Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1884-03-18

tllt1 GAS9.
of a tomb. After It had be been ii opened
to company for an afternoon, the chill
dren went around with ,fianpels about
their throats and drank ginger tea,
1t was the handsomest parlor in the
community, too, and had the family
pictures and their marriage certificate
framed and hung up there's eT
When dinner was; readyAand 1t
was good dinner, too, for Mrs. .7SkftA
uer was notable cook zsl16 askea
the children where their father was.
They did not know. '''i'''' 9 80 -
This seemed strange; she qnesS
toned them closely but they had not
seen which way he went when. he
passed through the room, s. /, .su1,ls5
:. Didn't he say where .he,i,@as
going?'' she aslseds s.wonaeringly,i for
Mr.. Skinner never went out on Sum
days without HE family.
!" He said he was going where he'd
have more peace" said little Harry
Skinner.
[" We'll, we won't wait dinner for
him." said his wife, and they sat down
to cat.
But 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 q sense of dreary loss, and
Mrs. Skinner sat with the Biblo open
on her lap, and wondered why he had
gone out and remembered that he had
looked queer. s-'
1t was in consonancc with her
habits of living that she got up in the
middle of these spcculations to catch
a wandering and helated fly and in
ducc him to be annihilated. t
"Strange!" she said, as it grew
dark. "I'll take the children and go
down 10 his mothers and sec If he Is
there, and if lie is, I'll just give him
a piece of my mind.
But he was not there, and his
mother said Lot had looked badly the
last time she saw him, and she thought
he seemed worried; hoped it wasn't
business troubles. -...t.r
No, it wasn't business troubles
Mrs. Skinner knew that, and she
began to wonder if she had cleaned
her husband out of his mind. It
came over her with sudden force that
she had been in the habit of driving
him from pillow to post ut railroad
speed and at the end of n broom or
dust brush. lie actually found no
rest for the sole of his foot in his own
house. 1t might have worked upon
his nervous system until he had
become suddenly insane. Horrible
thought! He might have committed
suicide.
She hurried homo with the children.
All was gloom. She wentfto his bu-
ssft-reau. to.lselp lp-fefthisrazor. ItWas.the
only fire arms he possesged---it was
gone!
Then Mrs. Skinner broke down and
cried, and the children cried, and it
was indeed a scene of desoIation,
when suddenly the door of that hor-
rible parlor opened, and an apparition
no it was Mr.. Skinner himself
stood before them looking very
sheepish.
's oversight myself" he said in a
meek, npologetic tone looking at the
clock. fG-
81 should say you did, )" answered
his wife, 90 and the dinner is all eaten
up, but I'll fix you up something
nice" and she went out taking tho
children with her. #d
How much ofit Nr. Skinner ever
knew it is impossible to.say, but there
was an Immediate and satisfactory
change that at first amazed and then
delighted him. He could lay down
anywhere when nc was tired and his
wife would throw a shawl over him,
and leave him in peace. He has even
been seen to lie down on tile sofa in
the parlor where lie took his Rip Van
Wrinkle sleep, and nobody disturbed
him. Mrs. Skinner was woman OF
sense, and when she realized that one
hair of that grizzIy-gray head was
worth more than all the pillow shams
in the world to iler, she put the last
one away in the company of demen-
ted assortment of superauositics.
And they are really and truly, and
not in any geological sense, happy
family" now.
/