Year: 1875

/ Mr.. Busby has been married FIVE years,
and all that time he and his wife have
boarded. 1t was on the 1st of October
thathe firmly made up his mind to keer
house. A neat cottage was secured, fur
niture bought, and the two settled down
like pair of SIG doves Last Thursday
afternoon, the farmer of whom Busby
had engaged his potatoes for the winter
brought him two barrels of those excel
lent vegetables and also barrel of apples.
He knew Busby was new at the business,
and that he was good -natured man, SO
he told Mrs. Busby that he had sore
finger, and was in hurry and would not
be able to take the barrels down cellar
And he left them by the hatchway. Here
Busby found them when he came home
in the evening. Arming his wife with
the lamp. ne proceeded in no very pleas
ant frame of mind to bring the stuff in.
She held the light in the ceilarway while
he tusseled with the barrels. and, as the
wind came through the door, she was
Obliged to scree en- the light by shading it
from that side. Whenever he got a bar
rel in a particularly critical position, an
extra gust of wind would come down the
stairway, and up would come her hand
to the flame, throwing both him and the
barrel into the shade Then he would
look over his shoulder at her. and say


What in mercys name are you about,
Mary Jane?" aft'


1t was q tough job for Mr.. Busby. His
hands were tender from indoor employ
ment, and in their contact with the bar
rel were sadly worsted. The lower
chimes of the barrel would catch on the
step as he was sliding it down, and when
he let go to sec what was the trouble, it
would certainly come along of its own
accord, and butt him in the stomach with
such force as to nearly deprive him of
his breath, or it would slip on his foot
and cause him to howl dreadfully with
pain. Then he took hold of the apples.
They came dreadfully hard. He pushed
and pulled, and turned them to the left
and then to the right, and puffed and
perspired, and swore and screamed, but
he couldn't get the apples down from the
top step. He was struggling with all his
might with that barrel. His hat had
fallen off, his eyes were almost bursting
from their sockets, his breath came fast
and heavy He was below the barrel.
He had both arms around it, and was
straining with all his might to move it,
He only spoke once Then he said LII


"Why don't you come up here with
that lamp SO l can see something and
not be standing down there grinning like
an idiot o. ~ +st is
q 1t is but justice to explain that Mrs,
Busby was not grinning at all on the
contrary, it would be difficult to have
crowded as much gravity into the same
space as was expressed in her counten-
ance She stepped up the stair promptly,
Then Mr.. Busby gave desperate, mad
dening pull, and the barrel came. The
transformation from dogged, obstinate
barrel to q headstrong impetuous barrel,
was remarkable! Mr. Busby tried to
ave himself by yelling w GOSH |" but he
was too late; and the next instant, him
self, his wife, the lamp, the barrel and
the apples, in a confused mass, went re-
volving down the stairway and sprawling
across the cellar. Fortunately the hight
was extinguished at the first move. but
the lamp was broken and the contents
pretty evenly distributed over the other
objects. Mr., Busby was driven under a
wheelbarrow, and Mrs. Rusby, after being
bucked twice in the head by the barrel,
brought up with vehemence against an
old stove, knocking it completely off its
legs and smashing in the oven door.


Mrs Busby scrambled to her feet at
once.


John" she exclaimed, where are you?
are you hurt p


None of your business, came in 8