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Show Stops Alone tho Path That Load3 to Housokooplng. Tho Labor in f-ooklnr; Around a Little 1' ' l'robloms of 31a Pitchers Mlsap- lirolkonslons ul i Truck Load , ' i J. ' of Packages. "M . The husband begged her to buy pro- ,' visional utensils, so that they could move Into their house certainly in another an-other day. It was in trembling hope I' ' - that he returned home on the following evening, tfo found his wife lying upon the bed. ' . "I've such a headache!" fchc sighed wearily. The husband looked around the room. , "Upon the mantelpiece ho snw the two gloss pitchers of the day before, und at their side a vinegar cruet, lie eyed the cruet hard. "Humph'." he grunted, with strong "! disapproval in his tone. ? His wife's eyes had followed his. At , .. this reproach he arose proudly from her bed, took him by the 'arm, nnd led him to the window. There was tobo . 1 seen a heavily laden truck, from which men nnd boyH were busily engaged in carrying packages of all shapes and sizes into the. house. She pointed to "There," she said, with reproach and I . a headache and forgiveness and unrec ognized merit nil mingled, "those are kitchen things." "With the unreasonableness of men, ' lie bounded from one extreme to the " other. , "G rent Caesar 1" heexclaimed,"youn . ' ( bankrupting mo." 1 The patience, of the woman, though tried sorely, was not upset for a moment.- She displayed a large roll of bills. "You mi.sjudge me," she said, tapping . , him affectionately upon the check. iYou have not yet learned to know your wife. There are 07 different packages ' there, and for them T have, spent less than $5, n few cost ten cents apiece, and ' ' , , .the others coot five cents. So," she add ed, with a little pride, "you aw I am not so extravagant as you thought." Tnrdon me, dear," said the husband, both penitently and anxiously. "Then tlie kitchen is furnished and we can move in to-morrow?" "Xo-o-o," replied the wife, "not quite yet. You see, these things are only some- of the things we need. Pots and kettles and pans," she added, with a sweet smile, "cost more than five or ten cents." ' The husband sighed and - resigned himself to the boarding house for another an-other week. The history of what has occurred since then is not worth giving in detail. You can see the wife in the stores any day at this time. She is still patient, Industrious ond sweet nntured. The husband sometimes accompanies her. He began going with her while he still retained the impression that manly man-ly decision could hasten the slow, tortuous tor-tuous process of shopping. He still is Iter companion nowadays at times, because be-cause ho is possessed of the. notion ' that it may some time bo possible for .him to discover how she spends her timo at the stores, but he knows that it Is beat that he should not accompany , hex. The twb natures of tho male and tho female grate. The man cannot grasp the subtlo distinctions that are seized by intuition by the finer sense of the woman. For instance, one day she showed him a four-quart saucepan. "Tho price of this," she said, "is 49 cents. Now in the other store we can get a saucepan like it for 47 cents. Now, which one ought w'e to buy?" f "Tho other," said tho husband, I promptly. "But," objected the wife, "they are different, and I don't know whioh is tho best." "Buy both," said the husband, promptly. "But," objected tho wife, "we need only ono of them." "Flip a cent," said the husband, k promptly. t "And perhaps get tho worst of it," ald the wife. S "Then don't buy either," said the 1 man, promptly. 1 Of course tho proper solution of the W, difficulty was to go to a third store and find ft- third saucepan of a third price '- ; i nniwfcimiiniiiwiiiMi miuw iwmww WMWH III and quality; but U never occurred to the husband to suggest such a thing, and as for th wife sshc was so confused by tho unkind behavior of her husband that she always failed to remember the proper procedure in such oases until she got hom Then she was accustomed accus-tomed to tell her lnr.band when he had been mistaken, and intervals of coolness cool-ness would arise between them. So the husband has given up accompanying ltis w ifo to the stores. Six weeks have passed nnd the litis-lxuid litis-lxuid no longer ib1: his wife every evening if sh? thinks she will be able to get. the few things still lacking on tho morrow, so that they will be able to move into their new house on the day following. He has schooled himself to a point where lu Is now resigned to making his dinner from one small piece of beef, and no longer dreams of the beauties of housekeeping. At the same time hopes have begun to spring up. His wife is talking of a trip to the south. "I'm so tired," she says, and I really need to go somewhere to rest." That makes him think that the shopping shop-ping must be nearly over and that the next move she makes will be to begin housekeeping. N. Y. Sun. |