Year: 1872

A father, not very far from here, read in the
paper the other morning that the "Utica girls
who want their beaux to go home the same
night they call, pull string at the proper hour
which reverses picture, on the back ofwhich
appear the words, "Ten O'Clock is my bed time"


This father, who has daughter given to late
hours when certain youth sits up and helps
her keep them, thought to try this Utica plan,
SO he wrote in large characters, on the back of
a huge portrait of George Washington, this in
scripton


"l0 O'CLOCK is sALLIE's BEDTIME"
Then he arranged the picture so that when he
attached string to the frame, he could reverse
1t from his bed chamber. But when Sallie en-
tered the room an hour later, her pthetic eye
was outraged by observing the portrait of
George hanging slightly out of plumb, so to
speak, and in adjusting it her fathers little
game was revealed in all its subtle ingenuity


Sallie was not a Utica girl, however, so she
just went to work and neatly ehaced the figure
"O," leaving the al" standing solitary and up
right--which you will observe, made few
hours difference in her bedtime That night,
as usual, Sallie received visit from her young
man-which his front name it was Henry-and
her paternal parent attached his string to q.
WIS portrait, and retired to his downy couch.


About ten o'clock, while Henry and Sallie
were deeply absorbed in some knotty problem,
with their heads so contiguous that you couldn't
insert piece of tissue paper between them,
the Father of his Country suddenly turned his
face to the wall as if he vas ashamed to gaze
upon such doings.a Henry, with sudden start,
glanced at the picture, and saw the hand
writing on the wall, as it were, read zone o.
clock is Sallie's beotime.".' Then Henry look
ed an interrogation in his eye, which was part
ly dispelled by the fair maid murmuring at is
all right" Henry said of course it was all
rfght-that he had long known one o'clockwas
her bed time and ne thought it was plenty
late enough for young girl to be out OF bed,
but what business, he said, had General Wash
ington's portrait to be Topping about in that
way Then Salle explained,-and the twain
resumed work on the problem, Henry putting
his arms around Eallie to prevent her from
falling off the chair


Meanwhile, the old man was listening for
she front door to open, and his would-be SON.
in-law's footsteps pattering over the pavement,
with the toes of his boots pointing from the
house. These sounds not falling upon his ears,
and thinking maybe the old thing didn't work
right, be gave the string another pull, and
George w again faced the audience. Then he
listened but he heard no footsteps,-nothing
but peculiar sound, something resembling the
popping Of champagne corks.


Then he grew cross, and gave the string an
other jerk, causing G. W., to turn about with
violent suddenness, just as he was dreadfully
out of humor, too.


And still all is quiet below-excspt that pop
ping sound.


Then the string was pulled again-and again
and again-indicating that the old fellow was
just ready to explode with rage. And for fully
fifteen minutes did he have the portrait of the
man who could not tell a lie turning excited
fip-faps and things on the wall, like be-
witched gymnast, until he fell asleep exhausted
f-Sallie's father fell asleep, not the portrait.


Henry kissed Sallie good night at one o'clock
in the morning, remarking as he did so, that it
would seem like long long, weary year, ere
he would see her again-because, you know,
he didn't expect to see her again until the even
ing of that day.


The next morning her father examined that
portrait, and when he fully understooI the stu
alton, he was panied. He shed silent tear,
detached the string, sponged out the nscrip-
tion, and walked away with the weigH of fifty
five years on his shoulders, that bein ; his age
He said that girl who would go bac on her
father that way, would just as lief as not dis
grace her parents by marrying Congressman.
Il [B Dadd, IN Norristooon (Pa.) Herald.