The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-03-12
(The End.)
A POT OF PAINT.

The Master Of the House Gets the
Decorating Fever.
"Tip the cat out of that rocker and
make yourself comfortable said MIS-.
Weeden, Hospitality. "You look kind
of used up. Spring cleaning"
Mrs. Lipscombe leaned far back and
settled the dispossessed cat In her lap.
$50 the family say" she assented,
Though 1 think myself it's nothing in
the world but Joe's latest performance.
Joe generally gets the painting fever
when we women get the scrubDing
fever: but seems as if this season he
took it extra hard. He bought pot OF
paint Saturday, and started In. F1rst
he did the window-boxes and the fnd1a-
rubber tree tub; that was all right
Then he did the clothes poles. 1 wasn't
particularly grateful when they weren't
haIf-dry for Monday wash; still, they're
an improvement. Then he did the two
garden seats, and got so interested he
forgot, and sat down on the one he'd
Just done while he finished up the other
Well, those trousers were pretty far
gone, and never did like check. any
way. If he'd stopped there-but he
didn't. There was some paint left, and
he was bound to use it up.
''The girls planned long ago to have
a party and some music as soon as the
cleaning was done, and the parlor
spandy clean and fresh. Twas set for
tonight; and this noon Linda went in
to fix up. Well, she gave kind Of wild
screech, followed by sounds like whOop-
ng-cough, and Bessy and l came flying
to see what was wrong. Bessy gave
one look, and off she went whooping
and gurgling and giggling worse than
Linda; and the pair of them kept me
so busy scolding and coaxing and slap
ping backs and ordering Now, girls.
stopv that didn't really take in what
| it was all about till just as they were
beginning to quiet down. Then my eyes
| lit on the mantelpiece again, and, If
you'll believe it, off l went, worse than
either of them!
"You know those two plaster busts on
| the two sides of the Misunderstanding
| Fart and Beethoven, three-quarter life
size? Well, Joseph had painted those
There they perched confronting us-off
again, all three of us together, gurgling
and whooping and choking and weeping
like idiots-Mozart smiling jauntily and
Beethoven scowling like thunder-cloud.
and both of them bright greenv
Emily! No" burst out Mrs.
Weeden.
Louisa! Yes!" rejoined Mrs. Lips
combe. "He means to bronze them
| later; but when he bronzed a Milton
once, the white kept showing through
in thin places, so he thought this time
he'd put dark coat under. Green is
all right, he says, because bronze is al
ways streaky with green when it's real.
so if green should show through the
bronzing it would only be more natural.
But they've got to dry before they can
be bronzed; and meanwhile they can't
be touched or lifted; and the partv's
tonight! Well, as Linda says. orr
decorations are unique, and the onlv
thing to do is to take it as joke. But
I was pretty tired this morning, and
suppose l really did laugh myself into
Mysteries. 1t sounds silly, but if you'd
come suddenly on two pea-green Inn
| mOrtalS-'
| II never had Mysteries in nv life y
announced Mrs. Weeden, firmly, land
I'm going to walk back with Won when
you go and take peek myselfn
Youths Companion.