Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-01-31
A HAPPY FAMILY.
BY MRS. NJ. L. RAYNE.

he was no exception To the common
rule.
He lay down and crossed his feet
with parade that was hardly justifi-
able under the circumstances. His wife
came in and saw him.
''Why, Lot Skinner" she exclaimed.
"If 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 inconsid-
crate man l ever saw in my life!'
Mr.. Skinner got up and his wife
smoothed out the tidy and rearranged
il.
1.-THE idea of anybody putting head
on that tidy" said Mrs. Skinner, who
had no intention of using slang. Il
did suppose you had more sense"
II used to have" said Mr.. Skinner
good naturally. "Ya-a-a-h. L could
take nap if could find place to
drop down. Ya-a-ah."
''You had better read your bible,"
said Mrs. Skinner She was n good,
uncomfortable 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 book, when thought struck
her and she bounded from her chair as
if it had been a cannon ball.
Yes, il was just as she had feared;
her husband had gone up stairs, and
she found him stretched out on the
bed, on top of white counterpart, his
grizzly-gray head sunk deep into q
white, starched pillow-sham, with these
words embroidered in the center:
''Sleep sweet, beloved"
He was not only asleep, but snoring,
with look of sweet content on his
wide-open mouth.
'L-o-t Skinner"
He got up in a manner that would
have done credit to n 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 /
place where l can lay my headP"
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"
'Id 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-'1 can take off the quilt
and the shams and let you have your
nap here, though it's wicked, that's
what it is, to sleep Sunday. It's 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"
''LaZiness! sheer laziness!" said his
wife sharply.
Mr.. Skinner went down stairs and
disappeared. The last words his wife
ID him say were that there was rest
r the weary. but she was picking up
the embroidery on the misused sham
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
him.
sShe was distinguished woman; dis
tinguished in the town where she lived
as being the cleancst 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
tim es every dav; she scrubbed so often
that the children had chronic diphthe-
LII. IL 4lnA lngf
she scrubbed through her kitchen floor
into the cellar, and was nearly lost to
the community. 1t was n 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 moment since. It's air was that
of tomb. After it had been opened
to company for an afternoon, the chill
dren went around with fiannels 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
framed and hung up there.
When dinner was ready-and it was
q 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 seen
which way he went when he passed
through the room.
Didn't he say where he was goingP'
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 the sitting room with their books,
there was sense of dreary loss, and
Mrs. Skinner sat with the bible open
on her lap, and wondered why he had
gone out and remembered that he hac
looked queer.
It was in consonance with her habits
of living that she got up in the middle
of these speculations to catch a wan
dering and belated fly and induce hin
to be annihilated.
..Strangel" she said, as it grew dark
.Tll take the children and go down t
his mothers and see IL he Is there, AM
If he is, I'll just give him a piece OF m.
mind"
But he was not there, and his mothe
said Lot had looked badly the last tim