Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-01-22

fast this morning. There was a dish of
baked eggs at my plate, which she knows |
am fond of. While the house was being
cleaned up noticed that the beds were not
touched, and so / told her I would help, but
she said no she wanted them taken out on
the piazza to sun. and SO took EN- out, and
then she asked me take out the bedsteads
and the bureau and the chairs and the sew
ing machine and all, as she wanted to clean
up little. Cleaning up little is the old,
old story att house. When got through
/ sat down on the front piazza with my pipe
to ruminate little and rest from arduous
labors. Pretty soon she brought me a
broom and rake and Irvine string, and
asked me to tie the broom handle On to the
rake for she wanted to sweep down the cob
webs from the walls. understood all that,
and so tied it on and swept 'em all down
myself and retired to piazza as usual
About the time | had my feet stuck up or
the banisters, she brought out hammer
and a paper of carpet tacks and laid EN-
down on the table beside me and smiled
These movements reminded me of the car
pet that she had been threatening TO put
down in the big family room for a month,
anG if there is any household work that do
despise to do it is putting down a carpet.
can't double up and twist around Ike | used
10. | gave an involuntary groan aud grunt
or two and went to work. A little darkey
had already brought up a passed. ofhay from
the barn, and SO we picked it all over and
got out all the little weeds and coarser
pieces and spread it nicely upon the floor,
aud then | unrolled the carpet from the
middle each way and went to work on one
side mailing it. 1t had to be stretched ard
fitted all around and the edge on the hearth
fha Nd IF oil A Oh,
ed every tack, and if it was fraction of an
inch out of line she saw it and I had to keep
pulling and turning under the edges, and
when / was on it | couldn't pull it and
couldn't get off it for the wall, and SO it was
get-up and get down and work sideways,
and crosS-wayS, and all sorts of ways, and
mashed my fingers and cramped my knees
and twisted off my suspender buttons, but
finally the work was done to her satisfaction
sorter and / managed to get up and be
thankful to the Lord for his mercies By
the time we got all the furniture set back
again and the beds made up the day was
half gone and the children came home from
school aid forgot to wipe their feet at the
door and the dogs followed them into
the house and they all began to track
around with their muddy feet, but they
didn' track long. They are in the eau
tious state right now and so ana II think
will get some old bagging and put it down
over the carpet SO as to save consequences
! wish that we men were as neat aud care
1ul as the women-no | don't either, for
then we wouldn't be much account out of
doors and would degenerate into dudes as
they call 'em, but | wish we had more re-
gard for neatness than we have. Mrs. Arp
says she don't believe that would wash the
window glass until | couldn't see out for
the dust and fly specks, and the dogs would
sleep under the bed and the spiders and liz
yards would live i'll the closet But she
don't mean that | know, and is just talk
ing alter the manner of nice respectable
wemcn. But don't see any use in clean
ing up so nuch-why, it takes an hour every
morning to clean up the family room, for
she will take everything off of the mantel-
piece and the books off of the shelves, and
wipe off all the little clean dust that has
settled around, and the ashes must be taken
up every morning and the hearth has to
have a fresh coat of Spanish brown about
twice week and the water buckets must
be soured, and every few days have to take
down the pictures SO that she can wipe off
the frames, and the leaves have to be swept
out OF the yards as fast . they fall. She
had her little flower garden all raked and
swept mighty nice yesterday, and l came
running in her room excited and told her
another leaf had blown down, and l just
did have time to dodge the scissors she
throw at me. told her one day that the
Scriptures said man was made out of dirt,
and she said that she reckOned he was but
that woman wasn't. / wish l was rich
wish was rich for her sake. / would build
her marble palace and fence out every bug
and spider aud fly, and have the walks laid
with marble and the ground all covered
with grass and flow ers and evergreens. She
would get tired of it I know in month,
and then would sell out and come back to
the good old dirty home. Folks were not
made to enjoy fine things all the time-olr
best pleasures come from contrast. We
wonldu't enjoy new things if they didn't
get old and faded.
There is a power of comfort in having
some new thing occasionally-newc curtains,
new carpet, new lamp, new clothes, new
chairs, a new sewing machine, or new
stove to cook ont won't do for things to
last too long. We get tired of 'em. We
get tired of seeing the furniture in the same
places Ia room and it is a relief to move
the bed to another corner and the bureau to
the other SIDE Even the land we cultivate
wants change of crops and the stock wants
. change of diet. The birds and the beasts
change their haunts, churches change their
preachers and people change their rulers,
and some folks would change their wives if
they could. / don't believe in living in
house too fine for comfort, or having furni-
ture so fine the children are afraid to touch
it. The Scriptures say that even the Sab
bath was made for man and not man for the
Sabbath, and so house ought to be made
for man, too, and not man for the house -
But q woman deserves a nicer house and
nieerihings than a man, for she has more
refined tastes and she has to live and stay in
the house more, and can't get away froiAit |
sit is her abiding place aud ought no 10
re her prison--it ought to be made az Pile
ant and inviting to heras possible. Bea
full pictures ought to adorn the walls
handsome cllrtail;s the windows, and B