The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-09-10
THE EDITOR.
How He Was Entertained in a
Modest Home.


with our brother Tom. Tom was an
orphan, too, of course, but then male
orphans are never the recipients of
sympathy and motherly advice from
every dear old lady in the neighborhood,
so that by and by they really forget
that they are orphans.
Tom was twenty, and he kept a sta
tionery shop, and we lived in four
small rooms in the rear of the shop.
This was in one of the new towns that
spring up in a night on Puget sound,
and although the town itself was rough,
bustling and noisy, we were very hap
Py there, for our rooms were within a
hundred yards of the opaline waters,
and the shore sloped to them, green as
emeralds the whole winter through.
Nell assisted Tom in the shop, and I,
besides being houselleeper, contributed
to several magazines which helped
wonderfully in the way of new gowns,
gloves, bonuets and all the dainty things
which delighted our souls.
We were quite the noisiest and most
harum-scarum household you can i'm
agine. As l have said, we had only
-four rooms. In one of these Tom slum-
bered the dreamy hours away nightly,
and it. was 1.-The meanest, darkest,
Smotheriest room in the whole She
bang" Tom was given to declaring
each time he entered it on slumber
bent. Then there was a room wherein
Nell and l slept, and from whose win
dow we could see at dawn dear, white
Mount Baker towering into the prim-
rose sky. Then the kitchen, and lastly
the parlor, which Nell called the draw
iug-room, and which also served as
dining-room. Between the parlor and
the shop was a tiny cubby hole of a
room, about six feet square and dark as
dungeon, in which Tom kept surplus
stock, and in which we likewise SNUG
gled away sundry bags from the green
grocer's, trusting to the friendly dark
ness to conceal them from the inquisi-
tive eyes of our visitors
yOur parlor was thing having once
been seen to be remembered 1t was
eleven feet wide and sixteen feet long,
and in it were one stove, one organ, one
sewing machine 1--WE made our own
gowns), one three-ply carpet, one big,
black dog (by the name of jeff, who
was n fixture and the object of our de-
voted atfections) one dictionary and
stand, one walnut table, four chairs
fmore or less broken), one trunk (de-
.ceptively cretonned and cushioned up
10 allure unsuspecting guests into the
rashness of sitting upon it), one book
case, some pictures, and, alas! that
must chronicle it of parlor! a bureau
"a really and truly bureau in par
HOr," as little girl said once, to the
hysterical mirth of ourselves and the
speechless modification of her mother,
who had brought her to call. How
ever, the size-or lack of size-of our
Ged chamber forbade the introduction
of IL bureau, so into the parlor it went.
One autumn evening Tom was in the
shop, and Nell and l were making our
selves very comfortable in the parlor,
tipped back in our rocking chairs, with
cups of chocolate in our hands and our
feet on the low nickel rod that encom-
passed the stove. We had been sew
ang, and the room was in the widest
disorder. The machine was in the CEN
tcr of the floor, its box was upside
down, the bureau was Uttered with
yards and yards of embroidery, spools,
scissors, tape-lines and buttons; there
SWere piles on piles of muslin uncut,
;aDd dozens of muslin garments in vari-
tous degrees of "cut, basted and sewed''
all over the floor, chairs, organ and
trunk.
We'll have our chocolate" Nell had
said, land then we'll have cl'ar'n'up
spell"
But suddenly we heard the shop door
open, al d then gent!eman's voice
the kind of voice we did not hear fire.
'quently in that rough town. 1t was
R0W, quiet, courteous, In another mo-
ment he had introduced himself to Tom
$40 Mr.. Everett, of the South African
Review" | waited TO hear no more
I leaped to my feet, overturning the
foOtstool and the dog with dreadful
racket; the smile and the chocolate
froze on my lips; my heart jumped into
mp throat. and thumped there so ia st |
could scarcely breathe.
had contributed regularly for some
time TO the South African Review" +"
and my correspondence with the editor
had grown very friendly, indeed, but
never, never, in my widest imaginings
had foreseen such II catastrophe, Nell
50 ggested afterward, as this.