The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1911-12-02

udy.
"'With everything done!' he roar'
at me In protest. Why do you thinl
we want to stick around here will
nothing to do and everything packed
and the fireplace cleaned out so We
can't have a fire and the rooms full
of porch furniture? It's ridiculous!'
1--WE will leave Friday, Henry
tell him soothingly.
Then everybody works like mad.
Thursday morning Henry always
comes in dragging off his work gloves
and sits down with a thump.
well, he says, I've finished up out.
side. I've covered the flower beds with
a mulch Of leaves and %burlapped the
honeysuckle vines and spaded up the
garden, I've put away the hose and
laid a board over the chimney
go right up and take 1t off,
tell him, severely, How do you sup
pose we're going to cook lunch and
dinner and breakfast and lunch again
with the chimney stopped up?'
Henry has forgotten all about the
fact that we still have to eat, so he
sheepishly chambers up on the roof
and throws the board down. 1t gets
split up for kindling by the cook an
hour later, and there never is another
that will exactly fit, so the next sea.
son we find chipmunks and mice and
other wild creatures socially room
ing in the cottage when we get there.
and are irritably disturbed at being
turned out.
"I don't see.' Henry pursues after
he has disposed of the chimney board,
why we can't take the evening train
tonight. Your trunks are all packed
"All but the curtains and soft pill
lows and the candlestick and most of
my clothes, l remind him. BY the
way, have you wrapped those dishes
for packing in the barrel?'
That keeps him occupied for, some
time. Then, too, he finds a punch bowl
that we borrowed from the Perkinsons
and forgot to return, so he has to walk
two miles with that. Then he has to
attend to the man who comes to set
out shrubs and then l tell him about
two places in the roof that leak and he
has to get asphalt and mess around
and fix them. Usually he still grum.
bles at supper time about the foolish
ness of our remaining over till next
day, but I'm sc busy fixing the canned
fruit to ship back to town, folding
away curtains and putting away
lamps that | don't mind him.
In the morning l ask Henry brisk
ly If he has remembered to take of
the window screens and take down the
porch screens, bring in the spade and
the rake and nail up the broken place
in the fence. That makes him jump
hastily and cry out: BY Georgel If
hadn't nearly forgot that!'
Then when he tries to turn of the
water and drain the pipes he breaks
q valve or something and he has to
make a special trip to the village for
help while the cook and | pile rugs
and bricks on the leaky places and get
and catch awful colds.
Usually, just as we are locking up
the house l remember that | haven't
emptied the tank Of the kitchen stove,
and that reminds Henry that he has
neglected to empty the hot
water boiler. He comes dragging in a
watering can, two flower pots and a
beaten which have been left
However, we finally lock the last
door and start. Half way to the launch
ask him If he put out the next door
neighbours cat, which had wandered
n that morning. Henry is peevish by
low and demands to know If | think
le has nothing to do but play nurse
maid to a cat, so we drop the suit
and go back and unlock the
,lace, raise all the window curtains
md search for the animal. Sometimes
We find her and sometimes we don't,
md if we don't | am haunted all win
err by the fear that she has died a lin !
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