The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-05-31

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sank on 70 the sofa md laughed till
could laugh no more.
"You horrid thing!" she exclaimed
after she had laughed q little herself. ~
thought you'd be SO glad"
My dear, I'm as glad as can be; bu
consider the weakness of humanity.
had to laugh; should have died Of it
suppression and the food of memories
this apparition called up."
"Ohi!i" Exclamation marks canno
give the indignation which this little syl
liable hurled at me.
where did you find them, Nan!''
~ don want t6 tell YOU. / thoughl
you'd he magnanimotis, and you're hot q
bit kncu / never shall hear the last Of
that claret.. But, if you must know, they
were in my work basket, rolled up in
j Graeey's new flannel night-gowns."
Here she had to laHgh with me, and,
though lose all character fof maEflah:
unity, must own that Nan never did heal
The last of that claret, for it was perpet.
ually brought to confront her during the
next three months, when, at one time
every pair of her scissors disappeared, To
be recovered from the crease of the sofa,
the middle of Webster's Dictionary, and
the top of jam-pot on the highest pantry
shelf places where she had laid them
down in some emergency, and quite for.
gotten them at another, When every one
of five pair of eyeglasses Especially pro-
vided to avert such q catastrophe as my
near sighted wife being left without any)
| took to themselves wings or heels, and, by
patient search. we're at last resrrrected
| from forgotten pockets, the desk, the
dressing case, drawers and-shal1 say
lit?-under the bed! As for spools, neck
ribbons, handkerchiefs, gloves, they
seemed to symbolic the lost tribes Of
Israel for number and persistence, except
that they always came back.
1t is true that also lost things, but in
the normal way; a sleeve button that
dropped out in the street and never came
back; a new duster that fell from the
buggy on drive, and probably has done
somebody else good service long since.
Mans worst losses were retrieved inevita-
bly,.
But in three months came loss that
was really annoying. Nan has dreadful
headaches after any exposure to cold, and
consequently wraps her head up in long
and thick veil if the weather Is the least
threatening when she is Obliged to face It.
! There was funeral one day in Port
land, some thirty miles from US by rail,
which she must attend, being one of the
immediate family; and, though it was
| NAV, the sky looked dark enough when
| Nan left me-for l could not leave my
business to go with her further than the
station. OF course. she took her veil-a
new and expensive one, just obtained
from New York. But after she reached
town the weather changed to extreme
heat, and the next afternoon met her at
the train, flushed and painting, with her
thick shawl over her arm, scolding about
the day: "I've been almost roasted, do
assure you. The house was like an oven
- everybody gasping: and the cars, oh,
how hot they wcrel Please, I'd rather
walk home; I'm too warm to ride
So we walked hcme; and matters went
on as usual for two or three weeks, when,
one day, picnic being afOot, Nan came
| to HE with wide eyesi
"Jack, do you remember, that day |
came home from Aunt Dorcas' funeral,
seeing my dark blue veil in my hands
| mo, don't. Is it lost. Nan?"
"Of course it is" she retorted, with
much dignity. Il must have left it in
the carsT l remember taking it off my
hat, I wss SO warm, and hanging it over
the seat Will you please go up TO
the noon train and ask Conductor Scott if
he found it?"
Now have been on so many fools er-
rands OF this sort, gently demurred.
"Are you quite sure you haven't 1t in the
house, my deary
"Of course l am. Jack, do wish you
neper would say my dear to me. I'd
rather be sworn at any day. Now you
think haven't lost that veil. ! have. l
know have. But I'll 60 myself"
"Indeed you won't, Mrs. Nan. But
can you blame me, remembering the
claret?"
The blessed little woman few after me
to box my ears, but am nimble, and es-
capcd-by hairs breadth
Of course Mr.. Scott had not seen the
veil. And then Nan recollected she had
it in one hand coming out OF the station ;
therefore she must have dropped it in the
street, and it had to be thoroughly adver-
tised in the local paper. But nobody re-
stored it.
About a year after, Nan came to me
with one hand behind her back, and the
sidewise, doubtful look of a cat caught
cream stealing.
"What have you found" laughed l,
sure of a sequel of this sort.
She brought slowly before her the blue
| lengths of the lost veil, and then threw
herself into my lap, hid her face in my
beard, and proffered this shame faced ex-
PLANTATION: Why, l was pulling out a
box of papers from under the bureau in
that little room -stairs-you know II
wasn't cleaned last fall-and touched
something soft. Oh! thought it was
mouse, and l screamed. But it didn't
move; SO poked it with Ire cane, and It
was my veil, all folded and rolled up.
suppose put it on the bureau with my
black hat, and it rolled off behind"
| What could sayS
Poor little Nan! Things got no better
with her for all my laughter: she would
lose dress skirt, only to discover that she
had out ON another one over it and worn
| it half the day; no morning passed with.
out hunt for the small slippers she
ste, ped out of the night before wherever
she CHANGED to be when she thought of Il
by Gracilis' bedside, in the dressing
closet, in the bath room, or by the psrloI
sofa.
She went to visit . friend in Boston, and
| lost an exquisite stone cameo pima head
of Venus crowned with roses, embracing
Cupid, who nestles his curly head against
her beautiful throat, and smiles. The
subject was peculiar, and the gem valu
able. Nan was sure she had put it in hel
trunk, but some delay occurred about
leaving, and the trunk stood in her room
a whole day, while she went out TO Rox
4 bury, of course the chamber maid hac
stolen II there could be no doubt Of that
Considering the past, felt for thu
/ chamber maid, and therefore persuaded
nv wife not to mention her suspicious
but to write calmly to her friend, and ash
| if the missing pin had perhaps dropped
behind the bureau or into one OF its draw
ers but NO pin had been seen, deeply tt
4 the regret Of Mrs. Greene, who appre
4 ciated and admired 1t thoroughly Il
| then occurred to my Wife that size had beer
| to the Boston Public Library the cay before
! the trunk was packed, and it was just posi-
ble the pin might have dropped there; 90 :
| friend Of mine being about to visit Boston
| ON business, / commissioned him, no
without some misgiving, to inquire at tht
library for the lost article; but u was mo-
| there, and Nan tried to accept the situa
| tion, though she regfetted the loss much
In tho autumn she was about 70 Pue away
her summer fnery In 9 spare chest kep
! for such purposes, and suddenly heafu
sort Of glad call from her chamber:
ssOh. lack, here It Is !! here's my pin
| Oh. I'm aWfully g1kdl''
She had becoms quite callous BY THU
1 time to any shame about her numeroul
/ Ioesea: 10 phe confesed, and I Laughed
-ssl I.-.,,., l,s.os1,rs, essd uhen oDuId