The Portland daily press., 1882-02-20
[Harper's Young People.l
A Steam Chair.
By Jimmy Brown.

don't like Mr.. Travers as much as L did.
OF course know he's a very nice man, and
he's going to be my brother whsH ne marries
Sue, and he used to bring me candy some
times, but he isn't what he used to be.
One time-that was last summer-he was al
ways dreadfully anxious TO hear from the Post
Office, and whenever he came to see Sue, and
he and she and would be sitting on the front
piazza he would say, "Jimmy, think there
must be letter for me; I'll give you ten cents
If you'll go down TO the Post-ofiice;" and then
Sue would say, Don't run, Jimmy; you'll
get heart-disease if you do;' and I'd walk way
down to the Post-office, which is pretty near
half mile from our house. But now he
doesn't seem to care anything abont his letters;
and he and Sue sit in the back parlor, and
mother says mustn't go in and disturb them;
and don't get any more ten cents.
I've learned that it won't do to fix your
affections on human beings, for even the best
of men won't keep on giving you ten cents for
ever. And it wasn't fair for Mr.. Travers to
get angry with me the other night, when it
was all an accidental least most all Of IL; and
don't think it's manly for a man to stand by
and see sister shake fellow that isn't half
her size, and especially when he never sup
posed that anything was going to happen to her
even if it did break.
When Aunt Eliza came to our house the last
time she brought a steam chair; that's what
she called it. though there wasn't any steam
about it, She brought 1t from Europe with her,
and it was the queerest sort of chair, that
would all fold up, and had kind OF footstool
to it, SO that you put your legs out and Just lie
down in it. Well, one day it got broken. The
back of the seat fell down, and shut Aunt
Eliza up in the chair so she couldn't get out,
and didn't she just howl till somebody came
and helped herl She was so angry that she
said she never wanted to see that chair again.
"And you may have it If you want it, Jimmy.
for you are good boy sometimes when you
want to be-"
So took the chair and mended it. The
folks laughed at me, and said I couldn't mend
it to save my life; but got some nails and
some mucilage, and mended it elegantly Then
mother let me get some varnish, and var
nished the chair, and when 1t was done 1t
looked so nice that Sue said we'd keep IL in the
back parlor. Now I'm never allowed to sit in
the back parlor, so what good would my chair
do me? Bat Sue said, "Stuff and nonsense,
that boy s INDUCED now till he can't rest" So
they put my chair in the back parlor, just as If
I'd been mending on purpose for Mr.. Travers.
/ didn't say anything more about it; but after
it was in the back parlor took out one or two
screws that thought were not needed to hold
it together, and used them for boat that !
was making.
That night Mr.. Travers came as usual, and
after he had talked to mother awhile about the
weather, and he and father had agreed that it
was a shame that other folks hadn't given
more money to the Michigan sufferers, and
that they weren't quite sure that the sufferers
were worthy object, and that good deal OF
harm was done by giving away money to all
sorts of people, Sue said:
Perhaps we had better go into the back
parlor; it is cooler there, and we won't disturb
fot uhn 20 ~ hfrh hsraeT
So she and Mr.. Travers went into the back
parlor and shut the door, and talked very loud
at first about whole lot of things, and then
quieted down, as they always did
was in the front parlor, reading Robinson
Crusoe, and wishing could go and do like
wise Like Crusoe, l mean; for wouldn't go
and sit quietly in back parlor with girl,
like Mr.. Travers not If you were to pay me for
it. ] can't see what some fellows see in Sue.
I'm sure if Mr.. Martin or Mr.. Trayers had her
pull their hair once the way she pulls mine
sometimes, they wouldn't trust themselves
alone with her very soon.
All at once we heard dreadful crash in the
back parloT, and Mr.. Travers said Good some
thing very loud, and Sue shrieked as IL she
had q needle run into her Father and moth
or and and the cook and the chambermaid
all rushed to see what was the matter.
The chair that had mended, and that Sue
had taken away from me, had broken down
while Mr. Travers was sitting in it, and it had
shut up like jackknife, and caught him so he
couldn't get out 1t had caught Sue too, who
must have run to help him, or she never
would have been in that fix, with Mr.. Travers
holding her by the wrist, and her arm wedged
in so she couldn't pull it away.
Father managed to get them loose and then
Sue caught me and shook me till could hear
my teeth rattle, and then she ran up stairs and
locked herself up; and Mr.. Travers never
offered to help me, but only said ''I'll settle
with you some day, young man." and then he
went home. But father sat down on the sofa
and laughed and said to mother:
II guess Sue would have done better if she'd
have let the boy keep his chair"
I'm very sorry, of course, that an accident
happened to the chair, but I've got it up in
my room now, and I've mended 1t again, and
it's the best chair you ever sat in.