Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-01-02
The Jones Family.
[From the Detroit Free Press,I

[From the Detroit Free Press.J
"Jeptha. what is this ?" asked Mrs.
Jones suddenly confronting that gentle
man as he sat reading.
"That is hairpin," answered Jones
quietly, apparently absorbed in his book.
is it, indeed % retorted Mrs. Jones,
Sand not one of mine, either! A
twisted hairpin. May / ask what has
become of the rest Of the woman?"
Maria" exclaimed Jones, looking
up with the fearlessness of conscious
guilt, "why these unnecessary and dis
agreeable questions What is that
hairpin to me?'
"That Is Just what [ would like to
know-what L am trying to find out, "
said his wife, turning white around the
mouth and leaning family against the
mantel.
"Where did You find it ?" asked Jones,
looking at it as if it were a Gatling gun
directed toward him.
| "I f-f-found it in your overcoat
pocket" sObbed Mrs. Jones, "that's
wherep
"Then you put it there" suggested
Jones, carrying the war into the enemy's
camp. 81 don't use hairpins! What
do you suppose I want of the thing ?"
aud he assumed an obstinately virtuous
look that might have deceived even a
woman. But it didn't deceive Mrs.
Jones, who suddenly changed her tao
tics.
"Jeptha," she said in q soft, persua-
sIve, sealskin- cloak tone, elf you ever
loved me in the s-s-sweet days that are
passed-if-if-you have the least re-
gard for me now, tell me-tell me where
you got that hairpin!"
She could not have chosena more for
cibie way of appealing to his feelings.
The wretched man twined his fingers in
his gray hair, dug his toes into the Am
sterdam rug, and gritted his teeth as he
nerved himself to tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth
"s' help me M'ria!'
He began with his eyes cast down,
and in q low troubled voice, that trem-
bled with canned and condensed misery.
"It was only yesterday" he said,
feeling as if it might have been a CEN
fury before; 81 had been to the restaur-
ant"
"Oh oh oh you told me you never
ate mouthful all day, interrupted Mrs.
Jones.
"-to collect bill owing me, con-
tinued Jones, in hollow speech, Sand
as came out saw something glittering
on the walk. / thought of what my
good m-m-mother had told me years be-
fore:
''To see pin and let it lie,
You'll come to want before you die,
To see pin and pick it up,
You'll be sure to have good .uok
6 Maria, I had no thought of evil
when I stopped down to pick up the
pin, as supposed, but it was that mis-
cradle hair pin, I-I-wasn't. it, An
thony ?-and I picked it up-a thing
any man might do with perfect impu-
nifty"
"Is that an? asked Mrs. Jones,
calmly.
''That is all, !" asserted Jones, with
truthful smile.
"Then, where did this blonde hair
come from ?" inquired his wife, holding
it up for his inspection. "Did you find
this on the sidewalk ?"
Then Jones realized that the way of
the transgressor is hard, and he owned
up, and really did tell the truth; how
that he stepped into dry goods store
on the avenue to get pair of new kid
gloves, how pretty girl buttoned them
for him with hair-pin; how she gave it
to him because it was more convenient
than -buttoner, and thathe hoped
to die if he'd know her again from aside
of sole leather-a story that any reason
able woman would see carried truth on
the face of it.
Did Mrs. Jones believe it? A-hem
The neighbors complained nextmorning
of the racket, and said if Jones was 60
ing to rehearse private theatricals again
this winter they'd compel him to move
see if they wouldn't.