 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 it2 But
that's her way.
Why, I've known her to take off
our Johnny's pants, when he's been
playing over there with them and
send him home bare legged to tell
his mother that she borrowed them
for pattern. And on Thompson 5
birthday she said her house was so
small tor a party that if we'd lend
her ours we might come late in the
evening and dance with the com
pany, if we wouldn't let on that we
lived there.
Yes, sir; I'm going to move. I'd
rather live next to a lunatic asylum
and having maniacs pouring red hot
shot over the fence every hour of
the day. Indeed l would.-Chron-
icle.
When a young man has just
reached the years of goinghood, has
his boots BACKED regularly twice a
day, puts on a new paper collar be-
fore each meal, trims his finger nails
] 49,. 1. 4 1. L ~