Show Too Many Wedding Prese Presents ts 1 BY MARGARET E SANGSTER j I When Jean and Tom were married they had a remarkably fine setting out for housekeeping r father built the house and presented it to her and her mother superintended the furnishing furnish furnishing ing Everything was way on a scale of the I utmost and everything bespoke refinement and an cultured artistic taste There were hardwood h floors high ceilings ceIl cell ceIlIngs ings walls covered with paper that would make a charming background for pictures there were mirrors set indoors In Indoors indoors doors wide stairways and bits of wood woodcarving woodcarving woodcarving carving that were worthy of such young people as the two who were to live in inthe inthe inthe the house hous and End that was sayings sayin much The Tho Th rugs tapestries fine china cut cutglass cutglass cutglass glass and left nothing to desire and the curtains at the windows were ere a dream of beauty Aunt Caroline who came on for the th wedding from a bare little home in Montana a I cheque being sent her by fa father father father ther for the purpose stood transfixed with admiration Dear child she said twenty years ago I thought myself my myself myself self used to luxury but I have lived ina in ina ina a mining town as a wife so long that I J have forgotten its very alphabet I felt like the old Massachusetts deacon who when he first saw a carpet laid on a floor said sald to its owner Do you expect to enjoy all this and have heaven h ven too Do you really think Jeanie that you can be good and simple with so many lovely things around you I shall have Tom Auntie replied Jeanie eanie j blushing Ah well weH Tom may turn out a dis dig discipline discipline One never can be sure before beforehand beforehand beforehand hand about husbands Jeanie protested indignantly My dear Aunt Caroline Tom Hazel Hazelteen Hazelteen Hazelteen teen Is a perfect angel and much too good for me Come and let me show you the wedding presents As is the custom with fortunate brides Jeanie had chests of silver pearls rubles rubies and diamonds pictures statuary and books The home would be so thoroughly appointed from the beginning that It was difficult to im imagine imagine imagine agine a lack anywhere and It was probable that Tom and Jeanie would altogether miss one of the chief delights de delights delights lights of poorer couples namely seeing a home grow daily In beauty and sweetness before their eyes while they worked and saved and denied them themselves themselves themselves selves to procure this or the other coveted cov coveted coveted eted treasure They went away on their wedding journey and were gone four weeks At Atthe Atthe Atthe the end of that time they sat down to their first dinner In their own home Jeanie at one end of the table Tom op opposite opposite osite her mother had sent her own cook and waitress walt a to prepare that meal and serve gene it properly Prom From the little oysters to the final sweet through the several courses It was a dinner to satisfy an epicure The trained servants left in tho the evening even evenIng evenIng Ing and new arrived at 10 Prom From that moment mo moment moment ment trouble began box was opened with the entrance entra of Swed Swedish Swedish Swedish ish Julia on the scene She proved wasteful and incompetent She was followed speedily by colored Harriet who could cook very well but could do nothing else As Toms salary did not permit their having a parlor maid waitress and laundress and Jeanie did not care to spend all her time tune in the details of housekeeping Harriet was soon loon dismissed dis dismissed di missed and a French Fre ch woman named Hortense was installed ins led in the vacant niche Things went better for a little while until Hortense disappeared one dark night and with her part of jewelry and a contribution from the table silver I Through the coming and going of ot arriving and de departing departing departing parting domestics Jeanie tried to be cheerful and Tom looked resigned but buthis buthis buthis his temper gave signs of thin places placeR where danger signals were In order and anil hers was frayed at the edges It is provoking to have ones dainty table linen scorched ones teaspoons bent and ones finest china chipped and then to intercept pitying or amused glances from the rel t t Jeanie being a plucky American girl I eventually found a solution for her problems and worked out her own salvation sal salvation bringing to bear on her kitchen the faculties of reasoning and the sense of proportion for which she had been noted at Smith Tom learned patience and like the good fellow he Le was pock pocketed pocketed pocketed eted losses and disappointments with without without without out satirical comment But they did this most of the wedding pf were carefully packed and sent to a cafe eafe deposit vault Jeanie laid aside her costly Un linen en and used something plainer for common The best china was left l ft on the shelf and nd something that although pretty was was inexpensive became its substitute Jeanie dimin diminished diminished diminished her occasions occa tons for solicitude so The course dinners were abandoned abandon as as on the whole too elaborate for health and Tom thrived on an appetizing ap soup a roast or a steak with two vegetables v and a dessert desert of fruit biscuits and cheese By the time the first baby came Jeanie Jewlie had reconstructed her th thory ory cry of life lifo and had determined that she would not attempt at living up up to the wedding presents until her hei helus husband and had an income approximating that th of her good father It is almost a pity that so many youn young married marrie 1 people are embarrassed by the number and variety of the gifts showered on them Candlesticks and lamps are arc ar always welcome but no small house requires them in great gret profusion It is quit quit possible to have hev too much silver stIver too many dishes and too many chairs and tables The great greater er the array of things the harder U It l will be to have hae them cared c red for properly by ss s hirelings who while never having known anything of luxury in their homes take a scornful pride in demolishing g it in the homes of their thel employers A youthful housewife is often so an anxious anxious anions ious ions to entertain beautifully and to set setler sether her har ler table tab with exquisite nicety that she forgets how easy it is to let monthly bills biUs accumulate If there be over solicitude about the payment of bills and if the husbands Income prove In Inadequate adequate to their prompt settlement In Inthe Inthe inthe the first year of married life lire there is apt to be the little rift rUt within the lute It Is well to have standards and to aspire to excellence but it t Is not worth while to be worn to shreds and reduced 1 to nervous exhaustion in the th process Aunt Caroline returned to her little cottage In the mountains stronger and cheerier for her eastern trip but buthe she he was not in the least surprised when after aft r awhile Jeanie wrote her saying You were right about our of r having too many beautiful articles to look after atter T but ut you were wrong about Tom He Is Ismore ismor ismore more mor of an angel than ever Copyright 1906 by Joseph B Bowles S S |