Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-04-08
From Harpers Bazar.l
A CONTROVERSY WITH CUPID.

Little wretch! | hate him. We
have never had a moments peace since
he took possession of the house," de,
clared Polly Patten, with n stamp of her
foot.
The "he" referred to was not, az
might be supposed, a tramp or sheriff's
officer, not even a poor relation, or an
Irish butler, or a heather Chinee. Not
at oil. The object of Pollys wrath was
parsonage lifted up, as it would seem,
by virtue of his position, above human
criticism as above human rules, myth,
an unknown entity-no other, in fact,
than the little god cupid himself. He
and his Vaccinations had of late wrought
changes-woful ones, Polly thought-in
the constitution of the Patten family;
and to her imagination represented all
manner of discomfort and discontinue,
the alienation of plans, the blight of
approximations and cross-purposes
without end She felt toward him a
good, honest, hearty hostility, as one
may toward an opponent of flesh and
blood, as she sat in her bedroom, in
Weighing upon the subject to her special
friend Susan Gilmore, who was perched
beside her on the broad window-sill.
"Oh. it's all very well to laugh" she
went on; shut just wait till you try it
yourself. All last year was given up,
You know, to marrying Helen. Her
trousseau, and her presents, and her
furnishing else was thought of
or spoken of for twelve long months
The house was checked with her things
We all worked our fingers to the bone.
Nobody could turn round without find
ing woman or a sewing machine Mt his
back. We never even pretended to hear
ourselves speak Well, Just rs it was all
over, and Helen comfortably Off our
minds, Lizzie must needs set up a lover
and long engagemeht-JohnS Shaw, too,
of all persons Now | may be dull, but
in the name of common sense why John
Shaw of all men in the world?"
"Lizzie knows, | presume.
"W.u, perhaps she does; still, 1t Is
provoking. Every morning of his life
John Shaw looks in for half an hour ON
his way down town. He and Lizzie
absorb the parlor of course. That is
all right, no doubt; but, rs it happens,
that particular half hour is precisely the
one WHICH L NSttt iiWuNS w Rthc w tlltN
up the flowers, water and trim, till the
vases, and make the room nice for the
day, and the want of it puts me out
.dreadfuily. sit and twirl my thumbs,
aud scold to mother. and she never will
agree with me. Lovers are privileged,
she says.
"Ot course they are. Don't be a
spoilt-sport, Polly. It's their turn now.
Yours will come
"Never! But there's more behind
What do you say to Eunice's indulging
in an engagement too?"
Not really?"
every really indeed John Norman
is the happy man this time. Two Johns,
YOU observe, by way of making the con-
fusion greater, So they SIT in the dining
room every evening, while Lizzie and
John occupy the parlor."
And where do the rest of you sit %
echo answer. We sit wherever we
may. Mother takes her mending- basket
upstairs, and has student-lamp on the
round table in the upper entry. Papa
shuts himself up i'll that dreadful little
close = den of his, or goes to the office.
| observe that he has business there of
evenings much oftener than formerly
because there Is no comfortable place for
him Mt home, no doubt. jim makes =
point of being out. AS for Amy and
me. we sit on the back stairs, or in the
buffers pantry, or amy other odd corner
which nobody else wants. y Polly
laughed. but there were tears IN her
brown eyes, and very mutinous look
about the pretty mouth, which John
Norman, while in process of samplng
the family to borrow Pollys own
phrase, had once hkened to beautiful
Evelyn Hopes, of the true "geranium
red"
"As if all this wasn't enough" she
went on presently with half giggle,
half sob, there is n letter come to-day
from Fanny Allen--our cousin, you
know-and she is engaged too; and she
proposes to make us n visit, and her
Young man means to drop along. for
sooth. while she ishere. Now where are
they to sit? | can't imagine, unless
they take the air-chamber of the fur
mace. The front steps are quite too cold
at this time of the year. Or | might
have the trunk-room cleared out for
A, ,.s,. 4 habit thought pf thct before y