The Forrest City times., 1891-08-28
WITH MUCH ADO.
SY '. T. xEwcoMs.

There were sixteen houses in the block whore John Weston and his wife lived; sixteen houses just alike. So much alike, indeed, that when John came hone at evening he used mechanically to count the gates as he passed along until he came to the ninth.
 Then hs turned in, and there the parallel ended, for the little woman who always opened the door and helped him of with his overcoat and asked him if he was very tired and gave him g kiss which made him for get it if he was, was, in Johns eyes at least. like no other little woman iii the whole city or in the whole world, for that matter,
 They had been married but year or so, and they were very happy in a quiet, simple way. It was a very simple way, and one day was good deal like another, for John was aclerk in the State Department, which is not an exciting life. They had their break fast each morning at exactly 8, and John kissed his wife at the door at exactly thirty minutes thereafter, and, with his little red napkin lunch in his hand, walked past tho eight gates and turned down Sixteenth at kNu ~l k~ Cknk k~ Navy Building. He always took out his watch and looked at the time when he reached the circle at Massa- chusetts avenue, and fit was sixteen minutes before nine he walked little slower, or little faster if it was four teen. It was usually exactly fifteen, and then he kept right on with his or dinary gait.
 At half-past 12 a big gong always struck in the corridor, and John would push the papers aside on bis desk and take out his little red napkin with the lunch in it, and the man on his left and the man Tn front of him would take out their lunches, and then they would eat and talk about the news of the day, or one of the older men would tell stories .of more or less color about his earlier days, before he was swallowed up in the great Federal machine. When the bell struck again at l o'clock they all went back to their work, though John, as he put away his napkin, always thought of the little woman who had handed it to him in the morning, and it helped him through his afternoons work
 At o'clock he went down by the elevator and up Sixteenth street again until he came to the street with the sixteen houses. There he turned and counted the gates and began over again. That is, his real day seemed to begin then, for here was the only place and the only time that his life was different from that of the man who lived next to him, or the man opposite, or the man who lived m another row around the corner.
 At least this is the way it had been until very lately. There had been a change, however. John was one of a great many young men who 40 into tho departmental work in Washingto on with tho intention of saving enough money to start in some profession. Most of these young men keep that intention until they begin to find now and then astreak of gray in their hair, and they say they are too old. But John Weston was not going to 1 be one of that class, so he said He l had good salary, and he did save l money, but not last enough to suit | him: so, when he found that he could | could get extra work with extra pay sat the department, he got into the | nabit of bringing home . roll under 1 shis arm of an evening, and whom din ner was over and he had smoked 8 cigar and spent an hour with his wife, | hs would light the drop light on his .study-table and work until late at night Sometimes he worked great deal later than was wise.
 His wife used to sit by the fire with hor work and watch him as he bent | over his desk, and very often she would sigh quietly to herself as she sat there, for try as she would, and she was very dutiful httle wife, she could not sec 1t quite as h. did, de | spite herself, cared moro to co John | happy and not overworked than she did for that indefinite some time l when they were to leave Washington and-go West 1 She tried once or twice to got him l to work less, but he only smiled and | talked so enthusiastically about that come time that she had to give it up.
 ! One evening she sat by the fire, with her hands in her lap, not working, and looking very serious. She an swered little abstractedly the few remarks that her husband made as he went on with his work, for she had an idea that she was revoiving and weaving in her mind. When John finally pushed away his papers and leaned back in his chair with the familiar, "Well, lit tie woman," which meant that he was through for the evening, she got up and perched herself on the wide arm of his study chair, looking still very serious and solemn.
 '.John," she said slowly, don't you think I am very useless?"
 "very," said John with smile that made her settle the question lover fashion before she went on.
 But really" she said, lit is all on one side. You do all the work and l don't help et ell, though l know you won't own it."
 Fl gusss you'll do."
 "JOhn," said Mrs. Weston, solemn 1~, CT ~.,a,~t k<> ho1r vyrsn and wnn vnuat