Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-07-29
That Little Place Of
Browns.

dnu IL DO Diiuoe III d uCSe, uHtll tH0
Blacks, some old friends of ours from
the city, came to live in our neighbor-
hood.
We were at supper one night when
my wife told me.
They're going to take the French
rooted house around the corner" said
Sally, "with the big extension and the
conservatory, and as | happened to be
walking out just as the trucks came
down, couldn't help seeing that the
parlor furniture is of crimson satin
damask and ebony-l think it's ebony,
but | won't be sure" continued my
wife; "but at any rate it's inlaid."
"Well, that's a comfort. anyway"
said |. eff you're positive it's inlaid.
Sally, you can perhaps go on with your
supper"
EYES," she said, so preoccupied with
her theme that she hadn't eaten morsel,
''and there's the handsomest bedroom
set for Jane that l most ever laid eyes
on; it's one of those dressing bureaus,
Joe. with magnificent plate-glass that
reaches down to the floor"
That's good" said 1. "You can
run around there, when you have your
next gown fitted and see the hang of it. !"
81 don't expect to run around there, !"
said Sally, craning her neck up stifiy,
turning up the end of her nose, and
drawing her lips down.
"Why, what's the matter?" said I.
wasn't Jane friendly? I've done many
good turn for Black in my day, and l
hope they're not going to turn cold
shoulder now"
"Oh, she was friendly enough" said
Sally; "but we can't expect, Joe, that
people living in that kind of style can
be upon terms of intimacy with people
that live as we do. There are certain
restrictions in society
"Restrictions be hanged" I cried,
I'm as good man as Black any day
in the week."
"You are as good as the President,
for that matter" said Sally; "but it's
all like pair of scales, Joe; when one
goes up, another goes down, and, from
the way things look, it'll take q pretty
heavy weight on the Blacks side to
bring them down to our position
| l must own this kind of logic vexed
me little. | knew pretty well how
Black stood commercially, and 1 told
Sally there wasn't feathers weight on
his side, so far as the favors of fortune
were concerned. "If he has mind to
live above his means, !" said 1, .'he can
do it, and take the consequences.
"He has just as good right to live
above his MEANS" said Sally, as you
have to live beneath yours"
This was her Parthian arrow as |
went out the door, and it ranked lit.
tie all the way down to the train, the
more sharply that l found Black the
centre of an admiring bevy at the depot.
He had quite an imposing makeup and
glib tongue, which he used in inveigh-
ing against our system of paving. He
complained of the condition of good
many things in our young township.
and seemed to gain popularity With
every fault that he found. At last he
spied me, and was exceedingly loud in
his salutation.
"Hallo, Brown !" he said, shaking
my hand again and again, and declaring
to the people about him [ was an old
friend whom he was glad to unearth
I've run you down, you sly fox. That's q
very snug little place around the corner
very snug indeed !"
| wouldn't have believed it possible
could have been such an ass as to fee
aattered by this familiarity of Black s
but | found myself smirking and nod
ding with great complacency. Her,
were at least half dozen of the gentry
about me who lived in big houses in my
neighborhood, that had been going VI
and down to the city with for years
yet scarcely knew them well enough fo
an exchange of civilities, and here wa
: Black already hand in glove with th,
finest of them. 1t makes me sick nov
when | remember that l turned M
back on poor old White, and went toad
, ying on with this aristocracy. Whit
lived in even a smaller house than mine
and had hard enough work to pay 70
!, that. He failed in business some year
before, and l don't know what the,
E would have done without their boy Bob
He was with me in the city. and l kney
that goodly portion of the lads earn
ings were given over to the support 0
: the house. 1T was rather hard for Bob
s but he bore his lot with great resigna
a tion. He came over pretty often to hav
game of cribbage and talk over bushes
matters with me, and found him shar
= enough at both. Then he had pleas
f ant way with the women. Our littl
$ Rosalie was little more than child
|. but Sally used to brighten up whe
. Bob came in, till she got into that kin