Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-02-20

THIS ever so long.
II don't see why shouldn't see the
world as well as other folks" remarked
Mrs. Biggs Senior.
II shouldn't wonder if / went along,
too, TO get look at the fall fashions, "
said Miss Josepha.
'Well, while we're about it," sug-
gested Mrs. Horatio. "why don't we
make up n party and get excursion
tickets cheap I've always wanted TO
sec what the city was like myself, only
l don't care about paying hotel prices. "
Mrs. Luke entered with ardor into the
scheme, and the old man sat down, with
a single sheet of iibrous paper, n muddy
inkstand and stumpy stccl-pen tied on
a stick with thread, To concoct letter,
in which he formally notified Hiram :
folks" of the pleasure which they might
prepare themselves to expect,
The document was brought just rs
Hiram Biggs was getting into the spirit
of his mornings work in his study, with
Elizabeth dreaming at an adjoining
table, and the breath of vase of Nj
photos roses pertaining all the room.
my dear" said he, looking aghast
at his wife, "what are we TO doP All
the family are coming 10 visit us! With
the proof-sheets of my last novel coming
in. and your etchings of wild Rose
only half completed"
1--WE must do the best we can,
Hiram" said Elizabeth, perplexedly
knitting her pretty brows together.
MY darling child, there's no best
about it," groaned Hiram, tearing his
hair-which, being brown and curly,
looked none the less picturesque for the
operation. "You don't know the pecu-
liarties of the Biggs family as l do.
You will be dragged up and down
Grand street, Eighth avenue and the
Bowery from morning until night-you
will have to visit every show, theater
and picture-gallcry in New York, and
pay all the bills. Your housekeeping
will be picked to pieces, your dress
criticised, and ten to one my mother
will offer to come here and take charge
of the baby, while Joscpha will volun-
teer to improve your most cherished
drawings"
Mrs. Hiram Biggs glanced with terror
at the plump baby who, in charge of its
white-capped nurse, was being carried
up and down the pavement in front of
the house Then she looked piteously
around the pretty Brussels-carpeted IL
brary, with its deep crimson-curtaincd
| bay-windows, its tall Drac9rI plants in
majolica vases, its oil-paintings and
japanese scrolls, its cage of green paro-
quets, and shelves of china and bric-a-
brac, and pictured to herself the whole
Biggs family spreading themselves over
its sacred precincts. She was only hui
man, too, this young wife; she could
scarcely help remembering how Mrs.
Horatio had snubbed her when she first
came, a timid and shrinking bride, to
the Biggs farmhouse; how Mrs. Luke
| had once refused to lend her twenty-five
cents, in Hiram's absence, TO pay the
charges on telegram, alleging as a
reason "that it wasn't never good pol
icy to have business matters between re-
lations," nor how old Mrs. Biggs had
cried and said "that Hiram had shown
dreadful poor Judgment in selecting his
wife, " while Miss Josepha had taken es-
pecial pains to contradict every state
ment she made, and Luke and Horatio
had ignored her altogether.
Hiram laughed. My little darling"
said he. 81 can interpret that look. You
shall not be tormented out of your eX-
istence to become convenience to a
swarm of relations-in-law, who don't
any of them care a copper cent for you.
If they had ever treated us dcccntly il
would be n different matter. As it is
"But, Hiram, YOU can't send word to
your own father and mother and broth
ers and sisters not to come" pleaded
Elizabeth.
mo" said Hiram Biggs, thought
fully, al shall do nothing of the sort.
Butt shall send no word at all.
They'll come, all the same, said
Elizabeth.
"But," said Hiram. with sparkling
eyes, "they don't know where we live. y
They'll look ont your name in the
Directory" sighed Elizabeth.
at isn't there" said Hiram, chuck
ling.
mot there?" repeated his wife.
Don't YOU remember that we didn't
move in here until the middle of June!
How could our names be in the Direc.
toryP" argued Hiram.
Mrs. Biggs clasped her hands dra.
matically. There's n family of Biggses
in the next avenue" said She" III.
Biggs, Books, Stationery and News
Agents. They'll go there"
"Well, let them said Hiram. "Just
as they please, so long as they don't
come here" And he threw the letter
of Biggs pcre into the scrap-b basket, Sc.
the family for all the Sights and jeers
and neglect that they had cast not only
on him, but on his gentle little Eliza
beth.
"But, Hiram said Mrs. Bggs, I'll
seems so dreadful
mot half so dreadful as visitation
of the whole Biggs family would be, v
said Hiram, with groan.
But Hiram knew little of the perse.
verance and energy of the Bigges if h,
believed that so tritlng an impeachment
as lack of invitation or q delay in
sending addresses would keep out the
invasion. IL was Canute and the ocear
over again; and in three days the Who'll,
family arrived. all packed into one hack
to save expense, with perfect Leaning
Tower of Pisa of baggage on the roof
the driver perched in front nobody knew
how, and Mrs. Luke's two little boy,
astridc of the very apex of the tower
At the first wholesale grocery store OF
Barclay Street Directory was handed
in and duly studied, and the driver
changing halfway down, like one who
gathers samphire, dreadful trade" was
hidden to drive to No. 26,012 Thirteenth
avenue.
III. Biggs," said Mrs. Horatio.
"Book-maker and news agent, added
old Mrs. Biggs, in high falsctto.
And the man chirruped to his horses
and drove on.
''Humph!" shifted Miss Josepha, who
had had the good luck to secure win
dow, IF Mis is Hiram's elegant city
mansion, it don't come up to my idea.
of style. Brown brick, with dormcl
windows, and only two stories high
and the whole front store, with tho
shutters up, just exactly as if there hat
been n death in the familyn