The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1884-02-22
miscellaneous.
A Happy Family.
BY MRS. NJ. l.. RAYNE.

| and thought he would lie down on the sofa
| in the back parlor and rest. People never
| learn by experience, and he was no exception
| TO the common rule.
He lay down and crossed his feet with a
| parade hardly justifiabe under the circum-
stances. His wife came in and saw him.
"Why, Lot SkinnerW she exclaimed.
"Il ever 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 inconsideralc man ever saw in my
| lfcw
Mr.. Skinner got up and his wife smoolhed
ont the tidy and rearranged it.
"The idea of anybody putting n head on
| that tidy" said Mrs Skinner, who had no in
lention of using slang. 81 dill suppose you
had more sense"
II used to have" said Mr. Skinner, good
naturally. "Ya,a h. | could take nap if
could find a place to drop down. Yaa-h."
you had better read your Bible" said
Mrs. Skinner She was Il 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 n book, when
Il thought struck her, and she bounded from
her chair as if it had been cannon ball.
Yes, it was just as she feared, her husband
had gone up stairs, and she foundhi stretch
ed out on the bed, on top of Il white counter
pane, his grizzly-grey head sunk deep into II
words embroidered in the centre:
"Sleep sweet, beloved !"
He was not only asleep, but snoring with a
look of sweet content on his wide open
mouth
"L.o-t Six inner"
He got up in n manner that would have
done credit to a gymnast, and stood staring
at the fearful hollow in the bed and the
wrinkled dent in the pillow. sham.
81 declare forgot" he said looking very
foolish. "Alice, haven't got place where
! can lay my head ?"
Don't talk nonsense" said his wife sharp
ly. The idea of sober man going to bed
with his boots on"
would you rather I'd get
"pd rather you'd get some common sense,
she said. "lf you must sleep in the daytime,
why there's an old lounge down in the kitch-
en-; no one will disturb you there Or, | sup
pose -ungraciously-"I can take off the
| quilt and the shams, and let you have your
| nap here though its wicked, that's what it is,
| to sleep Sunday ITS bad example to set
| to the children, and you know it,"
But am so sleepy" answered her hus-
band, my head is as heavy ms lead, and
cannot keep my eyes OPEN"
"Lazness sheer laziness p said his wife
sharply.
Mr. Skinner went down stairs and disap.
pearcd The last words his wife heard hin,
say were that there was rest for the weary
but she was picking up tho embroidery on
the ms-used sham with a pin, and did not
heed him When she went down stairs he
was not in sight and she busted herself in
getting dinner, which on Sunday took the
place of supper, and thought no more about
him.
She was distinguished woman; distin.
gushed in the town where she lived, as be-
ing the cleanest housekeeper in it. No girl
could be found neat enough to live with her
all the notices in her house were to the effect
that cleanliness is akin to godliness. She
busted every article of furniture in the house
several times every day ; she scrubbed so of
ten that tie children had chronic diphthcria
she scrubbed so clean that at last she scrub
bed through her kitchen floor into the cellar
and was nearly lost to the community. II
was a perpetual warfare between her and dirt
The front parlor was never opened TO the
family, and although Mr.. Skinner furnished
1t he had never sat down in it momen
since. Its air was that of tomb After i
had been opened TO company for an after
noon, the children went with fannels abou
their Threats and drank ginger tea. 1t wa
the handsomest parlor in the community, too
and had the family pictures and their mar
riage certificate framed and hung up there.
When dinner was ready-and it was
good dinner, too, for Mrs. Skinner WAS
notable cook-she asked the children wher
their father was.
They did not know.
This seemed strange; she questioned then
closely but they had not seen which way hi
went when he passed through the room.
Didn't he say where he was going 7" sh
asked, wonderingly, for Mr.. Skinner neve
went out on Sundays without his family.
He said he was going where he'd hav,
more peace" said little Harry Skinner.
"Well, we won't wait dinner for him." salt
his wife, and they sat down to eat.
But spell seemed to have fallen upol
them and when the dinner was over AM
cleared away, and they were in the sitting
room with their books, there was % sense @
Bible open on her lap, and wondered why h
had gone out and remembered that he ha
looked queer.
1t was in consonance with her habits q
living that she got up in the middle of thes
speculations to catch wondering and be
lated fly and induce him to be annihilated
"Strange +! she said, rs it grew dark, az
take the children and go down to his mother
and see if he is there, and if he is, I'll jus
give him a piece of my mind"
But he was not there and his mother sal
Lot had looked badly the last time she SAL
him, and she thought he seemed worried
hoped it wasn't business troubles.