Oxford Democrat., 1907-07-09

The lamb eyed father preceded the an
gel child to her chamber.
the lake. A grown person would hard
ly have been abroad save OH compul'
sion of kind. and yet when they were
called to luncheon the two little sim.
pletons protested with great cries.
The ladies of Whilomville were
somewhat given to the pagan habit of
tea parties. When tea party was to
befall certain house. one could read
it in the manner of the prospective
hostess, who for some previous days
would go about twitching this and
twisting that and dusting here and
polishing there. The ordinary habits
of the household began then to dis.
agree with her. and her unfortunate
husband and children fed TO the
lengths Of their tethers. Then there
was a hush. Then there was ten
party. On the fatal afternoon a small
picked company Of latent enemies
would meet. There would be fan
fare of affectionate greetings. during
which everybody would measure to nm
inch the Importance Of what every
body else was wearing. Those who
wore old dresses would wish then that
they had not come, and those who saw
that in the company they We're well
clad would be pleased or exalted or
filed with the joys Of cruelty. Then
they had tea, which was a habit and a
delight with none of them. their usual
beverage being coffee with milk.
Usually the party jerked horribly In
the beginning, while the hostess strove
and pulled and pushed to make its
progress smooth. Then suddenly 1t
would be off like the wind, eight. tif-
teen or twenty-five tongues Gathering.
with noise like a cotton mill com.
bined with the noise Of few penny
whistles. Then the hostess had moth
ing to do but to look glad and see that
everybody had enough tea and cake
When the door was closed behind the
last guest. The hostess would usually
drop into chair and say, "Thank
heaven, they're gone" There would
be no malice in this expression. 1t
simply would be that. womanlike. she
had flung herself headlong ut the ac
complishment Of pleasure which she
could not even define and ut the end
she felt only WEAKNESS.
The value and beauty or oddity OF
the teacups was another element which
entered largely into the spirit Of these
terrible enterprises. The quality Of the
tea was an element which did not
enter at oil. Uniformly it was rather
bad. But the cups! Some Of the more
ambitious people aspired to have cups
each of a different pattern, possessing.
in fact, the sole similarity that with
their odd curves and dips Of form they
each resembled anything but teacup.
Others of the more ambitious aspired
to a quite severe and godly "set,'
which when viewed appalled, one with
it's austere and rigid family resem-
blances and made one desire to ask the
hostess if the teapot was not the IA
ther of all the little cups and at the
same time protesting gallantly that
such young and charming cream jug
surely could not be their mother
But Of course the serious part Is that
these collections so differed in style
and the obvious amount paid for them
that nobody could be happy. The poor
er ones envied; the richer ones feared,
the poorer ones continually striving to
overtake the leaders, the leaders al
ways with their heads turned back to
hear overtalling footsteps. And none
Of these things here written did they
know. Instead of seeing that they
were very stupid, they thought they
were very fine. And they gave and
took heart bruises-ferce, deep heart
bruises - under the clear impression
that Of such kind Of rubbish was the
kingdom of nice people. The charac-
teristics of outsiders Of course emerged