The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-07-15
thought l would be pleased. Poor
childi he must have been disannninted

thought / would be pleased. Poor
child! he must have been disappointed,
for | am afraid l scolded pretty hard, [
did feel SO dreadfully at losing nv
chickens. These things seem very
small after fifty years, but they were
real, serious troubles then.
"But all this has nothing to do with
the paper-hanging. We lived in lit
tie country town, where nobody had
much money and the houses were all
very plain. The walls were generally
plastered and whitewashed. Yet no
one had thought of such a thing as pa
pering until Colonel Mcintyre, who
was the richest man in the place, went
to Springfield and brought home some
paper for his best parlor. Every body
went to see it after it was hung. Mrs.
Mcintyre and the girls put it on, and
it was very much admired. Lucy and
l looked at it with longing eyes. 1t
seemed to us if we could only have
some paper on the walls of our little
sitting-room, it would add great deal
to the happiness of our home. We
talked about it and made ali sorts of
plans, and still we could see no way to
get any. Meanwhile our store
keeper had added few rolls Of
wallpaper to his stock of goods, and
| one or two other families had papered
some rooms. At last spoke to father
| about it. He told me that he had been
thinking about it himself, and would
| like very much to have our little sitting
room papered, but times were hard
| and he did not see how he could afford
| it. Well, Lucy and | had long talk,
and we decided that by some means we
would have that paper. If father, too,
thought it desirable, it was certainly
very necessary that it should be done.
and we began regular system of
saving money. I can't tell you how we
twisted and turned. We went without
butter, and at the end of the month
sold as much as we thought we had
saved. The eggs were my perquisite
always, so I put the family on very
short allowance, and we ate none at
all. When the strawberry season came
we picked allw could, and our brothers
sold them for us in the village; and we
also gathered few blackberries. Some
times we did washing ourselves and
4
our little hoard; and once when father
gave me some money to pay seam
stress, we did more than half of the
work ourselves and kept half the
money. 1t grew very slowly, that little
fund of ours. 1t was not until late in
the fall that we had accumulated money
enough for our purpose. But at last
we had quite enough and little over,
which we thought would buy new
cover for the cushion of fathers chair.
| We had kept it secret all this time
and now we began planning to get the
paper hung without letting father know
any thing about it, so that it should be
complete surprise. He very seldom
went from home and we began to think
We should never have an opportunity
to put it on, when he was drawn on q
jury and was obliged to go away, to
attend court, to be gone at least three
days.
"Now was our chance. We worked
busily all the first day, putting the
rooms in order and cooking food
enough to last for the next two days.
We thought it would take us all the
second day to hang the paper and thu
third to clean up nicely. just at nigh
we walked down to the village and
bought our paper. We thought it very
elegant. 1t was just as pretty in oul
| eyes as your fine new wall covering il
in yours. More so, think, for yor
see we had made great sacrifices for i
and we value things more which cost III
an effort"
| "Whatwas it ike?'' / asked.
I Grandmother laughed again.
'sThe pattern was large, wheel-shapet
| figures of bright blue, ranged in alter
nate rows on a yellow ground. an
afraid you would call the colors crude
and the patterns stiff and ungraceful
if you should see bit of the paper now
but to us it was faultless. We could i'm
/ agine nothing more beautiful. Mr.. Bur
bank, who kept the store, told us how
to make the paste and how to hang tn,
paper, but he omitted some other in
structions which would not have com
amiss. We were up bright and early
the next morning, eager to begin oul
task. The boys wanted to help and, o
course, hindered more than they aided
jamie found us a nice board to spread
our paper on, it is true, and Ben tiet
cloths on sticks for us to use in place o
paste-brushes. But when they got t.
| scuffling and upset our pail of paste OF
the carpet, we felt that we could easil,,
dispense with their services. 0, hov
hard we worked! How our backs ached
and after all we did not finish it unit
noon the next day. And somehow
did not look right. It did not seen
like othy peoples paper. You know
we had never seen more than two o
three papered rooms, and we said, owe
and owe, again that day, that if it wer
not so fSr, we would walk down to tn
McIntyras' and see if we could find ou
what was wrong with our work. Blu
we persevered and the wall was al
papered and the room almost cleanet
4 up when we heard father drive into tn
yard. We were tired almost to- deatl
and worried with the idea that after al
something was not as it should be, an
Sit was with many misgivings that W
waited for him to come into the room
/ when ne opened the door he locke,
around in his quick, sharp way. .Wh