Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1881-09-15
MISS sPINSER's DIARY.

Come now, Sallie, set the day.
What's the use Of fooling any longcr?n
Deacon Scratcher ought to have had
better sense than TO begin that old
song then, when my loveliest pie that l
had spent fifteen minutes in crimping
with the shovelhandle, had just tum-
bled of the stove-hearth upside down
and killed itself
Deacon said "you are several
shades worse than the seventeen-year
locusts. | wish you would walk out Of
here.n
II won't" said he. "till | get an
answer. VIII you please to decideP"
d" Decide whatp'
Whether you'll be Mrs. Scratcher
or an old maid2"
Verify. viii if you give me time"
"How much time do you wantP'
"Only few year." "
why don't you say O couple OF dec
ades3 You're thirty-six and Pm forty
six. Ninety is a good age to get mar
ried atpi
yes" / said, searching carefully in
the wood-box for the nutmegs (Which
had fallen off the cupboard), land YOU
do need few years more at school If
you mean that for an arithmetical cal
culation.n II was bad of me to worry
him, but then it was baking-day, and l
think ] got up wrong side out this
morning, too.
He Jumped of the meal-chest, where
he had been doubled up like Chinese
fan.
II won't wait the twentieth part Of a
minute longer" he vowed, and went
prancing round the kitchen in the
most tragic manner, and the worst pos
sible temper.
"Oh, look out" squalled, you've
got your big foot on my best crinkled
pie panr'
He kicked 1t under the stove like =
savage, and then went dashing round
every way.
Give me an answer" he kept roar
ing, "an answer-an answer I'll have
AN answerl'' and had to fly about like
top to get my pies and gingerbread
out Of the way, for had strung them
out on the floor all around the stove,
and he would have capered over them
rough-shod
'iQuit quit" l cried, brandishing
the hour-scoop. "You great, big Jug
gernaut, IL you don't quit capering, Iii
shy the sitter at your head. Give me
day--no, give me two days, and I'll tell
you" Then he stopped,
Is that the truth, solemn" he
asked.
That's the truth, solemn" l an
swered.
SO now here I've only got two days
TO decide whether I'll stay Sallie Spin
ner with no one to love, none to kindle
the fire for me, or be Mrs. Deacon
Scratcher, and have TO iron shirts. Per-
haps had better ask the advice Of my
married friends and relatives,
Jnly I4th. got my first installment
of advice without askingl
Being in meditatiye frame of mind,
| had just kind OF slicked things up,
swept the dust under the edge of the
zinc, and jammed all the papers and
such bohind the door, and was rev.
cling in the society of my rocking
chair and green apple, when cousin
Jullana Pike came over to borrow n
lemon
"Well. I've got one somewhere" i
said, il il isn't in the cupboard or my
work basket, perhaps you'll find it in
On old trunk in the smoke. house. "
Mercy on u.s." said Juiana, "why
don't you be systematie?" a
system and Sallie Spinner don't
travel hand inland through this wicked
world, = said ]. rocking away piaeidiy
Juliana Is one Of the ifdgety kind.
Can't You quit see-sawing min
utepp she asked, squirming around un.
al she knocked the coiiee-pOt out OF
the window, "whatare you foolingaway
your time for any way, when your work
b not half donePD
"'ris half done" | said, land I'm