The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-07-21

fire. 'Tisn't even in the right shape for
kindlings there"
"Clara, | believe you disdain the very
IDEA of economizing anywhere"
i don't see any economy in it. If it
were necessary, it would be a very disa-
greeable necessity. But if we can't af-
ford to buy our coal we had better shut
up the house, and dismiss the servants,
and live in a tent, and burn our chips
outside it, under the bake-kettle"
Very practical. Pm glad to see that
you know what bake kettle is"
"Well, did you marry me for a cook ?'
What a little fraud you'd have been
if had! Come, don't be silly. l didn't
marry you to be ruined by careless waste
and extravaganza"
ooh! oh! oh!'
"What do you call it, then? Here are
cords of drift-wood thrown up with al
most every other tide, and instead of
harvesting it we let it wash away with
the next, and you laugh at me and get
angry and call me names if propose to
save some of it "
"Call you names!"
" Yes, you do. You think it's mean
and sordid."
81 never said so, anyway. That's
your guilty conscience. 0 pshaw! l
think it's silly and very Impractical"
Well, l don't care Whdt you think.
Here's the beach covered with this light
wood, and Pm going to call the servants
and have it gathered before dark"
You can't; for Terence is waiting
with the horses at the other station for
the Colonel, and you gave little Jim leave
to go to his grandmother's, and it's Han
nah's evening out, and Kitty must be in
readiness to wait on table; and so there's
nobody but Nora, and she's busy, and it
isn't her work, and she'd refuse to do it,
and that would make you angry, and l
should lose a good cook"
Five servants to wait upon two PEG.
pie! It's shameful" groaned Rex
They're not waiting on two people.
They're taking care of the grounds, the
horses, the house and cooking for com
pany more than for u.s."
d" Well, then, if there's nobody else,
FL do it myself" he said, desperately
" I'll do it myself"
"And I'll sit down here and see how
long it will be before you're tired of it."
" | dare say you will" he exclaimed,
savagely. 81 suppose it would break
your back to pick up one of these chips:"
" Oh, if that's what you mean, cried l,
in an answering fury-we did fight just
like children IF you want your wife
for drudge, I guess can pick up wood
as long as the next onem l declare
didn't seem to know Rex any longer, and
Pm very sure he didn't know me.
doubled up my skirt and pinned it back
like a fish woman didn't have another
pin about me than that long gold one
with the diamond head that you used to
admire so, but quilted it in; and l tied a
knot in my scarf-it was my old rose
colored and gold India mantle; and ran
and caught this stick and that stick and
hurled them up the beach, and Rex was
tossing them up, too; and before | knew
it there was stack of them, and | was
determined that my stack should be as
big as his; and presently he stopped and
slapped the dust off his hands and looked
at me and laughed.
"What do you mean to do with your
pile when it's done?" said he.
Set fire to it, and run away by the
light of it." said I.
mo, | wouldn't" said he. cit would
be a great deal better to kiss your hus-
band and make up" And so we did
and there was never anybody to see on
our Long Beach, NO" said Rex, q
don't want you to do this. I'm just
going to finish these piles myself to show
Terence what he could do in a spare
hour, and what he's neglecting."
"Oh, think it's good fun" said Land
at it we went again, each trying to Guido
the other; now gathering the dry splin-
tiers, now growing greedy and trying to
fetch in some big stick floating in little
blight, and reaching out for it, sure
to lose my balance and plunge in over
shoes and scream and run my beautiful
new French boots that had paid twenty
dollars for the last time | was in town,
and they wouldn't even do for Kitty now!
But no matter, we were having a royal
time, and had forgotten all about old
Colonel NJ Manus.
eff you knew how it made you look,
you'd take such exercise every day." Rex
stopped long enough to get breath and
say: "Your cheeks are like two red
roses"
And of course didn't stay at that; and
a gay half hour it was All at once felt
wet to my skin, and l looked, and there
was the skirt of my dress that l had
pinned up so carefully all down and
drabbled, and the front of it wet through
with the dripping of the last wood | had
saved, and the pin ooh, I've lost the
pin" l exclaimed" my beautiful long
diamOnd-headed pin"
"You have? Well, charge it to profit
and loss" SAID Rex. at would be idle
to look for it on this sand and Single
a needle in a haymow, and dark hay
NOW, too, presently. It's gone to keep
company with my cuff button"
80 Rex! One of your wonderful
cuff buttonsm cried, standing still with
my armful. They were antiques-one
of the very things, they said, when we
bought them at Rome, that Cellini had of
the peasants, who found them when
turning up the ancient soil about the
vines-heads of Caesars exquistely cut
in onyx. And just then, as l was ex-
claiming, wave came running up be.
hind me and knocked my feet up like
two nine nins and | fell face down and