Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-06-16

! crease. She visited all the old-fashionetl
families in the country round. and
! bought up stH9SGf ancient rubbish from
their garrets asd cellars old
cracked china and battered pewter
ware. She painted silken screens with
odd designs as a lizard on bamboo,
or stocking on one leg beneath the
outrageous shade of three cat-tails.
She ran wild on the subject of ceramics,
| and spent most of her time in painting
wooden and peculiar plates, and in dec
Grating all sorts of china and earthen-
ware with glazed pictures and varnish.
She made an Etruscan vase out of a
picale-jar, and Syrian and Grecian
water-urns out of preserved ginger
crooks and ale-,,ugs.
Potter stood it all very well, even
when he discovered his bootjack sticky
with Egyptian varnish, and his shaving
mug inconveniently embellished with a
Roman soldier, lunging at an invisible
| enemy.
But when. ON Christmas Day, the
plum-pudding came in stuck full of
holly-leaves, which he experienced much
difficulty in removing, aud one of which
he was SO unfortunate az TO take INTO his
mOuth-and the mice-pies mada their
appearance, each adorned with warm
ished paper arabesque ornament in its
center-his patience for moment failed
| him.
"Louisa," he said, that night, after
the guests had all departed, ''dOn't YOU
think-ahem! !-wouldn't it be better to
| dispense with some of this trash where
eatables are concerned?"
"Trash?" exclaimed Mrs. z. "Oh,
Divid!" and burst into tears.
Potter dared say no more upon the
subject.
"Never mind" he thought gloomily
to him self, ''this can't last always. She
must come to her senses some time.'
And in truth she did.
There came day when Mrs. Potter
was taken sick. With difficulty she was
placed in the high four-post bedstead,
and the doctor, being summoned,
mounted on lofty footstOol and exam
ined into her symptoms.
For days she lay thus, with only the
near, blank ceiling in view, while Mar
tina and Potter alternately climbed q
Queen Ann chair and administered to
her.
As she grew better she expressed q
desire to be placed where she could see
the fire and things in general, and they
laid her upon the only place that pre-
sented-the ancient, narrow settee
Here she looked so like an enduring
martyr that one dav, without a word,
Potter had her old, accu stoned, luxu-
rious lounge moved back into the room,
and m ,rked with delight her sigh of re.
lief as she sank among its yielding cush-
ions.
Then somehow her rocker found its
wGy back, and she made no remark in
regard to its being ! modern and unBs-
thetic invention.
So one by one the high-art furniture
dissppeared-the great square cabinet,
with its heavy drawers and doors. giving
legitimate place to her light bureau,
with its convenient cOntrivances and
places for everythlng-until at last, on
returning from cheerful, health giving
drive with her husband, Mrs. Potter
found the funereal bedstead gone and her
own luxurious French springfield re.
stored to its place.
She reposed sweetly that night. and in
the morning remarked, dreamily, that
she didn't know but that, after all, the
things to which one was most accus-
toned were the best in time of sickness
But when she was quito we'll again
she gave no hint Of restoring her BAN
ished e sthetic surroundings; and Potter
rejoiccd 10 spirit, while cherishing fond
hope in regard to his once favOrite sit
ting room.
That hope seems likely to be realized.
Mrs. Potter has been heard to remark
! that the floor looked rather bare in win
ter without a carpet; and she also in
quired, doubtingly, whether frosted sill
yer and French china we're not, after all,
really quite as beautiful as blue crockery
and old pewter.
She has also had the venerable Win
ston portrait cleared of its aesthetic
smoke, and presented beggar-woman
with ginger-crock Grecian aSe, full of
dried apples-the only use she had ever
found for it.
These to her husbands soul are pre-
cious signs, which he fondly anticipates
seeing, a. no dist ant time, blossom into
the fullness of a restoration to his sorely.
missed modern luxurie5 and home COM
forts, for which, in his case, at least, no
Bstllatic or high-art surroundings can
compensate. NiQht.