Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1881-12-01

lnlnB more 10 make the beauty StIi
more beautiful, and the harmony more
harmonious? There is / have it. /
see there is. Why, bless me I haven't
begun to be done yet. Why not paint
all the wooden utensils which belong TO
kitchen use? I'll do it, if I have to
send for more paint How thought ex-
pands by exercise. AT first l thought
only of the floor and now, pooh it is
the last and least of my thoughts but
thank the floor for leading to these
ideas.
In this happy mood my father re-
sumed his decorative work on wood. and
engaged himself busily for several days,
during which he was obliged to send for
even more paint than he had bought at
first, to enable his busy brush to adorn
baskets, knife-tray, bread-trough, spice
mortar, rolling-pin, dough-stich, salt
box wash, ironing and knife boards ;
clothes-horse, sleeve-board, pals, buck
cts, barrels, kegs, tirkins, tubs, benches,
brooms and brushes and after whatever
else could be painted without being
rendered unfit for use had been painted,
concluded to finish,,off by reddening
whole store-room, from which most
1i them had been drawn.
Il have done enough already, thought
any father, to make my wife thankful !;
hut theal have great deal moro paint
on iaud, a9d ! can see plainly thatmuch
remains TO be done. Now, why not paint
the outside OF the rear OF the l. of the
house, where the kitchen Is, rs high up
as the caves, to correspond %
Nh. In ,t5J on I H., 10 - l.,
would look like patchwork, unless all
the outside Of the L were given the
same hue Aud this, TOO, he did, aud
having included the L roof and chin
ney, lie then added the rear porch, its
roof and hitting, and admitted that tho
liherality was not to be repented, but
would not he completes, symmetrical
triumph unless assisted by the painting
Of the house, embracing IN grand red
sunl-totai, roofs, chimneys, spouts, walls,
doors, poiticos. ratings, pillars, window
frames and trellises.
And all these, also, he did with his
own hand, his red right hand, for it may
be readily imagined that his hand could
not have been very much of any other
color, immersed as he was in such a
wholesale work, and my fathers diary
itself states that sometimes he felt so
tired, and the paint stuck So and there
was so much yet to be done, he did not
think it necessary to c,ean the paint from
his hands at the close of the day, but
slept in them as they were, often dream
ing that he was white mau with ma
hogany hands, the color seeming to have
impregnated the very essence of his
being.
Occasionally / am inclined to doubt
my own Judgment, or | should not hest
tate to declare that my father seems to
have been somewhat odd in this persis-
tent fancy for red paint, but, in order to
remove the possibility of such an idea in
others, | will simply state that his pro-
ceedings were perfectly natural through
out.
He was very afectionate man, and
the absence of his wife, in search Of nov
city, led him at the outset to plan the
kitchen part of his surprise, to make up
for any. shortcomings on his part, by
giving her an excess Of pleasure when
she returned. This at once removes his
kitchen work from all suspicion of singu-
larity.
And now, as to the excess of red
which followed. My father had daily
written her letter, hoping she was hav-
ing a good time but my mother never
replied, being vexed at his not coming
himself, and her continued silence, nat
urally rendering him uneasy, led him.
as it were,vto drown his sorrow by a still
more profuse indulgence IN red paint
Fortunately, he was not drinking man
and it was not brandy, or he hight have
painted himself instead Of the house.
The house-and so forth; for having
got as far as have stated, he sent for
still more paint, no letter having come
yet, and, like one determined to give a
fiery aspect to all he owned. he set to
work with undated ardor, and painted
the barn, sheds, coops, sly and we'll
house, all the gates and fences, and then
the trunks of all the trees, as high as he
could reach, to keep the worms off, and
perfect the prevailing consistency of
color.
The month was now up, and still my
mother did not come, nor yet a letter.
At this period, think slight oddly
did really begin to appear III the conduct
of my father. Summer was coming, and,
rejecting that the whole OF the inside of
the house had not vet been painted, his
diary says that he deliberated one whole
forenoon, and then Thought how cool it
would be to do away with carpets, and
have all the floors painted for naked use
during the warm season. Acting upon
this, he took up all the carpets, and
painted every floor in the house, and, in
his haste to finish before. my mother
should arrive, he so daubed the walls
and some of the furniture thathe painted
them too, embracing bedsteads, bu-
reaus, toilet tables, wash stands, cor
nices, with all the woodwork, in all the
kitchen style of universal fame.
And still my mother did not appear.
| have heard my father say that duN
| ing that particular period, while his last
batch of paint was drying, he did not
| feel anxious for her TO come | do not
| doubt his Intentional yeracity upon any
| point, but think his memory failed him
in that instance; and that, in his sorrow
! that the paint spoiled some OF her dresses
| when she did come, he forgot how he had
longed for her.
For my mother did come before the
last paint was dry.
My father was on his knees, in suit
that he had spoiled, red as butcher,
but innocent as a lamb, engaged in
| painting the tiagstone walks ia front OF
the house, and proposing to paint the
/ ceilings of the house, Il time should yet
admit, when carriage drove up, and
my mother, so long absent, alighted al
the gate-the red front gate, set in that
long, red front fence, in front of thai
fiery red house, with the flaming L. ant
/ the burning trees, aud walks not quit
! kindled into a complete glow.
AN the only son of the couple VIII,
then met, but feel incapable of doing
! justice TO their emotions at that iunct
IRE. | believe / have the idea in my
head, but my pen is not equal to M
fathers brush, and can but darkll
shadow forth what that brush oc
easioned.
Forgetting his sanguinary appearance
/ he rushed down the red walk. ans
/ .sTough the rel gateway. and embraced
/ Ter. brush in hand, before she had fairly
recognized him or the house. Sht
I shrieked, and gave him "A push. dis
/ covering his identity at the same tim,
that she began to scold him for soilins
her dress.
"Neyer mind that: look at the house
Eliza said he.
Her ialne was Eliza.
Look at the house and things
Eliza. said my father. expecting IL
University II delight and praise. as Il,
! Saw Her hold un her hands ID dumb ~