The Portland daily press., 1900-09-11

yond words to be forced to the conclusion
that you care as little for the home which
/ have struggled and shaved to provide
for you as the common or garden variety
OF oyster cares for the rocky Businesses
of the Blue mountains. 1t creates with
in me a feeling of ineffable sorrow to
find at this stage Of our lives that you
would a whole lot rather be in almost
any old place on the habitable globe than
beneath the shelter of that roof which 1t
has required so many Years Of tOiling and
moiling on my part to erect over your in
different head. l firmly believe that you
would heap prefer at this present mo-
ment of time to be resident of Taku or
Of Tien-tsin than to be wrapped around
by the tender if nonexciting household
joys of the abode which r.
''You know very well that l am fond Of
my home" interrupted Mrs. Jobson, ''but
was it not the distinct understanding
when we came down here to the beach
that we were to remain throughout the
entire period of your leave? Did you not
say only the other morning that you
dreaded returning to humdrum existence
III the city; that you hated to think Of
the day when we should be compelled to
pack up and take ourselves back to-"
mo, Mrs Jobson, / never expressed
myself in any such idiotic way under any
circumstances whatsoever" cut in Mr..
Jobson, with asperity, land if ! had such
an ornate Imagination as you possess l
think | could find some better way Of ex-
ercising it than by holding down a green
wicker chair on the veranda of a hotel To-
Gated in q monotonous seaside resort and
making mental criticisms OF the clothes
worn by
But only yesterday" interrupted Mrs.
Jobson again, you said that you wished
you could cook up some kind Of n scheme
whereby you could prolong your leave so
as
did. hey?' said Mr.. Jobson sarcas-
tically. well, il / did I was in a day
dream, or else the gallon or so of salt
water swirling around in my head must
have made me temporarily insane. The
fact remains, MES. Jobson, that we are
going home on the train that departs for
Washington shortly before o'clock.
The other fact looms up, likewise, that,
far from ever having exuded any such
somnambulistic conversation as that
with which you unblushingly credit me,
l wouldn't have spent 20 minutes at this
place if it hadn't been for you"
well" began Mrs. JObson "of all the
extraordinary statements that 1 ever
heard YOU
1T is painfully evident" Mr.. Jobson
sternly Interrupted, shat the daily pro-
gramme Of a resort like this is perfectly
calculated TO I'LL you with inexpressible
content This getting up in the morning
in Il room wherein the curtains flap in a
hot land breeze, eating a breakfast COM
posed of the same old deadly hotel dishes,
sitting on the vcranda for half an hour
watching the gyrations of Willie boys and
: ladies who inwardly vituperate and scorn
each other, going to a hot bath room and
preparing for q teeth chattering plunge
in a clammy, body bruising sea; stickily
dressing and feeling hotter after dressing
than before, eating a hotel dinner tha'
tastes like papier mache, lying around
the aforesaid boiling room for the re
mainder of the afternoon until it is TINS
to put on more hot clothes for the even
ing meal, which is likewise as tasteless
as squash; then trudging down to lister
to a lot of aliens discoursing the Inter
mezzo' and 'Ah Jes' KANT Bear Tub See
Nah Baby Lose and then tumbling into
a granite bed in the previously mentioned
sizzling ro0m-this, Mrs. JObson, it i.
plain TO see, is your idea Of the acme o.
happiness; this is the sort Of thing fO
. which you enthusiastically surrender thu
comforts Of your home. Well, I hav,
? given you several weeks of it, and To-
, once-just for once, Mrs. Jobson--I an
going to consider my own feelings, an,
I'm going home. 1t is hard, know, t,
drag you to the sQualid home that await,
you, but we're going all the same, and yol
have been informed Of the hour at which
we are - start"
And it came to pass. of course, tina
the Jobsons did start for Washington a
precisely the hour Mr.. Jobson had indi
Gated. 1t was a hot ride. and the Job
sons didn't get into the station in Wash
ington until after 10 o'clock. Mrs Job
son had tesegraphed ahead to the trust,
Robson household servant to open TIT
house and prepare n nice luncheon, bu
for once the Jobs0n servant wasn't trusty
and when the JObs0ns gor uJrue Cne,
found the house gloomy and stuffy an,
smelling strongly of the mating on thu
upper floors Mr.. Jobson threw all o.
the windows open and then went out t,
the corner cafe to get some sardines an,
sausage and crackers and beer and thing
wherewith to prepare n lunch. After thu
board walk the streets Of Washington a
IL o'clock at night perhaps seemed bi
quiet and dull to Mr.. Jobs0n, for he di,
not have much to say.
well, it is delightful to be home again
after all, isn't it?' said Mrs. Jobson a.
they ate their late lunch.
"Um," replied Mr. Jobson, and then hl
leaned back in his chair and looked a
the ceiling once more.
1t was pretty hot on the followin,
morning when Mr.. Jobson started down
to his Office to look the situation over
lie still had several weeks leave comm,
to him, but he just went down to his Of
hce to see how things were going BY Il
o'clock the temperature was pretty fierce
and 1T was shortly after II o'clock wher
Mr. Jobson clomped into the Jobsor
home with look of mingled martyrdon
and determination on his face. Mrs. Job
son in kimono was tanning herself al