St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-06-11
A Happy Family.


he was no exception to the common
rule.
He lay down and crossed his fee
with a parade hardly justifiable unde
the circumstances. His wife came il
and saw him.
"Why, Lot Skinner - she exclaimed
elf ever heard of the like Lying
down on that new sofa with your bO0ts
on, and ola. my goodness your heaC
on that lace tidy | had done up only
last week. YOu are the most incOnsid
crate man | ever saw in my life ~
Mr.. Skinner got up and his wifi,
smoothed out the tidy and rearranged
it.
"The idea of anybody putting head
on that tidy" said Mrs. Skinner, who
had no intention of using slang. 81
did suppose you had more sense"
81 used To have said Mr.. Skinner
good -natuTedly. "Ga-a-h, ! could take
nap if | could find IA place to droI
down. Ya-a-h."
"You had better read your Bible,
said Mrs. Skinner. She was 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, aud when she came back Mr..
Skinner was gone. She sat down and
took book, when n thought struck
her, and she bounded from her chair
as if it had been IA cannon ball.
Yes, it was just as she feared her
husband had gone up stairs, and she
found him stretched out on the bed, on
top of white cOunterpane, his head
sunk deep into white starched pillow
sham, with these words embroidered
in the center: ''SleeP sweet beloved ~
He was not only asleep, but snoring
with a look of sweet content upon his
wide open mouth.
"L-O-t Skinner ~
He got up in manner that would
have done credit to a 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 | got
a place where | can lay my head 7"
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"
"Td rather you'd get some common
sense" she said. "If you must sleep
in the day time, why there's an old
lounge down i'll the kitchen; no one
will disturb you there. Or, | suppose"
-ungraciously- 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
"a bad example to set the children and
You know it,"
But Pm so sleepy" answered her
husband, ''my head is as heavy rs 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
heard him say were that there was no
rest for 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 get
ting dinner, which on Sunday took the
place of supper, and thought no more
about him.
She was a distinguished woman
distinguished in the town where she
lived as being the cleanest hOusekeep-
er in it, No girl could be found neat
toes in her house were to the effect
that cleanliness was akin to gOdlinesS
She busted every article of furniture
in the house several times a day, she
scrubbed so often that the children had
chronic diphtheria, she scrubbed so
clean that at last she scrubbed through
her kitchen floor into the cellar, and
was nearly lost to her neighbOrs I'll
was perpetual warfare between her
aud dirt. The front parlor was never
opened To the family, and although
Mr.. skinner had newly furnished it,
he had never sat down in it moment
since. After it had been opened to
company for an afternoon, the children
went round with tiannels about their
throats and drank ginger tea. 1t was
the handsOmest parlor i'll the cOmmu
nifty, too, and had the family pictures |
aud their marriage certificate framed |
and hung up there.
When dinner was ready-and il was |
good dinner, too, for Mrs. Skinner
was AN excellent cOOk-she asked the
children where their father was.
They did not know.
This seemed strange she questioned
them cllsely but they had not seen
which way he went when he passed
through the room
Didn't he say where he was go
ing p 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.
"Well, we won't wait dinner for
him." said his wife, and they sat down
to eat.
But a 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 had
looked queer.
Ii was in consonance with her habits
of living that she got up in the middle
of her speculatiOns to catch a wander
ing and belated fly and induce him to
be annihilated.
Strange ~ she said, as it grew dark
''Ill take the children and go down to
his mothers and see if he's there, and
II he Is, I'll just give him a piece of
my mind"
But lie was not there, aud his mother
had said Lot had looked badly the last
time she had seen him, and she
thought he seemed worried hoped it
was not business troubles.
No, it was not business troubles i
Mrs. Skinner knew that, and she be- I
gan to wonder if she had cleaned her I