THE BUREAU DRAWER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2976, 8 January 1881, Page 3

THE BUREAU DRAWER.

man who will invent a a bureauwhich will move out and in with- ■> »• 'eh will not only secure a fortune, n\ v,i-r ttain to an eminence in history -ot i ~<>./.d to the greatest warriors. '.■''α-rf .-.'nothing, perhaps (always cxi, stove-pipe), that will so exaa;nan as a bureau-drawer which shut. It is a deceptive article. 1' .tart off all right; then it pauses a- nd while the other swings in as ia.jjf jean. It is the custom to throw le weight of the person against £$• ■■-, i which sticks. If any one has ed in closing a drawer by so he will confer a favor by sending ■ess to this office. We have seen ;lo tuls several times, and then run from the other side of the room, jump with both feet against the latsj end. This doesn't appear to 'er the purpose any better ; but it is / satisfying. Mrs Holcomb was ,ing to shut a bureau-drawer on Satur- ' morning; but it was an abortive *t. Finally she burst into tears. -. Mr Holcomb told her to stand c, and see hina do it. * "Zou see," observed Mr Holcomb with ': dignity, " that the drawer is all That's what makes it stick. 'anybody but a woman would see at that to move a drawer standing in iodtion would be impossible. I iring out this other end even with aer—so ; then I take hold of both ~ and, with an equal pressure from hand, the drawer moves easily in. dreadful thing moved readily forrd for a distance of nearly two inches; it stopped abruptly, " Ah !" observed Mrs Holcomb, beginniog to look happy again. Mr Ilolcomb very properly made no response to this ungenerous expreseion , V'but he gently worked each end of the drawer to and fro* but without success. Then he pulled the drawer all the way out, adjusted it properly, and started it carefully back ; it moved as if it was on oiled wheels. Mr Holcorab smiled. Then it stopped. Mr Holcomb looked solemn. "Perhaps you ain't got the ends adjusted," suggested the unhappy Mrs Holcomb. Mr Holcomb made no reply. Were it for en increased flush in h> face, it

might have been doubted whether he beard the remark at all. He pushed harder at the drawer than, was apparent to her; but it didn't move. He tried to bring it back again ; bat it would not come.

" Are you sure you have got everything out of here you want ?" he finally asked, with a desperate effort to appear composed. " Oh ! ihaCx what you are stopping for, ia it ? But you needn't; I have got what I wanted; you can shut it rignt up." Then she smiled a very wicked smile. He grew redder in the face, and set his teeth firmly together, and put all his strength to the obdurate drawer, while a hard look gleamed in his eye. But it did not move, He pushed harder.

" Ooh, ooh !" he groaned. " I'm afraid you haven't got the ends adjusted," she maliciously suggested. A scrowl settled on his face, while he strained every muscle in the pressure. " What dumb fool put this drawer together, I'd like to know ?" he snapped out. She made no reply ; but she felt that she had not known such happinese since the day she stood before the altar with him, with orange blossoms in her hair.

" I'd like to know what in thunder you've beeen doing to this drawer, Jane Holcomb ?" he jerked out. 11 1 ain't done anything to it," she replied. "I know better," he asserted. " Well, know what you please, for all I care," she eympathisingly retorted. The cords swelled up on his neck, and the corners of his mouth grew white.

" I'll shut that drawer, or I'll know the reason of it!" be shouted; and he jumped up and gaveit a passionate kick. " Oh my ?" she exclaimed.

He dropped on his knees again, and grabbed hold of the knobs, and swayed and pushed at them with all his might. Bnt it didn't move.

" Why in Heaven's name don't you open the window ? Do you want to smother me ?" he passionately cried. It was warm, dreadfully warm. The perspiration stood in great drops on his face, or ran down into his neck. The birds eang merrily out the door, and the glad sunshine lay in golden sheets upon the earth ; but he did not notice them. He would have given five dollars if he had not touched the accursed bureau. He woaid have given 10 if he had never been born. He threw all his weight on both knobs. It moved then. It went to its place with a suddenness that threw him from his balance, and brought bis burning face against the bureau with force enough to skin his nose, and fill his eyes with water to a degree that was blinding. Then he went out on the back-stoop and eat there for an hour, scowling at the scenery.—Danbury Newsman.