The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1884-03-01

Noml Ill lllC kIICHcu, no ont
OF will dlsturbyou there. Or, suppose
II ungraciously--"I can take off the quill
and the shams and let you have YOU
'r nap here, though it's wicked, that.
d what it is, to sleep on Sunday. It's &
bad example to set to the children, Lot
e and you know it,"
"But | am SO sleepy" answered hel
r husband, Smy head is as heavy as lead
:. and | cannot keep my eyes open."
- "Laziness! sheer laziness!'' said his
d wife sharply.
Mr.. Skinner went down stairs and
disappeared. The last words his wife
$ heard him say was that there was rest
TOR the weary, but she was picking up
the embroidery on the misused sfams
with 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
She was distinguished woman; dis
tinguished in the town where she lived
as being 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 goodness. She busted every
article of furniture in the house several
times 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 a perpetual
warfare between her and dirt. The
front parlor was never open to the
family, and although Mr.. Skinner had
furnished it he had never sat down in
it moment since that time. It's air
was that of tomb. After it had been
opened to company for an afternoon,
the children were around with hannels
about their necks and drank ginger tea.
1t was the handsomest parlor in the COM
munity, too, and had the family pic
lures and their marriage certificate franz
ed 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 farther 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?"
she asked, wonderingly, for Mr.. Skin
ner never went out on Sunday without
his family.
"He said he was going where he'd
have more peace" said little Harry
Skinner.
"Well, we won't wait dinner for
him." said his wife, and they sat down
| to eat.
But spell seemed to have fallen up.
on them, and when the dinner was over
and cleared away, and they were in
hs S 5a WITH f04m e 9Th be 5an P 81 fss
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 speculations to catch wander
ing belated fly and induced him to be
annihilated.
| STRANGE !" she said, as it grew dark.
"I'll take the children and go down to
his mothers and see if he is there, and
if he 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 SEEM
ed worried /; hoped it wasn't business
troubles.
No, it wasn't business troubles Mrs.
Skinner knew that, and she began to
wonder ifshe had cleaned her husband
out of his mind. 1t came over her with
sudden force that she had been in the
habit of driving him from pillar to post
at railroad speed and at the end of a
broom or dust brush. He 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 home with the children.
All was gloom. She went to his bureau
to look for his razor. 1t was the only
fire arms he possessed-it was gone!
Then Mrs. Skinner broke down and
cried, and the children cried, and 1t
was indeed a scene of desolation, when
suddenly the door of that horrible par
, lor opened, and an apparition-no, II
was Mr.. Skinner himself-stood before
/ them looking very sleepish.
t 81 oversight myself" he said in
; meek, apologize tone, looking at the
clock.
, 81 should say you did," answered
| his wife, "and the dinner IS all eater
up, but I'll fix you something nice,
| and she went out taking the children
with her.
How much of it Mr.. Skinner evel
knew it is impossible to say but there
r was an immediate and satisfactory
| change that at first amazed and then de
. lighted him. He could lay down any
where when he was tired and his wife
> would throw a shawl over him an(
leave him in peace. He has even beer
seen to lie down on the sofa in the par
: lor where he took his Rip Van Winkl
sleep, and nobody disturbed him. Mrs
# Skinner was at heart woman of sens
;. and when she realized that one hair Q
d that grizzly gray head was worth NOR
k than all the pillow shams in the worlt
IS to her, she put the last one away in tn
company of demented lot of superau
n ous Tides. And they are really ant
e truly, and not in any geological sense
n ga happy family"now.
Z MpAn Arab woman, when lett
/ widow, mourns her husband much, bu
/ often marries again. The night befor
her second marriage she pays visit
her first husbands grave. There ,sh,
:, kneels and prays him not to be offended
IS AS however, she feels he may be, sh
L. 4v1 xxyfft