The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-17
PRovoK1NoLY coNrENrED.
IExchange.l

In an age when grumbling at the
 weather becomes the safety valve for all
 sorts of ill'humored megrims, it is some.
 thing too aggravating to find the person
 you are most in the habit of talking with
 always in state of idiotic contentnent
 with said weather. Now this is the case
 with my neighbor Pitnan.
 In summer, when the mercury bolted
 up among the nineties, he would come
 to the front door with beads of perspira- 1 tion standing out ali over his red face,
 and would look at the sky and say.
 Splendid perfectly splendid! Noble
 weather for the poor and the ice com
 panies and the washerwomen never
 saw such magnificent weather for dr,ing clothes! They don't shake up any such
 climate as this in Italy. Give me my um-
 breiler. Harriet, while si; Gut here on the steps and enjoy it."
 In winter, when the mercury would creep down to fifteen degrees below zero, and the cold was nearly severe enough to freeze the inside of Vesuvius, PItmap would sis Gut on iiy fence and sxclaim, Nov, Adeler, did you ever see sich weather as this? l like an atmosphere that freezes up your very marrer. Ithelps the coal trade, and gives us good skeetin'. Don't talk of summer time to me Give me cold, and give it me stiff"
 When there was drought, Pltman used to meet me in the street and remark, " No rain yet, see! Magnificent, isn't 1t! l want my weather dry, want it with the dampness left out. Moisture breeds levers and ague, an ruins yer boots. lfthere's anything despise. it's to carry an umbreller. No rain for me. if you please"
 When it rained for week and flooded the country, Putnam often dropped in 10 see me and observe, "I dunno how you feel about this yer rain, Adeler, but it alters seems to me that the heavens never drop no blessin's but when we have long wet spell. ltmakes the corn jump, an cleans the sewers, an keeps the springs from gettin' toe dry. 1 wouldn't give cent to live in a climate where there was no rain. Soak me through an | through to the inside of my bones, and I feel as if life was bright and beautifuln
 On showery day, when the sun shone brightly at one moment and at the next the rain poured in torrents, Putnam has been known to stand at the window and | exclaim, " Harriet, if you'd asked how like the weather, I'd we said, lust as it is now.' What want is weather that is streaked like bit of fat an lean bacon a little shine and little rain. Mix lem up an give us plenty ofboth, and Pm yer man."
 Pitman is always happy in thunder storm, and one day after the lightning had knocked down two of his best apple. trees and splintered them into fragments, and the wind had torn his chimney to pieces, l went over to see him. He was standing by the prostrate trees, and he at once remarked, Did you ever know a man havin' sich luck as this? was going to chop down them, two trees to. morrer, an as that chimney never draw'd well, l had concluded to have it rebuilt. An that gorgeous old storm has fixed things just the way want lem. Put me in thunderstorm an let the lightnin' play around me, an I'm at home."
 They say here in the village, and l must believe it, that one day Pitman was upon his roof fixing a shingle, when a tornado struck him, lifted him off, carried him quarter of a mile, and dashed him with such terrible force against a fence that his leg was broken. As they carried him home, he opened his eyes languidly and said, What a storm that was When it does blow it suits me if it blows nard. I'd give both legs if we could have ] squall like tbat every day. H." Then he became insensible,
 If contentment is happiness, then the fife of Pitman IS one uninterrupted con- 1ition of bliss.-Mar Adeley.