The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-20
The FAMILY TREE.

| OJnefWlSe GeplQ january Wnen my WIG
Elizabeth, embraced me in our front hall
and before could get out of my ulste
asked me if 81 would get her tree
Now, to be empty and cold and tired an,
to be asked on the threshold of ones doc
and dinner in nidwinter for "a tree, evel
by the being whom one adores is a trifl
irritating. I am amiable as rule and ,
ruler, but the tone in which 1 said, 6
| what!' was not up to the marital mark
But my own Elizabeth knew me too wei
| to be deferred.
"Why, dear, Mrs. Makehay Higginso1
was here this afternoon and she said
ought to be Colonial Dame, and can
be one, she SAYS unless I have tree
which the Colonial Danes are to sit upor
at their meeting, and if it's all righ1
they will take me in
| ''Humph! don't doubt they will. "
''She says that everybody that is any
body is doing all they can to get up a tree
| and, dear, she said that you were so awful
ly clever that you could get me up tree
| in no time"
Mrs. Higginson Is a woman of more
| penetration than gave her credit for il
she said that" said I. "But, seriously,
dear, if your happiness hangs upon tree,
you shall have one"
1t was between the soup and the fish, fol
Elizabeth and by this time were seated
at cur dinner table, which, bless her, she
likes to make bright and sweet against my
home coming, that committed myself S'to
do, as the vaudeville bills would say, a
family tree for her.
Gx,,%<s r &C.,
strange elation-a sort of suppressed supe-
riority. 1t made her broaden all her as
when she spoke to me, and her dear, sweet
American voice came down from her nose
into her throat when she talked about be-
ing Colonial Dame" SO that my wife
really became quite English in her discus
sion Of the subject which had supposed
to be thoroughly American. Mrs. Hig-
ginson had left her, it seemed, with an
awful sense Of all that 1t meant to be a
Colonial dame of the egreat works, :" as
the refor1ners say, to be done when every
body had "tree."
"How?" asked, for the mutton had
made me monosyllabic, but neither inele-
CANT nor aboriginal in my vocabulary, as
Elizabeth seemed to think from the horri-
fled way in which she looked at me before
she went ON.
I'm the first place. you know, dear, that
society in Old Haven is neither SO gay nor
SO general as it might be if we weren't all
the time on pins and needles for fear we
might know somebody who wasn't, well,
quite SO nice as ourselves, and Mrs Hig-
ginson says that the Society of c. D.-sa
capital name for some Of them, said in
parentheses-wil do away with all that
sort Of thing. There are going to be meet
ings-lots of them, and when they have
had enough meetings to find out that ev
erybody has an ancestor as aristocratic as
everybody else, then they are going to IN
bend and be nice to one another, and the
SWEETEST of the lot are going to give din
ners and balls, and it's going to be awful
ly exclusive and English, you know, and
If any woman's name is put up for men,
bership that the other women don't like
she's going to be blackballed unless she
has great deal of money. And I am sure,
dear, it's going to make q lovely feeling
all through society, and it's just what this
stupid old stuck up town needs.
Not being able to grasp the cogency of
my loved ones reasoning, took refuge in
cigar, while Elizabeth slipped her coffee
and went on with her prattle.
alfred, dear, do you know Mrs. Bellfry
Buncombe2 She the regent. She is more
swell than any one in town. Mrs. Higgin-
son says that for years she has kept her.
self shut up from common people She has
never spoken to or come in contact with
trades person in her life except once, when
she had to order a herring, but she kept
him at distance through the telephone"
"Who, the herring?'
"How stupid you arel No, the trades
person
These transcendent qualifications of
Mrs. Buncombe for her high office SO i'm
pressed me that 1 straightway made for
my study, followed by Elizabeth, and we
lost no time in looking up the family BIZ
BILE
After still hunt of an hour or more
this venerable tome was unearthed, lying
in company with one or two Rollo books
and volume of ''Pride and Prejudice
in oobwebbed corner of the closet, where
kept my odds and ends, boots principally.
After we had removed the dust from the
book which no well regulated family
should be without, Elizabeth opened it and
turned to the family register, when, as if
by inspiration, her well manicured forein-
ger lit upon the name Penelope Shaw.
Up. Shaw exclaimed, but not in
tone of mockery-far from it-for in that
name beheld the very root and source of
my Elizabeth's tree-the name of my
wife's great great great grandmother.
That was enough. We went from Shaw
to Shaw until the clock struck midnight.
The next day ! went to the rooms of the
Historical society, the College library and
the free library on the scent of dead ShaNs.
l became, as it were, an ancestral hound.
This, of course, meant neglect of several
minor issues of a business nature in which
several thousands of dollars were involved.
l opened up a correspondence which inca
FACILITATED our postrnan for active service
for week. Gentlemen rose up all over the
country who offered to supply me with an
cestors at SO much head. One generous
soul offered to get me up a tree for the
modest sum Of $780, I spurned his tempt
ing offer. It was I who had undertaken to