The Mineral argus., 1884-07-10
A HAPPY FAMILY.
BY MRS. NJ. L. RAYNE.

1t was Sunday. MI. okluuer wac
tired, and thought he would lie down on
he sofa in the back parlor and rest.
People never learn by experience, and
ne was no exception to the common
ule.
He lay down, and crossed his feet
With a parade hardly justihable under
The circumstances. His wife came In
md saw him.
'eWhy, Lot Skinner she exclaimed.
IF 1 ever heard of the like! Lying
Town on that new sofa with your boots
on, and oh, my goodness! your head on
that lace tidy L had done up only last
week. You are the most inconsiderate
nan l ever saw in my life!"
Mr.. Skinner got up and his wife
smoothed out the tidy and rearranged
It.
"The idea of anybody putting a head
on that tidy" said Mrs. Skinner, who
had no intention of using slang. 81
did suppose you had more sense"
ST used to have" said Mr.. Skinner
good-naturedly, "Ya-a-a-h. l could
take a nap if [ could find a placeto drop
down. Y-a-a-h."
''You had better read your Bible"
said Mrs. Skinner. She was a good,
uncomfortable woman, so clean and neat
and orderly that she made her family
wretched with her domestic drill.
Something called Mrs. Simmer off
then. and when she came back Mr. Skin
ner was gone. She sat down and took
a book, when a thought struck her, and
she bounded from her chair as lift had
been a cannon ball.
Yes. it was Just as she had feared her
husband had gone up stairs, and she
found him stretched out on the bed, on
top of a white Counterpart, his grizzly
gray head sunk deep into a white,
starched pillow-sham, with these words
embroidered in the center:
"Sleep sweet, beloved"
He was not asleep, but snored, with
alook ofsweet content on his wide-open
mouth.
"L-o-t Sk-i-n-n-e-rl"
He got up in a manner that would
have done credit to q gymnast, and
stood staring at the fearful hollow in
the bed and the wrinkled dent in the
pillow-sham.
81 declare 1 forgot, he said, looking
very foolish. "Alice, haven't l a place
where 1 can lay my head?"
Don't talk nonsense" said his wife
sharply. ''The idea of a sober man
| going to bed with his boots on"
''Would You rather I'd GET"
ssId 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 dis
turb YOU there. Or l suppose"-un-
graciously-"I can take off the quilt,
and the shams, and let you ave your
nap here, though its wicked, that's
what it is, to sleep Sunday. It's a bad
example to set to the children, Lot,
and you know it."
"But [ am so sleepy" answered her
husband; ''my head is as heavy as lead,
and I cannot keep my eyes open."
"Laziness! sheer %laziness!' said his
wife sharply.
Mr.. Skinner went down stairs and
disappeared. The last words his wife
heard him say were that there was rest
for the weary, but she was picking up
the embroidery on the mis- used sham
with a pin, and did not heed him.
When she went down stairs he was not
in sight and she busted herself with get
ting 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,
as being the ~cleanest h~ousekeeper in it.
No girl could be found neat enough
to live with her; all the notices in her
house were to the effect that cleanli-
ness is akin to goodness. She busted
every article of furniture in the house
several times every day; she
scrubbed so often that the
children had chronic d~iphtheria; she
scrubbed SO clean that at last she scrub
bed through her kitchen floor into the
cellar, and was nearly lost to the com,
munity. 1t was a perptual warfare be
tween her and dirt. The front parlOl
was never opened to the family, and al
though Mr.. Skinner had furnished it h,
had never sat down in it a momen'
since. Its air was that of a tomb. Afte-
it had been opened to company for a,
afternoon, the children went around
with fannels about their Threats ant
!, drank ginger tea. 1t was the handsom
est parlor in the community, too, anC
had the family pictures and their mar
riage certificate framed and hung VI
| there.
When dinner was ready-andit was