Year: 1876

DOAAOWOA0' OOASAoAAy eAOJ dAO SASoO
pests, but the following, no doubt, is an
extreme case:


Mr.. Butterwick called in to see me
the other day, and in the course of the
conversation he said:


/ am going to move. / can't stand
those Thompsons next door to me any
longer. They are the awfullest people
to borrow things / ever saw. Coffee
and butter, and sugar and -four, |
don't mind so much, although when a
woman borrows high priced sugar and
Java coffee and sends back sand and
chickory, man naturally feels bilious
mad. But they've borrowed near ev-
erything in the house. First it's one
thing and then another, from morning
till night, right straight along.


Now there's the poker. A poker is
piece of machinery that you would
think anybody might go around and
buy, or if they couldn't afford it, they
might use fence pailing to shake up
the fire. But Mrs. Thompson seems
to banker after our poker. She bor-
rows it fifteen or twenty times day,
and last Saturday she sent for it thirty
four times. She pays a boy 81 q week
to run over and borrow that poker,
and she's used it so much that it's all
bent up like corkscrew.


Now, take chairs for instance She
asks me to lend her our chairs three
times day at every meal, and she
borrows the rocking chair whenever
she wants to put the baby to sleep.


A couple of times she sent over for
o sofa, and when the boy came back
with it he said Mrs. Thompson was
mad as thunder, and kept growing
round the house all because there
were no casters on it, and on Monday
she borrowed our wash boiler and we
had to put off our washing till
Tuesday. She did her preserving in
it, and the consequence was all our
clothes were full Of preserved peaches.
I've got on an undershirt now that I'm
mighty doubtful if I'll ever get off, it's
stuck to me so tight.


Every now and then she has company,
and then she borrows our hired girl
and all the parlor furniture once be-
cause | would not carry the piano
over for her and take down the chan
! delier, she told our girl that there
were rumors about town that was
reformed pirate.


Perfectly scandalous They think
nothing of sending over after couple
of bedsteads or the entry carpet, and
the other day Thompson says to me:


"Butterwick, does your pump log
pull up easy?"


And when I said l thought it did,
he said:


"Well, I would like to borrow it for
few days till can get one, for mines
all rotted away"


The only wonder to me is that he
didn't try to borrow the we'll along
with it.


And then on Tuesday Mrs. Thomp-
son sent that boy over to know if Mrs.
Butterwick wouldn't lend her our
front door. She said theirs was being
painted, and she was afraid the baby
would catch cold. When asked him
what he supposed we were going to do
to keep comfortable without any front
door, he said Mrs. Thompson said she
reckoned we might tack up bedquilt
or something. Aud when | refused.
the boy said Mrs. Thompson told him
| if | wouldn't send over the front door,
to ask Mrs. Butterwick to lend her a
pair of striped stockings and a horse.
| hair hustle and to borrow the coal
scuttle till Monday.


What in the name of Moses she is
going to do with the hustle and coal
| scuttIe [ can't conceive.


But they're the most extraordinary
people Last Fourth of July the boy
came over and told Mrs. Butterwick
that Mrs. Thompson would be much
obliged if she'd lend her the twins for
a few minutes. Said Mrs. Thompson
wanted EN- to suck off a new bottle
top, because it made her baby sick to
taste fresh India rubber Cheeky,
wasn't it? But that's her way.


Why, I've known her to take off
our JohnDy's pants, when he's been
playing over there with the children,
and send him home bare,legged to tell
his mother that she borrowed them
for pattern. And on Thompson's
birthday she said her house was SO
small for party that if we'd lend her
ours we might come late in the even
ing and dance with the comrsny, if we
wouldn't let on that we lived there.


Yes, sir; I'm gong to move. I'd
rather live next to lunatie asylum
. and having maniacs pouring red hot
shot over the fence every hour OF the
, day. Indeed | would