The Princeton union., 1879-02-26
Borrowing NelghbOrs.

LII SOAAS " AOVC1 S01u III. DutlSl-
wick;"I can't stand those Thompsons
next door to me any longer. They are
the awfulest people to burrow things that
I ever saw. Coffee and butter and sugar !
and flour don't mind so much, although |
when woman borrows high h-priced su-
gar and Java coffee, and sends back sand
and chickory, man naturally feels bill
lous and mean. But they've borrowed
pretty near everything in the house.
First it's ore thing and then it's another,
from morning till night right straight
along.
Now there's the poker. A poker is a
piece of machinery that you would think
anybody might 60 around and buy, or, if
they couldn't afford it, they might use
fence paling to shake up the fire. But
Mrs. Thompson seems to banker after our
poker; she borrows it fifteen or twenty
times day, and last Saturday she sent
for it thirty-four times. She pays boy
two dollars week to run over and bor-
row that poker; and she's used it 80
much that it is all bent up like cork
screw.
Now the chairs, for instance. She asks
us to lend our chairs three times day at
every meal, and she borrows the rocking
chair every time she wants to put the
baby to sleep.
A couple of times she sent over for our
sofa, and when the boy came back with
it he said Mrs. Thompson was mad as
thunder, and kept growing around the
house all day because there were no cas-
tors on it. Last Monday she borrowed
our wash-boiler, and we had to put off our
washing till Tnesdey. She did her pre-
serving in it and the consequence was all
our clothes were full of preserved peach
es. I've got on an undershIt now that
I'm mighty doubtful if Ill get it off, it's
stuck to me so tight.
Every now and then she has company,
and she borrows our hired girl and all the
parlor furniture; once, because I would
not carry the piano over for her and take
down the chandelier, she told our gir
that there were rumors about town that
was reformed pirate.
Perfectly scandalous! They think moth
ing of sending ever after couple of bed
steads or the entry carpet; and the othel
day Thompson says to me-
'Butterwick, does your pump-log pul
up easyG'
And when said tn ught it did, h
said
well, I would like to borrow it for
few days till can get one, for mine i
all rotted away ... =.
The only wonder to me is that he didn'
try to borrow the we'll along with it.
And then on Tuesday Mr.. Thompson
sent that boy over to know if Mrs. Butter
| :o1r ~ ~
He said theirs was away being painted
and he was afraid the baby would catcl
cold. When I asked him what he supposed
we were going to do to keep comfortable
without any front, he said Mrs. Thompson
said she reckoned we might tack upa bed
quilt or something. And when refused
the boy said Mrs. Thompson told HIM
I wouldn't send over the front door, t
, ask Mrs. Butterwick to lend her pair Q
striped stockings and horsehair hustle
r and to borrow the coal-scuttle till Monday
What in the name of Moses she is goin
/. to do with hustle and coal-scuttle
t can't perceive.
a But they're the most extraordinar
t peoplel Last Fourth of July the bo
K came over and told Mrs. Butterwick thu
q Mrs. Thompson would be much oblige
;. if she'd lend her the twins few minute
g Said Mrs. Thompson wanted 'em to sue
off new bottle. top because it made tt
J. baby sick to taste fresh lndia-rubbe
Cheeky, wasn't it, But that's her wa,
r She don't mind it any more!
. Why, I've known her to take q
4 Johnny's pants when he's been playir
+ over there with the children, and send hi
home bare.leggcd to tell his mother tn
4 she borrowed them for pattern. Ar
" on Thompsons birthday she said b
,e house was 90 small for party that if We
"a lend her ours we might come late in Il
"a evening and dance with the company.
we wouldn't let on that we lived there.
70 Yes, sir, I'm going to move. I'D rsth
te live next to lunatic asylum and la
the fanatics pouring red hot shot aero
~ the fence every hour of the day. Inde'
~ I would.-Mas Adkor.