MABIE'S TROUBLES.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 15 September 1904, Page 6

MABIE'S TROUBLES.

Mrs. liable had noticed diking their days of courtship that Mable was always intensely interested in whatever she might happen to be doing and that he was fertile in the matter of suggestion. One day, for instancehe found her engaged on seme embroi.-ieiy and at once proceeded to question per concerning every detail of her method of stitching. Then he proposed an improvement, and, failing to explain it to the lady to her entire satisfaction, gave her a practicii demonstration, with the result of ruining her, work" of art. That waa rather trying, britr there was worse to come and it kept coming. They kept no servant when they were first married. They had the tiniest box of a flat and there would have been no pi/iot to put a girl even if they had noeded one and had been able to afford her. Besides. Mrs. Mabie had been given one of those oldfashioned educations that include courses of cooking and scientific scrubbing and marketing, and they got along very well indeed. Bui Mabie. while his adtrtiration of hia wife's accomplishments knew no bounds, could not help feeling that there were many things in tie domain of domestic economy that required the application of a masculine intelligence for their successful execution. "I don't pretend to know sbout these things," he would say, "and 1 know that you do know all about them. If I thought that you considered me officious or meddling—"

"Ronald! At if I could think such a thing!" "I know yon don't. That's exactly what I say. Yon understand that we are all likely to fall into a rut. lam myself in my work and there is nothing more likely than that you might be able to giveme valuable pointers. It's just the same about this kitchen work. From the very fact that lam ignorant of it I am more likely sometimes to perceive the obvious thing to do than you are with all your training and experience. The beauty of the thing is thai when I point it out you at once understand my motive in doing so—to make it easier for you—and you don't fly off the handle as a narrow- • minded woman might do. Now, as to this dkhwashing. I observe that you take every •eparate dish, wash it in the soapy water, rinse it in the dear and then wipe it with your dishcloth. You do that because every woman you have ever seen washing dishes does it in exactly the same way. As the results are fairly satisfactory, you don't pause to consider that it might be done far easier and with great saving of time." "I believe you are getting tired of helping me with the dishes," said Mrs. Mabie. "Well, tell me how you would do it." "11l show yon," said Mabie. "You take a batch of them, this way, and—"

"Take care of that cake dish!" "You dump them into— Well, who'd nave thought they'd hay* smashed as easily as that?" 4&

The batch had slipped from his soapy fingers and had fallen in a crash of fragments into the sank. Bus concern over the accident was so genuine that his wife had not the heart to scold him, though the cake dish was a wedding present and one of the most valued of their possessions. She gathered up the pieces carefully and poured balm on hia wounded spirit by assuring him that the dish could be mended by an expert that •he knew of so neatly that it would be almost as good as ever. "Let me look at it," said Mabie. "I guess thafa so. I think I could mend it myself." "Ok, I wouldn't bother, dear. 11l take it around to the little china shop to-morrow." He persisted in his intention and went out that evening and bought a bottle of china cement. After about an hour's hard work he succeeded in getting the dish pieced together and sticking the tablecloth to the table, though he was not aware that Le had done this until his wife tried to remove the •loth the next morning and pulled out a leaf and upset some more china on the floor. The fabric stuck so firmly that he was convinced that the dish must have "set," although the directions said the mended articles should be allowed to remain in a cool, ■--ry place for three or four days, it certainly looked as if it had "set," but when he triumphantly knocked it against the mantelpiece to prove it the di«a fell apart on the hearth and smashed into bits.

So it went on for years, Mabie always full of new ideas for the lightening of household toil and prodigal in hia expenditure for patent household devices of every description, daunted by no failure and exnl'irgin the faintest measure of success, an\l Mrs. Mabie forbearing and sympathetic, bet with premature lines of care on her pretty fsce that may have been attributable to her husband's idiosyncrasy. ) Then the Mabies grew prosperous—that is, they enjoyed a fair measure of prosperity—and Mrs. Mabie no longer wore a kitchen apron and cooked little dinners. There were servart* ;o attend to all that. In the fim £ ' the change Mabie hardly seemed tu feel as if the joys of life had departed from him, but a realization of the fact cair.e upon Kim by degrees. He strayed down into bis kitchen now and then in an aimless sort of way, but somehow he felt that he was not welcome and that his tentative efforts to make life brighter for the heip were net appreciated. He began to lose flesh and have fits of depression that worried Mrs. Mabie, and she made him consult three or four doctors, who prescribed various remedies, none of which did any good. Not until nearly six months after that did Mi>. ?.la-b'-e guess her husband's complaint. He came in one evening with an air of having serrething OQ his mind and set :d several dr.°es on the point of speaking, but apparently thought better of it. At last he pulled from his pocket a small package from win.?') ;.."ter a curious hesitation he produced a mysterious arrangement of cog wheels arAi flanges.

"I saw this in the store to-day." he explained, as he began turning a little crank that made a strange buzzing sound. "A man was demonstrating with it, and tie way it beats an egg is simply a marvel. I sLtuid think that our cook might like to i a> t it. She probably uses a fork,as her great g;ai:dmothcr did before her. Let me show- yon how it works, my dear. I know yon wuuid have liked it." He sighed ami turned the crank r.g?.in. "Thcte were happy days when T used to help you around the kitchen, weren't '.' ■> ■•':" be a>krd, smiling brightly, at ?.! .-. M.ii.ie ex;- '?.. .--ed in an ecstasy of a; t::e i i-.u.V.y of the egg beaUr. "1 ani af:aid our vook is rather a conservative woman, bat s'.e ought to be glad to have this. Don't you think she might?" "I « ouid think so, indeed," repute" Mrs. enthusiastically. "I'm going J.-. >ko ir -"own :o her this minute. It's won-.l ; ;::I —ami nothing like fche jrork of mesi bcutcr* one sees." She returned after a shert re petted that the cook was overjoyed rr! grateft:" beyond measure, and Mibie v.„ Tre like nis old cheerful self rVu e\t:.i:>:; .!•: ";? lad been for months. © \c--r Mrs. Mibie has giver, him a --Li - " -_ ■h to a-nr.se himself with auei taty . get : er. and there is no more coi.teri . •jan anywhere thai. Mabie.—C'aieago L"a:i '■Jews.