Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1908-09-23
4 he Anyways
Cali
sut MOI when Ihor Voc Expeoted.

w give LnP WIG ana me mucl OF
,ieak in one respect" complained the
Gclng married man. What I'm talk
ilg about is this: Whenever anybody
~ anybcdies drop in of an evening to
zee us the wife and look like-well.
ike tramps.
Now, don't know why it is, but in
New York it's hard to get folks to
name an exact evening for calling
upon you. You invite 'em to drop in
and see you on such and such an even
Ing, but they always flag you so far
as any particular evening Is con
cerned.
"'Ch. Wen look in on you some
evening next week, is the way you
get it.
And then, of course, in your state
Of uncertainty during all of the even
ings of next week you've got to stand
by with your wife to greet visitors.
That's the way it works out with
US. Every evening this week we've
both been looking as pretty as the
dickens after dinner-until last even
ing.
"On Monday evening last, to begin
with, by way of illustrating lot of
weeks we've passed through, said to
the wife:
by the way, met Jim Annyday
on Saturday, and he said he and Mrs,
Annyday'll be digging us up some
evening this week So l guess we'd
better not get into the easy toys for
while tonight. eh?'
"Of course she agreed with me- Now,
cur easy togs, worn when we're not
expecting anybody are nothing short
Of disreputable, Well, when one or
the other of us sounds the warning
hat maybe therell be visitors of an
evening of course we don't put on
this delightfully."- slouchy makeup Of
ours.
I'VE fixed up and sat around on
Monday evening last in expectation of
the Anyways. The Anyways are
swaggeg sort of couple-though I've
no doubt that in their hours of relax
alton they look just as bum as we do
and Of course we didn't dare to take
a chance on having them sail in on us
and find us looking like pair of out
casts
Tuesday evening, the same. But
the Annydays didn't show up Tuesday
evening either The wife and sat
and yawned in each others faces and
read sort of abstTactedly and felt sort
of stiff and sewed up and each had
a sneaking sort of longing for the
punkerino old toys that permit of so
much Jolly comfort, but Of course we
couldn't switch so long as there was
a chance for the Annydays to drop in.
Same goes for Wednesday and
Thursday evenings. We sat around
stiff and wretched and yet in fear that
If we permitted ourselves to get COM
Portable the Notwithstanding to
the dope we've kept on this thing, as
say, ever since we were married
would happen again.
Last evening after dinner ! felt
dog tired 1t was hot, and I'd had a
skewgee day at the Office, and didn't
feel little bit like sitting around in
company clothes.
I'm going to take chance says
I to the wife. Those Annyday people
won't come out on night like this
rain threatening and all that-even If
they're even meaning to come. I'm
going to shed this gear and get into
the old stuff. Might as well gamble
on their not coming tonight as any
other old night.
"'But wouldn't 1t be awful if they
were to come? said the wife. / really
am afraid myself to put on
"'Oh, you've got to change into the
old stuff If do, my dear, l said to her.
1T wouldn't do a particle of good If
you were all fused up If they came
and caught, me looking like a tramp.
What's the difference? It'd be a give
away anyhow So come on,
(Which we did The wife removed
the nine or ten pounds of suppositi-
tious hair that she packs around on
her head and climbed into the easy
stuff, and me similar. We'd just got
rugged that way, and we're spraddled
out comfortably in the sitting room,
me reading the baseball junk and the
wife pulling on some best seller,
when
But you know the rest. Yes. It
was the Anyways, logged to within
an inch of their lives. The maid had
gone OF course, and ! had to answer
the bell. My wife hadn't time to make
her visit to her room to tidy up before
the visitors were in the apartment.
And there we we're, the pair Of us
fairly caught! i
"We tried to square it, Of course,
with lot of cheGp witticisms and
such like, but nix, didn't 60. The An
nydays pretended to take 1t as a fine
joke, the horrible way we/looked and
Just laughed and laughed about It, and
made as If to let us down easily by
saying they themselves often made
themselves comfortable OF evenings
the same way--which was no doubt
true; but all the same Ill bet q hat
they went away commenting on what
a pair OF sights we looked and all like
that