| Show A FIRESIDE eire FIRE SIDE STORY I 1 I 1 AS TOLD BY THE POKER the hearth rug ought to tell this story because she had more to do with it than I 1 iliad had but spread out there before the fire from morning till night she thinks only of making herself comfortable for table and I 1 dare say considers it ao hardship to be shaken out other drowsy self seif sufficiency even once in twenty four hours so if tha story is never told till the hearth rug takes to storytelling nobody I 1 fancy is ever likely to be the better for listening to it the fender I 1 am bound to add is very lit tie tle more inclined to elert esert himself unnecessarily As for the tongs and shovel they are not quite so indolent and I 1 wish them joy of the compliment the hare has not much to be proud of in being able to run faster than the tho snail I 1 dont think to much of my own activity therefore when I 1 say but for an occasional waking up on my part we wo should be fairly considered a si siew slew w lot what I 1 mean by all this is that it is not out of conceit of my own ability that I 1 now put myself forward to tell this story I 9 I 1 do not BO so simply because I 1 am the only one of our fireside companionship panion ship with energy enough in his composition to take so much trouble for the benefit and barnin warning of domineering wives in particular and ana in the interest of husbands in general gen leral and I 1 adhere to my original opinion that the hearth rug ought to have told it should the observation I 1 am going to make at starting happen to be i repeated within hearing of any individual ul following the same calling as myself he will I 1 am sure understand in a moment my feelings when I 1 say that my mistress faco face in fact her person altogether is such a one as a drawing poker reflects with warm and invariable satisfaction As to her other good qualities I 1 shall not express my own opinion which might be open to the suspicion of partiality tia lity but shall rather report that of mr john thomas rhomas the foo footman in his own words uttered one morning while be he was in the act of putting coals oh the fire a moment after she had left the room by george masters a lucky man to have such a wife if I 1 was sure amelia catharine upper housemaid equally good looking and well conducted would make me such another blow me if I 1 marry her without even asking to see her savings bank book mr air john thomas ead had lived in many other families and was therefore qualified to speak knowingly on such a subject my bry own impression is that his admiration of his mistress in her ca capacity of wife of his master is abunda abundantly aly justified just Wed oed of mr silver my master I 1 have hane only to say that though he is a member of the stock stack exchange and anything but a saint he certainly is not a bad sort of gentleman he uses me a little roughly at times but if it were not that in doing so he makeshia ma makes keshis his wife start in in her chair I 1 should not object to be so treated should rather like it in fact that the they y are a thoroughly happy pair is what any one would soon discover who had my opportunities for observing them together a privilege I 1 have used judiciously cious clou sly siy ly and without a suspicion of impertinence I 1 hope I 1 may safely say for very little short of ten years to be precise from about the seventh day after their return from their honeymoon trip when my mistress took formal possession of her home and sent my rusty predecessor travelling velling tra on the way of all old irons premising that from my recumbent position on on the fender I 1 saw and heard hear d everything I 1 am about to relate this is my story fires had not yet begun in the draw ing room but from the force of habit I 1 suppose mrs silver when there was no company would gould set reading or at work by the side of the fireplace while her husband went forarile for a aride ride after dinner which he did very often in the summer twilight one evening while thus seated alone I 1 noticed that she paused reflectively and presently I 1 heard beard her say no no ill not remind him to say to him my love for the first time in ten years you have for forgotten gotton the return of our wedding day might sound like a reproach no neither tears or re belong to a day from which date ten years of tranquil happiness I 1 am sure his forgetfulness arises from no want of love iove for me active and occupied as he is I 1 know how many other thin P things ieda he has to think of if he had remembered well it would have been very delightful however since he has chanced to forget let me we reflect that his memory might be as retentive as that of the almanac and yet ho he might not love me no if I 1 avenge his forgetfulness it shall be in my own way by making the fireside of which he I 1 is so fond more than usually pleasant to h hio him I 1 this elenina ev even enina ing 11 mrs S silver liver smiled and resumed he her hor r work which that evening was a hand some smoking cap she was embroiders ing for master but I 1 certainly saw the beginning of a tear in one of her eyes the one nearest to me the other day she continued meditatively he was regretting thal that that the old custom of having hot suppers had passed away ive a good mind to surprise him with one tonight to night yes I 1 will do it but what shall it be what is he especially fond of or I 1 beg here to allow to say that though I 1 have never had any other mistress than the lady whose behavior I 1 am now describing a poker who for ten years yeara had been in the very best middle class society and who has assisted at the reading aloud of all the thle fashionable novels and a few of the most interesting divorce cases is able to understand the exact difference between the best and the worst of wives all ail ali ah I 1 know what I 1 will order cried my mistress after a long iong pause a lobster rissole ris sole a roasted chicken and a lemon pudding that shall be my great revenge 11 she was just about to ring when the drawing room door was suddenly opened and a lady friend of others hers too much agitated to stand on ordinary caremon ceremony flounced into the room exclaiming in tones which reminded me of the grating of a file with which inharmonious noise nolde I 1 had been painfully familiar at an earlier part ofay of my career my aly dear I 1 knew you were at home so I 1 came up only for a moment dont disturb yourself ive no time to sit down im boiling over with indignation dear me replied my mistress quite as much on your account as my own my love cried mrs throwing herself on to the ottoman in the centre of the room and untiring eing her bonnet strings almost fiercely reely its very good of you sou im sure 11 said my mistress you may smile my love but its no smiling matter for all that I 1 can assure you cried mrs I 1 I 1 not tragic I 1 hope I 1 1 I dont know that replied mrs whisking her shawl out of the way and plunging her hand into the pocket of her dress do you know this lia lla handwriting nd writing mrs held out a letter to my mistress as if it had been a cup of poison I 1 ive no doubt its my husbands said my mistress without taking it out of mrs Too veys vess evis hand read bead it my dear read it cried that indignant lady pray excuse me I 1 gee see it is addressed to mr said my mistress gent iya ly oh cried mrs take my word for it some day repent of or indulging in such silly scruples A husband and wife are one and the wife cannot too often or too emphatically remind her husband of the fact at least not refuse to listen to the contents of this atrocious document I 1 dont think any refusal would have induced mrs to defer the reading of the letter ietter for a single moment she read 11 my aly dear job the supper party of to tonight night married and single may count on me even to the extent of an adjournment to cremorne I 1 shall botsay dot not say anything about the affair to my wife who would be fancying all sorts of dreadful consequences inevitable there my dear what do you say to that demanded mrs re folding the letter with a spiteful jerkiness of action and putting it back into her pocket as if for further use isay I 1 say that I 1 am much obliged to mr silver for the thoughtful care he had taken to keep me in il norance horance of what he fancied it might be unpleasant for me to know mrs gave herself so sharp a twist on the ottoman that I 1 wondered she did not lose her balance and tumble off really Ec ally aily my dear she cried you I 1 must say make my blood curdle in my veins you appear so wilfully blind pat mat positively if I 1 know you nad pad been married to the man for ten years I 1 should fancy you were still in ave iove love with your husband your imagination would not lead you in the least astray answered my mistress quietly musing 1 I dare say I 1 ou ought ap ht to be very much muel much ashamed to m make ake such a confession but dont for a moment suppose that my love for my husband is of the tile high romantic kind it never was aas that he did not run away in a midnight storm of thunder and lightning and marry me in spite of all the world his parents and mine included time if it has mada me acquainted quain ted with llis his faults has lias also taught me to bear with them without disgust irn impatience p allence or weariness there is nothing thi g to be surprised at in the continuance of such aslope as mine entirely unromantic jog trot you see such buch as it the sort of love I 1 now now feel for my husband I 1 hope to feel for min him when my hair is a gray without blushing to confess 1 fc 11 my dear she cried 1 I can hardly t rust trust myself to say what I 1 think but this I 1 will say if any wife ever went the way to spoil her husband you are going n exactly that way now patience with iti this hla hia faults indeed mr I 1 daresay would be delighted to find me patient with his and heaven knows he has enough of them but that is not my nature I 1 know my duty as a woman of intellect a little better than that why my love I 1 have just come from havin bavin having baving g a scene with him about that shocking letter of your husbands I 1 made him confess everything that after supper the whole party are to go to cremorne are they mr I 1 said you dare to go and ill follow you what abat is the result mr has learned that vlen when I 1 say a thin thing I 1 mean it he has promised me he will vill not think of going after my prohibition do my love let me give you sonie bonie home some advice on the way of managing husbands i oh certainly if it will afford you any satisfaction to do so replied my mistress with a good natured little laugh you wont laugh my dear said mrs when you find out some day that another woman has carried off your husbands affections and not only his affections but his fortune for what commonly happens now H however wever I 1 see plainly enough you are prepared to despise my advice and to laugh at my solemn warning so be it but take my word for it you yli find what cause you have for repentance 1 I hope not really my deai deal you seem to imagine my husband a second lovelace you forget that he is not a man of twenty TO BE CONTINUED sonny does your father take a paper yes sir two eflem one belongs to mr smith and ae the other to fo mr thompson I 1 hook em the steps items as regular as can be i THERE was once a clergyman in new hampshire noted for bis his long sermons and indolent habits how is it said a man to his neighbor that parson the laziest man living writes those in terminable sermons why said the other he probably gets to writing j and he is too lazy to stop THE salmon fishing season which has just closed in england was the best experienced perien perlen ced eed for many years the rivers are now swarming with breeding fish sni ani and with careful watching a still greater improvement in the fishing is exp eap expected ce ad for next year JP PRINCE arthur having nd now reached his bis sixteenth year Queen Victoria has determined that he shall enter th eRoyal military academy of woolwich as a gentleman cadet cadett the prince of wales is a general in thearty th earmy and colonel of the tenth huers Hu rears aSara prince alfred is a captain in the navy and it is intended that prince arthur shall be prepared for a commission in elther either the tho engineers or artillery ROWLAND hill rode a great de dealand alfand by exercise preserved vigorous health on one occasion when asked bya bra medi cal cale friend what physician and apothecary he employed to be always well replied my imy physician has been a horse and my apothecary an ass |
