"PUTTING DOWN A CARPET

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1757, 3 February 1888, Page 4

"PUTTING DOWN A CARPET

Not long ago .Fogg bought a new carpet, and thinking to save the expense j of laying it he told Mrs Fogg be would ) do the work himself, l Fogg and the carpet arrived home in ' the afternoon. Fogg got out of his good elothea and into tbe old suit that had been feeding the moths through the winter. He armed himse'f with tacks , and hammer, with a yird stiok, a two 1 foot rule, a carpenter's tqu«re, a ten foot 1 pole and a tape measure. First he unrolled the cirpßt, spread It out to cover the fl or, wa'ked over it two or three times, pulled it here aud twitched it there, puckered hit mouth, drrugatei bii forehead and was half a diz n times I on the point of asking Mrs Fogg's aivxs, 1 and would have done it only he knew it ] would please her too well. ' •• Of course »." he suddenly exclaimed, j as one who recognises the f >roe of a new j Inspiration. ] Then he took his measuring impediment*, one after the oE'ier, and then altogether, and proceeded to gut the exact dimenshni if the room, with all its angles, recesses, projections aud corners. Next he sat down and drew an elaborate diagram of the premises. " Now," said he, jumping np brisklr, "I can go to work in a business like way." Taking his diagram he proceeded to tbe scene of action. He measured here and . yard-stioked and ten -poled in every direction. He labored long and well ; he tipped the carpet, unravelled tbe edges, ponnded his nails quite as liberally as the tacks and ottered language quite shocking, and when he got through — we have Mrs Fogg's word for it— 4| that oarpet was all askew." It was, as the same authority expressed it, " a sight to behold " Fogg himself remarked that he never taw auoh a carpet in all his life. There wasn't any shape to it. He was all right ; of eonrse it it all the carpet's fault in cases of this kind. "Mrs F. said nothing further than " Well, I wouldn't bother about it any more to-night, D*n!el. You are tired out and bad better go to bid." Next morning Mrs Fogg, without •topping to change her apparel, went to work to see what she could do. She began at the beginning by undoing all that her lord and master had done Then •he took a string, measured across the room, and down its length, soil! quislng mean while about "so much aud half a finger," " three times and two fingers onoe and a little bit over," with various other equally unintelligible markers. Then she got down on her knees, with hammer and tacks she had thit carptt down quloker than thought, and as smooth as her own placid brow, and she got up from her work with spirit oorufflsd and clothing unsoi'edIVhen Fogg came home and saw the toom all pot to rights, with the carpet fitting as though it were painted on the floor, he felt proud of his wife ; yes actually proud of her. Of course he didn't say anything further than to remark that it was ea»y enough to put down u oarpet by daylight ; anybody could do that. But Mrs Fogg doesntcire. She knows that Fogg thinks she is worth her weight In gold, bat he thinks that women, like children, are not to be praised for few of •polling them. But when anybody tells you that a woman is illogical and UDimthodioal, mention thit little story about putting down a carpat.