The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-06-24

| ~ NANS NAA1AAO OSOSA f'AAAOA
easily becomes a pain. Such, for ex
night with the twins. Next to his wife
he loves and prizes those two infants
When they smile and crow he is IL
ecstasy; when they fret and cry he
suffers the keenest distress. So, when
they were taken that night with 9
| joint and decided collie his anxiety knew
no bounds. Mrs. Wellington sat at one
side of the table reading, and the nurse
! girl at the other busy with drawing
lesson, and neither of them gave any
heed whatever to the moaning twins
"The children are sick" Mr.. Wellington
| declared, cor hungry, or something;'
but the remark attracted no attention.
He rocked them to and fro, with grad
ually increasing concern, and frequently
repeated the statement-and still there
was no response. The nurse took the
precious pair from the cradle and began
walking the floor with them. Mrs. Well
ington looked up from her book after a
time and said, placidly: Richard, dear,
this is an eight-hour house, and there's
nobody on duty now; the children will
have to shift for themselves"
If this burden had been anything on
earth but the blessed twins, Mr.. Well
ington would have dropped it in wonder
and dismay. AS it was, he stopped sud-
denly, and drawing his offspring to his
breast with clumsy fervor, said just one
word. 1t was "Je-ru-s'lem!" The exact
impression that he intended to convey
by this abrupt specification of a
remote and sacred city was not ap-
parent. Perhaps he did not him
self know precisely what he meant;
perhaps it was not what he
looked at him interrogatingly, and the
nurse-girl's pencil fell and her face
turned pale. 'If this is joke" she went
on directly, II must confess that can't
see the point" The idea of Mrs. Wei
hngton being guilty of a joke was so
grotesquely improbable that even she
was tempted to laugh at it. "If there
is any amusement to be derived from
hearing two children cry in this pitiful
way" he continued, Il am too stupid to
comprehend it. The kids are sick, or at
least unhappy, and being their father,
I'm not able to feel funny over such
thing"-and he carefully replaced them
in the cradle, and rocked them with
rapid and dizzying vigor.
"Richard DEAR" Mrs. Wellington said
in kind but firm accents, your devotion
to your children does you credit. 1t
shows that you have a good heart. But
where sentiment and logic conflict, the
head and not the heart should rule. 1t
is unfortunate that children are so con-
-4,E 4o1 hot Io4o
their little aches and aspirations to the
demands of reason and principle. But
reason and principle remain just the
same. I'm sorry our dear twins have to
be neglected. being their mother, my i'm
pulse is to comfort and delight them at
any cost to myself; but L am an eight
hour woman, and this is an eight-hour
house, and l must be CONSTANT. = If you
care to give them some paregoric or
soothing syrup, Richard dear, it might
help them; but as matter of logic, l am
bound to let them alone"
This episode of the twins and their
collie persuade Mr.. Wellington thoroughly
that the eight-hour system was not practi-
cable for domestic uses. That could not
be sound or wholesome doctrine, he
had to believe, which caused mother to
turn her back on her own children be-
cause their wants were not expressed and
their rights asserted within given one
third of the twenty-four hours of day.
The more he pondered over it the surer
he was that Mrs. Wellington, with all her
ability, had for once in her life blundered.
1t was glaringly clear to him that while
eight hours might answer for some kinds
of labor, it would never do to limit house
hold work in that absolute style. He had
the utmost respect for his wife's courage
of conviction and purity of motive and
design, but he could not shut his eyes to
the fact that her perseverance in this
matter was gradually transforming their
once harmonious and felicitous home
into a ghastly tumult and mockery. He
could see that with the best intentions in |
the world, Mrs Wellington was not equal |
to the task of making eight hours serve |
the purpose of ten, twelve, or more |
by merely willing that such a result |
should ensue; and if Mrs. Wellington |
could not do it, what woman could?
He scarcely dared to hope that he |
could convince Mrs. Wellington that she |
had permitted her firmness and integrity |
rs a logioiap to smother her good sense |
as a wife and mother; but he resolved to
make the trial. She listened to him at |
tentively as he recounted the numerous |
to which the establishment |
was subject by reason of this peculiar at
Tempt at reform. She could not have
Jailed to notice, he urged, that a certain
measure of time was required 70 perform
/ certain amount of work, and that
whatever the statistics might say, il was
lot true that the productive capacity of
could always be increased by
hortening the period of exertion. If
hings would uniformly so occur, he adj
nitted, that they could be dealt with at
tated and arbitrary intervals, then it
night be possible to give successful eff
ect to such theory; but things could
lot be counted upon to happen in that
,racious and convenient manner, partic-
llarly in the domestic line, and so the
question could not be decided by strict
ppeal to logic. Something must neces-
arily be pardoned, he insisted, to cir
A man could not always
ONE to dinner at fixed instant, like
,iece of machinery, or a climax in a
ramatic productions; bread could not
lways rise for baking at foreordained
regardless of intervening con-
.itions; babies could not always have
olic precisely when their mothers and
urses copld most readily give them at
ention; and so on, and so on.
To his great surprise and qualification,
vhen he had finished, sunny smile
his wife's countenance; and
hen she laughed. He seized her hands,
nd pressed them warmly. She looked
nto his eyes, not as a woman Of views,
ut as co-parent of twins, and crea-
ure of JOY and love. He could not resist
he inclination to embrace her. She had
t last realized the absurd aspect of her
roiect, and that meant, he quickly
that she was ready to aban-
on it.
~Richard DEAR" she said, as soon as
he could check her rippling laughter,
you are not logical and ] suppose you
ever will be. But you are very kind
nd patient, and it really doesn't seem
ute right to shorten the days by dimin-
;hing your comfort and happiness in