The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-07-09
HIS SUNDAY NAP.

and Thoughts he would lie down on :he sofa
in the back parlor and rest. People never
learn by experience, and hc was no exeep-
tiou 20 the common rule,
He lay down and crossed his feet with a
para lie hardly justiiable under the circum-
stances. His wife came in and saw him.
'why, Lot Skinner !" she exclaimed
"If lever heard of the like Lying down
on that new sofa with your boots on, and
oh, my goodness your head ON that lace
tidy had done up only last week. You are
the most inconsiderate man lever saw in my
ife!"
Mr.. skinner got up, and his wife mooth
I'd out the tidy and rsarranged it.
" The idea of anybody putting head on
that tidy said Mrs. Skinner, who had no
intention of using slang, Il did suppose
you had more sense"
g used TO have" said Mr.. Skinner,
good-naturedly. "Ya-a- h. Icould take a
nap if could find q place to drop down.
va a-h"
" You had better read your Bible," said
Mrs. Skinner. She was good, uncomforta-
BILE woman, so clean and neat and orderly
that she made her family wretched with her
domestic drill.
Something called Mrs. Skinner off then,
and when she came back Mr.. Skinner was
gone. She sat down and took book,
when n thought struck her, and she bound.
ID from her chair as If it had been cannon
ball.
Yes, it was just as she feared: her hus-
band had gone upstairs, and she found him
stretched out on the bed, on top of q white
counterpane, his grizzly-gray head sunk
deep into white, starched pillow-sham,
with these words embroidered in the center .
Sleep, sweet beloved !"
He was not only asleep but snoring, with
look of sweet content on his wide open
mouth.
F" Lot S-k-i-n-n-e-rw
He got up in a manner that would have
lone credit to gymnast, and stood staring
1t the fearful hollow in tho bed and the
wrinkled dent in the pillow-sham.
I" / declare forgot" he said, looking
very foolish. Alice, haven't got place
whore l can lay my head ~
"Don't talk nonsense" said his wife,
iharply. "The idea of sober man going
% bed with his boots on"
Would you rather I'd get"
"Id rather you'd get some common
sense" she said. If you must sleep in the
daytime, why, there's an old lounge down
in the kitchen; no one will disturb you
there. "0r, Isuppose "-ungraciously-"l
can take OFF the quilt, and the shams, and
let You have nap here, though it's wicked,
and that's what il is, to sleep Sunday. It's o
bad example to set to the children, and you
know it,"
But am so sleepy" answered her hus-
band "my head is as heavy as lead, and
,annot keep my eyes OPEN"
"Laziness !" sheer laziness |" said the
wife, sharply.
Mr.. Skinner went downstairs and disap
peared. The last words his wife heard hin
say wers that there is rest for the weary
but she was picking up the embroidery OF
the mis-used sham with pin, and did no
heed him. When she went downstairs h,
was not in sight, and she busted herself il
getting dinner, which on Sunday took the
place of supper, and thought no more abou
him.
She was distinguished woman; distin
guished, in the town where she lived, az
being the cleanest housekeeper in II. Nc
girl could be found neat enough to live will
her all the notices in her house were Il
the effect that cleanliness is akin 10 godli.
ness. She busted every article in the house
several times every day she scrubbed SC
often that tho children had chronic diph
liberia; she scrubbed through her kitchen
floor into the cellar, and was nearly lost to
the community. 1t was perpetual warfare
between her and dirt. Tho front parloi
was never opened TO the family and OIL
though Mr.. Skinner had furnished il, he had
never sat down in il moment SINCE Its air
was that Of the tomb. After it had been open
ID to company for an afternoon, the children
went round with fannels about their throats
and drank ginger tea. TWAS the handsomest
parlor in the community, too, and had the
family pictures and their marriage certificate
framed and hung up there.
When dinner was ready--and IL was a
good dinner, too, for Mrs. Skinner was a
notable cook---she asked the children where
their father was
They did not know.
This seemed strange; she questioned
them closely, but they had not seen which
way he went when he passed through the
room.
Didn't he say where he was going 2"
she asked, wonderingly; for Mr.. Skinner
never went out on Sunday without his fam
lily.
" He said he was going where he'd have
more peace" said little Harry Skinner.
n Well, we won't wait dinner for him."
said his wife, aud they sat down to eat.
But a spell seemed to have fallen upon
them, and when the dinner was over and
cleared away, and they were in the sitting.
room with their books, there was sense of
dreary loss, and Mrs. Skinner sat with the
Bible open on her lap, and wondered why
he had gone out, and remembered that he
had looked queer.
1t was in consonance with her habits of
living that she got up in the middle of these
spcculations to catch wandering and be-
Llted fly and induce him to DO annihilated.
Strange" she said, as II grew dark,
"Tll take the children and go down 10
his mothers and see II he is there, and II
he is, I'll just give him piece of my mind.
But he was not there, and his mother said
Los had looked badly the last time she
saw him, and she thought he seemed wor-
ried hoped it wasn't business troubles.
No; 1t wasn't business troubles; Mrs.
Skinner knew that, and she began to won
der II she had cleaned her husband out OF
his mind. II came over her with sudden
force that she had been in the habit of driy-
ing him from pillar to post at railroad
speed, and at the end Of broom or dust
brush. He actually found no rest for the
sole OF ais foot in his own house. II might
have worked upon his nervous system until
t.s.I 4 L. l..