The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-02-01


GA your face and you
hate your fellow
man and the powder You put on your
complexion resolves itself into can,
ming little marbles of dough-
Anyhow, Tom and | should have
known better than to rent our fat
furnished when We moved away. Or
else | never should have come back
TO pack up the furniture. We should
have let the fiat remain a glad mem.
DRY in all its original glory Then
should have been spared the sight OF
my best Bokhara rug In the passage
way between the kitchen and dining
room and my best vase being used as
an ash receiver! ! saved all my ten
cent pieces for six months to encom-
pass the purchase Of that Vase-and
then the tenant, who wore diamonds
and said she loved 'Vogner' music. said
she couldn't find anything In the
house she dared give her husband 10
use for ashes until she stumbled ON
that cheap little colored-glass thing
on the mantel She said she thought
colored glass vulgar on the whole
didn't /?
Il don't know why It is that the
most vigorously moral persons, on
renting somebody elses home fur
nished, at once become gladsomely ir.
responsible heathana
still, / think l could have stood II
all II 1t hadn't been for the picture of
Washington Crossing the Delaware
| didn't own 1.-THE tenant did. I
didn't even know 1t was in the fiat. I
was too much engaged in waiting on
the misanthropic man who had ar
rived with what seemed like lumber
yard and an excelsior factory TO crate
my own pictures for shipping
Mournfully | carted them in and
deposited them about him in a circle
Ike a funeral pyre ! felt that way
because, OF course, | didn't know
whether ever should see them again
except in small fragments. This NOV
Ing Is so uncertain. But the packer
was good man at heart and assured
me that he would do his best.
And he did. Such layers of excel
sior, such bracing and wadding Of
corners | never hope to see again. 1
dwell upon this particularly in view
OF what happened later. That man
toiled for hours-and ! was paying
him for his time He tugged and
pounded and nailed and tied and
stuffed excelsior till finally that huge
crate was as solid as brick. I
don't believe you could have got pin
Inserted in It. for there wasn't a crew.
ice big enough anywhere 1t was a
triumph OF packing.
Just al the man paused before
driving the last nail to wipe the sweat
from his brow. the tenant tore nadlH
into the kitchen where we were. She
was a little woman and she hoped
around like distracted chicken.
Where, she shrieked. where Ia
my Washington! My Washington
Crossing the Delaware?"'
The packer and gazed stupidity at
each other. ] think by this time the
excelsior had got into our brains.
l dunno, ma'am.' the packer STAN.
mered, after staring wildly into the
sink and under the kitchen table. Is
he dog or sat?
Don't try TO act innocent. cried
the tenant, shaking her finger at him.
1t was my Washington that my great.
aunt brought from New Hampshire as
present the year all OF us children
had the measles and she came TO
visit pa! set it down by the radi.
ator, right here-and it's gone! You've
put 1t in that box and you've Just got
to unpack it,
There was an Agonized instant in
which the packer swayed Imply and
hung across that huge box like a rag
When he got his breath he said he'd
be everlastlngly something or other II
ne did! Unless he got paid for 1t!
The tenant had fierce eyes. | muir
INJURED few weak. temporizing things
such as that I would send the picture
back after / unpacked the box at its
destination. even suggested buying
her another Thereupon she sxplod.
ed. She said had no feelings and
that she was going to have her origi!