Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1893-01-26

That night he was glum all supper
time, and afterwards buried himself in
the day bcforc's newspaper till bedtime.
When morning came, he fingered about
after breakfast was over with no os.
tensible reason, at last made a feint of
starting, and then came back again.
'Oh, by the way" he said, with
fine air of carelessncss, II had to bor-
row some money yesterday"
How much?' asked his better half,
with a little blush.
Five dollars ("
"What for?" trembled on Mrs Della
meters lips, but she did not say It, She
simply handed him the exact sum.
II guess you'd better let me have
little for car fares while you're about
it.n
A ten.cent piece was carefully select
ed and laid in his palm.
Mr.. Delumcter did not forget his
straitencd condition that day. He re-
mcmbered 1t, of course, when he sent
the bill to his friend; he felt it when
he passed fruit stand on which were
displayed some particularly fine
oranges; it was recalled to his atten-
ton when the little lame boy with
candy made his usual rounds of the
office; it was painfully present to his
mind when man with subscrip-
ton paper wherein figured the name
OF Delameter came to collect the
money subscribed; and the lack was
keenly appreciated when he had to
forego buying his usual evening paper.
The third day he braccd up, and
with reluctance he was wholly una
bic to conceal requested the means
wherewith to buy pair of light trous-
crs.
The fourth day was Sunday. Mr..
Dc!amcter thought Of the contribution
box, and decided he wouldn't attend
church. His head felt badly, he said.
The fifth day the grocer called at the
Office for his pay, and Mr.. Dclameter,
mumbling something about pocket
book" and "othcr pants" sent him to
the house. M
The sixth day Mrs. Delameter, with
unloolled-for generosity, gave him fifty
cents when he asked for car fare, and
on the strength of this he hailed man
with straw berries, on the way home at
night. bought two boxes, and found he
was six cents short,
The seventh day Mr.. Dclam cter real.
lied that the experiment was not work.
ing quite in the way he meant it should,
SO he pulled himself together and bold
ly asked for ten-dollar bill.
What for?" qucried his wife, as
though with an effort.
"I-wcll, want to get pair OF
boots"
Mems boots come high, don't
they? faltered Mrs. Delamctcr with
an artificial smile, as she opened her
pocketboolS.
"Oh, the boots won't be more thar
four dollars, probably, but guess can
make away with the rest"
Mrs. Dclametcr hesitatcd, blushed,
bit her Lip, then slowly handed out
two two-dollar bills and silver hall
dollar.
II guess that will do you, this time"
she murmurcj, with downcast eyes.
Mr.. Delameter glarcd ut her and
made as though he would cast the
money from him. Then suddenly he
seemed to recollect something and a
brilliant red color famed up from the
edge of his white shirt collar to the
roots of his hair. He jammcd the
money viciously into his breast pocket,
made use of some word indicative of
extreme anger and flung himself out of
the house, slamming the door with
great vehemence behind him.
Mrs. Delameter threw herself face
downward on the lounge and cried and
cried. The terrible fear that she had
offended him beyond forgiveness and
that he would never return to her as
sailed her at intervals all through the
day.
When Mr.. Delameter did actually
come home at the usual hour she hard
ly dared raise her eyes to his face. But
he was very quiet, did not slam things
and hardly looked up from his food all
tea time.
When Mrs. Delamcter had cleared up
the dishes, she slipped up behind her
husband as he sat in the bay-window,
with his elbows on his knees, his face
between his hands, and his eyes on the
carpet, and dropped the bone of con-
tention, the pocketbook, into his lap.
and fed.
He caught her dress before she had
fed very far, and drew her back.
Fannie" he said. with whimsical
seriousness, do you believe there Is
money enough in this pocketbook to
induce some muscular man to kick me
all | deserve to be kicked?"
ooh, Toni sobbed Mrs. Delamcter,
''can you ever forgive me? You don't
know how hated to be so hateful!'
"Oh, come now! Doyou pretend to
say you didn't enjoy it?"
"Of course didn'tr' was the indig-
nant answer; and then Mr.. Delameter
threw his head back, and laughed and
laug he'd.
Finally he sobcred down. "Well,"
he said, in very business-like way,
now we'll have this thing fixed up
Have you any idea how much our house.
hold expenses are?"
81 have kept account of that, and of
my personal expenses" said Mrs. Della
meter, bringing him, the book, "but l
did not know how much you earned or
how much your expenses we're"
Mr.. Delameter glanced at the neat
columns, and turned over the leaves to
look at the footing-up for the whole
year. He seemed 10 be surprised at
the total, and made rapid mental cal.
culation. Then he gave vent to long,
low whistle.
Fannie" he declared, solemnly,
"you are dear little economical white
angel; and / am-well, you don't allow
me to use the sort of language that
would fittingly describe what am."
NJ