Little Falls transcript., 1884-07-04
A HAPPY FAMILY.


sa8 BY MRS. N. A. RAENE.
IT was Sunday. Mr.. Skinner was
hired, and thought he would lie down on
the sofa ID the back parlor and rest,
People never learn BY experience, and
he was no exception to the common
\ rule t3 g5=5g3 3Es6
He lay down, and crossed his feet
with . parade hardly iustifab1e under
4 the circums stances. His wife came in
A and saw him.
Why, Lot Skinner she exclaimed.
If 7 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 I had done up only last
week. You are the most inconsiderate
man I ever saw in my Life" .Sa A., 7@
Mr.. Skinner got up and his wife
smoothed out the tidy and rearranged
it. ;s 1861 &.j35f. # 4s
"The idea Of anybody puttinga head
On that tidy, said Mrs. Skinner, who
had no intention Of using slang. II
did suppose you had more sense
81 used to have" said Mr. Skinner
good -naturedly, Ya-a-a-h. T could
take nap il ( could find a place to drop
down. Y-a-a-h." + III =
.e1sYou 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
book, when thought struck her, and
she bounded from her chair as ifit 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 bed, on
top of q white counterpane, his grizzly
gray head sunk deep into q white,
starclled pillow sham, with these words
embroidered in the center: ,'e
"Sleep sweet, beloved"
He was not asleep, but snored, with
alook ofsweet content on his wide-ope
mouth.
ssL-o-t Ski -n-n-e-r!"
He got mp In manner that would
have done credit to a gymnast, and
stood staring ut the fearful hollow in
the bed aid the wrinkled dent in the
pillow-sham.
T declare I forgot. he said, looking
very foolish: ''Alice, haven't + place
where 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 Ia get"
'|I'd rather you'd get some common
sense" she said sIf you must sleep in
the daytime why there's an old lounge
down in the kitchen; no one will dis
turb you there. Or I suppose"-un-
graciously-"I cam take off the quilt,
and the shams, and let YOU have your
nap here, though its wicked, that's
what it is, to sleep Sunday. It's bad |
example to set to the children, Lot, |
and You know it."
s'But [ am so sleepy" answered her
husband; ''my head is as heavy az lead,
and cannotkeep my eyes open"
."LaZiness! sheer laziness!' said his !
wife sharply.
Mr.. Skinner weht down stairs and !!
disappeared. The last words his wife |
heard him say were THAI there was rest |
for the weary, but she was picking up
the embroidery OH the mis- used sham
with q 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. III
She was distinguished woman dis
tingulshed 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 cleani- |
ness is akin to goodliaess. She busted |
every article OF furniture in the house !
several times every day; she |
scrubbed 50 often that the |
children had chronic diphtheria; she
scrubbed so clean that at last she scrub
bed through her kitchen noor into the
cellar, aud WAS nearly lost to the COM
munity. It was perptual warfare be-
tween her and dirt. The front parlor
WAS never opened TO The family, and al
though Mr.. Skinner had furnished it he
had never sat down in it a moment /
since Its air was that Of tomb. After |
it had been opaned to. company for an
afternoon, the children went around |
with Aannels about their throats and
drank ginger tea. It was the handsom-
est parlor in the community, too, and
had the family pictures and their mar
riage certificate framed and hung up
there. III. a.. y. i. ii@s q. 84. ggl< g:s5aH&l
When dinner was read and it was /
good dinner, too, for Mrs. Skinner was
q notable cook-s she asked the children
where their father was. L .S<5.s
They did not know. 54@.s3
This seemed strange; she questioned
them closely, but they had not seen
which way he went when he passed |
through the room. .5% b. 5.s
Didn't lie say where he was going 9"
she asked, wonderiDgly for Mr.. Skin
ner never went outson Sunday without
his family .s 5..I:. a
He said he was going where he'd
a