The Newtown bee., 1896-09-11

SUtl3i tt NIIAit III F,~ANNA t('~'' '''t 'N'~- they left. It was really very impressive and Martha's head began to spin delight
 fully as she felt herself on the point of beng whirlyd round ard round on the outer rim of the Oxboro aoclal circle. She rather watched for callers now, and fell mo the praiaoworJhy habit of changing her work dress after dinner 4ud 2uttirg ou }, blue Mother Hubbard wrappcr, which, when she wished to iool. particularly Guo, she belted down with a faded blue bonnet ribbon, tied in
 iaua.y how. Thu rh"dron. too, re- ] ceivcd an extra washing and combirg
 and .olca a adjuratlons as to their be- havjor. gne purlor w@s du~ted, Lhs flies
 driven 9ua aaJ the green paper shades pulled down. mailing respectable g,ooMiav5s. GcsiIes keeping the room
 dark Aud cool thjs made Io4s apparent
 the great need of a carpet ou the floor. ! Of course rhorc vas a saukeshift for one, an old. shabby affair of rags cbas Mrs Smith began to feel morc ard more "a5 ! really insulting to the aris,2cr,sjc feet Of , her can,r>
 ! .Ic d,o. lo,s pretty bad, she sojijo- jguil.d. Il 3ors :urz bad, sure enough . iTnyre thlo places ali over and dog-ear-
 cd pieces u.sti>A.ug up, an there's a spot Of ktroslne, an that darh,colored place ! is whcr, Lrsuder let ,omc maple syrup drip onto it that always draws the flies, though goodness knows, I've washed and swabbed at it. That carpet wa mt very pretty even when 1t was new-Dot much rcd and green in it an mostly hit and mss.' O dear me! most every wo- man I've called on has a nice parlor car pet. Lots of ems got Brussels. l cant help feelin that they kinder look down on me, cause hain't got one. l know that they look down at the carpet any way when they call, with rueful smile 1t her own grim pun.
 The more Mrs Smith thought about carpets the more she felt that she must have one. It seemed the necessary pat ent of her responsibility and social stand
 ing She thought about it by day and dreamed of it at night. The visions of the kerosene stain and syrup spots and faded rags of her old carpet shut out the brightest scenes. She became morbid over them, and her brown eyes grew even more weary and hollow.
 Finally, sine hunted around for the tape measure and took the dimensions of the room over and over again, brushing up her arithmetic to make the requisite calculations. It was like a dash of cold water in her face to find out that it real ly took a third more Brussels carpeting than ingrain to cover the floor, to say nothing of a good quality costing more per yard. And Brussels she was deter. mined to have, and good quality at that. In fact, she had made up her mind just what she wanted. There was a certain roll in the establishment of Sellers 65 Byers. There was red In that carpeting to make it cheerful looking, besides browns and subdued yelIows and wood colors in design of bright-tipped au- tumn leaves. There was R latent artis- tic taste in poor Martha. One might have seen that by the way in which she planted her flower bed and hung up her weekly wash. Yes, she knew exactly what carpet she wanted, but how to get 1t was another thing. She did not want to ask her husband, Leander, for it, Le. ander had no taste for art-nor for car- pets Painted floors were good enough for him. One had a license to track in mud on them, while as for carpet-well, coarse as he was, he felt a certain moral responsibility as to wiping his feet and using thesspittoon. Then the money thirty dollars for something merely to step onl Why, 1t was worse than fool- ish-it was criminal
 Finally Mrs Smith thought of a way in which to earn the carpet herself. sh