The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-02-29
A HAPPY FAMILY.
BIZ MRS. VI. L. RAYNE.

II was Sunday, Mr.. Skinner wa
tired. and thought he would lie dow
on the sofa in the back pariOr and rest
People never learn by experience, ant
he was no exception tn the common
rule.
He lay down and crossed his fee
with parade that was hardly justiti
able under the circumstances. His wifi
came in and saw him.
why, Lot Skinner!' she exclaimed
"lf ever heard of the like! Lynn!
down OH that new sofa with your boot
on, and. oh, my goodness! your heat
on that lace tidy l had done up ONLY
last week. You are the most inconsid
crate man I ever saw in my lifer'
MIR. Skinner got up and his wifi
smoothed out the tidy and rearranget
it.
1.-The idea Of anybody putting heat
on that tidy" said Mrs. Skinner, wht
had no intention of using slang. I"
did suppose you had more sense"
81 used to have" said Mr.. Skinner
good naturally. "Ya-a-a-h. l coult
take nap If l could find a place t.
urOp GOWN. 1d-d-an.
You had better read your bible,
said Mrs. Skinner. She was a good
uncomfortable woman, so clean anc
neat and orderly that she made hel
family wretched with her domestic
drill.
Something called Mrs. Skinner of
then. and when she came back Mr.
Skinner was gone. She sat down anG
took n book, when thought struck
If j: had been cannon ball.
Yes. It was just as she had feared
her husband had gone up stairs, and
She found him stretched out on the
b ii. on top OF a white cOunterpane, his
.i,zz .y-gray head sunk deep into q
white, starchcd pillOw-sham, with these
words embroidered in the center:
"S!ccp sweet, beloved"
He was not only asleep. but snoring,
with look of sweet content on his
wide-opcn mouth.
"L-G-: Skinner"
He got up in a manner that would
have done credit to gymnast, and
stood staring at the fearful hollow in
the bed and the wrinkled dent in the
pillow-sham.
81 declare, / forgot" he said, look.
ing very foolish. '.Alice, haven't I q
place where l can lay my headp"
- s.Don't talk nonsense" said his wife
sharply. 1.-THE idea of a sober man
going TO bed with his boots on"
Would you rather I'd GET
I'D 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. Or, suppose
ungraciously --"l can take off the quilt
and tho shams and let you have your
nap here. though it's wicked, that's
what il is, to sleep Sunday. It's Il bad
example to set to the children, Lot,
and You know it,
but ] an so sleepy answered her
husband. my head is rs heavy as lead,
and cannot keep my eyes Open"
"Luziness! sheer laziness" said his
wife sharply.
Mr. Skinner went down stairs and
disar. cared. The last wOr'ls his wife
heard him say were that there was rest
for the weary. but she was picking up
the embroidery on the misuSed 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 a distinguished woman; dis
tinguished in the town where she lived
rs being the cleancst housckeeper in il.
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 often
that the children had chronic diphthe-
ria; she scrubbed so clean that at last
she scrubbed through her kitchen floor
into the cellar. and was nearly lost to
the community. 1t was perpetual
warfare between her and dirt. The
front parlor was never opened to the
family, and although Mr.. Skinner had
furnished it he had never sat down in
it u moment since. It's air was that
of a tomb. After it had been opened
TO company for an afternoon, the chill
dren went around with flannels about
their necks and drank ginger tea. II
was the handsomest parlOr in the com
munity, too, and had the family pic
lures and their marriage certificate
framed and hung up there.
When dinner was ready-and it 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 seer
which way he went when he passed
through the room.
Didn't he say where he was going?
she asked, wonderingly, for Mr.. Skin
ner never went out on Sunday withou
his family.
'He said lie was going where he't
have more peace" said little Harr.
Skinner.
"Well, we won't wait dinner TO
him." said his wife and they sat dow
to eat.
But spell seemed to have fallen up
on them, and when the dinner wa
over and cleared away, and they wer'
| in the sitting room with their books
there was sense of dreary loss, ant
Mrs. Skinner sat with the bible opel
on her lap, and wondered why he hat
gone out and remembered that he ha,
looked queer.
1t was in consonance with her habit
| of living that she got up in the middl
of these speculations to catch wan
dering and belated fly and induce hin
to be annihilated.
Stranger she said, as it grew dark
'I'll take the children and go down I
his mothers and see il he is there, an
if he is, I'll just give him piece of m
mind"
But he was not there, and his mothe
said Lot had looked badly the last tim
she saw him. and she thought b
seemed worried; hoped it wasn't bus
ness troubles.
No, it wasn't business troubles; Mrs
Skinner knew that, and she began (
wonder II she had cleaned her husban
out of his mind. 1t came over her wit
sudden force that she had been in tn
habit of driving him from pillar to pos
| at railroad speed and at the end of