Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-03-25
Owning Ones House.

| OWIllllS ouc I1OuSc.
When we were married, thirty years
or more ago, we were not 1ite ready
to take Il honso and 60 to house keeping
| NV wife before she was married was
p or --Eearly ~ pnor as she hns b en-
sInce-and could not well carry out
the unwritten law which req rcd her to
furnish the hruse we were T. OCCUPY.
l wanted to buiIi. an was only waiting
until We should lay up li,tle money,
| find exactly the best site and settle on
the plan We preferred. We agrerd that
until we lived together awhile and
knew each others m .rried tastes we
could not plan wisely. Th-re was
mother reason which il q Ieuced us.
Peggy had an heirloom in the form Of
u dellc4tely turned aud w-ll.br .ssrd
chest of drawers, made in France early
in this century, aud We hoped by pa
ti-nt waiting and faithful attention at
auctions, to pick mp other pieces agree.
ing With it for u bedroom. I, on nv
nart, had hall clock dating from
1888 which possessed sclemnit. beyond
that of similar venerable monuments.
in requiring to bs wound but twice q
year. Perhaps, if it had been wound
oftsner, it wonld not have suffered 80
mucn from nervous debility. for it used
20 grow very lsngui toward the eId of
each half year. 1t was, ho zever, valu
able, and had once been in the hands OF y
rich Tory, who vas forced to leave the
country in Difference to public senti-
nent. 1 SUI pose really di not agrees
with him politically; but felt that We
had sOme social instinct in common.
Sail was glad be- weul away, for m,
grandfather got his clock. l used to
call In tho Oldest clock maker l knew,
to be present at the semi annual wind
ing Of the eternity piece, AZ some one
audaciously called 1t; amt. as I kept the
CLOCK IN my bachelor headquarters, go,
| into the way OF giving little parties
twice u year, when Invited friends to
tho winding of the clock. l wrote a
poem for one of these occasions ami
hud 1t sent to ms anonymously. When
We took our first furnished house, W,
did not move either the chest o.
drawers or the CLOCK. The chest WA,
ont of keeping with the commoH- place
furniture III oar chamber, and besides
P'gvy was afraid 1t would get scratched
81 she left it with her mother. A
MI hat taken my room aud l lefl
the clock there until we should 20 int
our own house. avoiding thus the evi-
f moving it more than once; for m,
clUckmakcr, wien he moved 1t before
70 my r'Ums, had to come every da,
for month, like family physician, to
visit it. La his own words, ''it re-
4uires the most careful Lursing, Mr..
ArchlbAli." We we're in the first
flash OF our married life, an We had
,ur house and our furniture to luuk
for ward to. That, AS | say, was NOR.
tlau thirty Years ago, and the clock
mas not been under my own roof yet
The chest of drawers has-close under
the roof. in fact. Peg1y's mother died
! and We had to move that and other
pieces of furniture to the house VT
were temporarily occupying. so VT
stored them carefully III the attic,
where they would tie free from the ef
feet Of furnace heat. Iau not going
| 10 rehearse the reasons why We moved
from one houss to another and put of
building. l remember the reasons
| were excellent ut the time, and, Of
CbHTSc IShSOuh lever lOOh 81
| resh as new CUES, aud | should fluid i
nard to make them seem al ways furci-
bly, to the mp ,tient reader of this
| story, il one Is lett at this p int. We
! Kept taking house for six months or II
year. ] LIST to give us time to look
! lrouni, as wesald and it became social
lnrubns to he perpetnaliy explaining
where we were. and why We were there
aud not somewhere else. Nobody pro.
posed going to Europe for IA year with
out being asked: why don't you
get the Archibalds to take your house
We have pieces stored in our friends
| barns aud gArrets, and when Peggy
wants to match anything she has to put
on her bonnet and go out to make n
6 all on frIeHi, eniing with u PROPOSE
ton to 60 up stairs and open one of her
trunks. Likely enough 1t is the
wrong trunk after all. What salts
faction it will be when wo are in our
own house!