The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-09-11
A HAPPY FAMILY.

tired, and thought he would lie down on
the sofa in the back parlor and rest. He lay
down and crossed his feet with a parade
hardly justifiable under the circumstan-
ces. His wife came in and saw him
Why. Lot Skinner p' 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 that I had done up last week You
are the most stinconsiderate man 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. Il did sup
pose you had more sense"
al used to have" said Mr.. skinner,
good naturedly. "Ya-a-h. could take
a nap if 1 could find a place to drop down.
Ya-a-h."
You had better read your bible" said
Mrs. Skinner. She was good, uncom-
Portable woman, so clean and neat and
orderly that she made her family wretohed
with her domestic drill.
Something called Mrs. Skinner off then,
and when she came back Mr.. Skinner was
gone. She took a book and sat down,
when a thought struck her and she bound
ed from her chair as II she had been a
cannon ball
Yes, it was just as she had feared her
husband had gone upstairs, and she
found him stretched out in bed on top of
a white counterpart, his grIzEly-gray
head sunk deep into a whited, starched
pillow sham. with these words enbroid-
cred in she centert Sleep sweet, beloved''
He was not only asleep, but snoring. with
a look OF content on his wide-open
mouth
Lot Skinner 70
He got up in manner that would have
done credit TO a gymnast, aud stood star
ing at the fearful hollow in the bed and
che wrinkled dent in the pillow sham.
81 declare, 1 forgot" be said, looking
very foolish. "AIice, haven't 1 a 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 or"
Would you rather I'd get"
"Pd rather you'd get some common
sense" she said. If you must sleep in
the day time, why there's an old lounge
down in the kitchen no one viii disturb
you there. Or, I suppose "-ungrsoiously
IL can take of the quilt and the shams,
and let you have your nap here, though
RS wicked, that's what it is, to sleep Sun
day. It's a bad example to set the chill
drsn, Lot, and you know it.
but 1 am 80 sleepy" answered her
husband; my head is heavy as lead, and
I cannot keep my eyes open"
"LazinessI sheer lazinessr' said his wife
in a sharp tone
Mr.. Skinner went down stairs and dis.
appeared. The last words his wife heard
him say were that there was rest for the
weary, but she was picking up the en-
broidery Of the misused sham with pin,
and did not heed him. When she went
down stairs he was not in sight, and she
busted herself with getting dinner, which
On Sunday took the place of supper, and
Thought no more about him.
She was a distinguished woman dis
tsnguished in the town where she lived as
being the neatest housekeeper in IL. No
es-i could be found neat enough to live
with her. All the msttoes in her house
were 70 the effect that cleanliness is akin
to Eodliness. She busted every article of
forniture in the house several times every
day she scrubbed 80 clean that at last
she scrubbed through her kitchen floor
into the cellar aud was nearl, los, - the
community.
It was a perpetual warfare between her
and dirt The front parIor was never
opened to the family, and although Mr..
sAinneE had furnished 10 he had never
sat down in IL moment since. Its air
was that Of tomb. After It had been
opened to company for an afternoon the
shildreH went round with fiannels about
their throats and drank ginger tea. 1t
was the handsomest parlor in the commu-
nifty, too, and had the family pictures
and the marriage certificate framed
and hung up there.
Whom the dinner was ready-and it
was = good dinner. too, for Mrs. Skinner
was a notable cook-shs asked the chill
dren 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 FeOm.
Didn't he say where he was going %
she asked, wonderingly, for Mr.. Skinner
never went out on Sundays without HIS
family.
He said he was going where he'd have
more peace, said little Harry Skinner.
"wefl, We won't wait dinner for him."
said his wife, and they sat down to eat.
But a spell seemed TO have fallen upon
them, and when the dinner was over and
cleared away, and they were in the sitting
room with their books, there was a 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 looked queer.
1t was in consonance with her habits of