The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-06-09

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then l was brought to recollect that l
broke the vase.
Perhaps, though, she went on, "you
might have put it under the buggy seat,
and in that case it may still be at the
livery stable. Oh, do go right away and
see."
So | meekly walked over to the stable;
but, though l searched in every crack of
the buggy, there was no claret there.
Then Polonius was Intercepted. She
is an excellent creature, but afflicted with
fluent piety of speech, whose liberal
dispensation ON all occasions is not quite
reverent.
Ellen, don't you remember of seeing
three tall, dark bottles on the window
sill at the Blank House when you were
helping me to pack?"
Indeed, thin, ma'am, ricollict thin
intirely a-standin' in row by the windy;
an I've a spllndid mimory, glory be to
God! it's niver gone back on me yit."
did you see me put them into a
basket"
"Deed'n' don't call to mind l seen
ye do anything wild thin. l reminder
thin bottles, because you was jist afther
givin' me the earrings out O that drawer
in the table be the windy"
"Oh, that makes me think: could you
wear them?"
ooh, sure, maam, an phase the Lord,
l niver had me ears holed from that day
to this; hut my Mary Ann, an she not
three ear-old come March, she fetched
thin down Monday aft the booreau;
an, Mother SEE she, be the help of
God I'll wear thin earrings wan day.
SEE she. She's raal smart, that wanm
This was too much for Nan; she left
Polonius to her scrubbing and turned to
me with comic yet desperate express
sion
Its no use, Jack; they're gone"
If only she could have accepted that
situation, we should have had peace; but
day after day went on, and our posses
sions were daily turned inside out, out
side in and bottom side up, while all our
friends were RECALLED with the woeful
tale, and everybody wondered who could
have stolen the claret.
Six weeks after, as l came into the
parlor at night, beheld a strange pile
on the table, carefully yelled with a
towel Nan sprang up from her low
chair, and with a naughty sparkle in her
eye, and highly dramatic sweep of her
arm, snatChed off the towel and revealed
the three claret bottles.
| sank on the sofa and laughed till
| could laugh no more.
8" You horrid thing" she exclaimed,
after she had laughed little herself.
" thought you'd be so glad"
my dear, Pm as glad as can be; but
consider the weakness of humanity. had
to laugh; | should have died of its sup
preston and the flood of memories this
apparition called up"
"OhIm Exclamation marks cannot
give the Indignation which this little syl-
liable hurled at me.
"Where did you find them, Nam"
{" | don't want to tell you. | thought
you'd be magnanimous, and you're not
bit. | know | never shall hear the last
of that claret. But if you must know,
they were in my work basket, rolled up
in Graceys new flannel night-gowns."
Here she had to laugh with me; and,
though lose all character for magnanimi-
ty, | must own that Nan never did hear
the last of that Claret, for it was perpetu-
ally brought to confront her during the
next three months, when at one time
every pair of scissors disappeared, to be
recovered from the crease of the sofa,
the middle of Webster's dictionary, and
the top of a jam pot on the highest pan
try shelf-places where she had laid
them down in some emergency and quite
forgotten them; at another, when every
one of five pair of eyeglasses Especially
provided to avert such a catastrophe as
my near-sighted wife being left without
any took to themselves wings or heels,
and by patient search were at last resur-
rected from forgotten pockets, the desk,
the dressing-case drawers, and-shall |
say thunder the bed! AS for spools,
neck ribbons, pencils, 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; sleeve button that
dropped out in the street, and never came
back; new duster that fell from the
buggy on a drive, and probably has done
somebody else good service long since.
Mans worst losses were retrieved inc
vitality.
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 a
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
May, the sky looked dark enough when
Nan left me-for | could not leave my
business to go with her further than the
station. OF course she took her veil
new and expensive one, just obtained
from New York. But after she reached
town the weather changed to extreme
heat, and the next afternoon l met her
at the train, flushed and painting, with
her thick shawl over her arm, scolding
about the day "Pve been almost
roasted, l do assure you. The house was
like an oven-everybody gasping; and
the cars, oh, how hot they were! Please,
I'd rather walk home; I'm too warm to
ride"
So we walked home; and matters went
on t,o,tal for tUn or th waalyc vUhap