THE JONES FAMILY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1146, 1 March 1884, Page 1

THE JONES FAMILY.

“ Jeptha, what is this ?” asked Mrs Jones, suddenly confronting that gentleman as he eat reading. “ lhat is a hairpin,” answered Jones quietly, apparently absorbed in his book.

“ Is it, indeed ?” retorted Mrs Jones, “and not one of mine either! A twisted hairpin ! May I ask what lias become of the rest of the woman ?”

“ Maria,” exclaimed Jones Ja Jpok'ng up with the fearlessness of conger us guilt, “ why these unnecessary and*disagtveable questions ? What is that hairpin to me ?” “ That is ju-t what I want to know —wiiat lam trying to find out,” said his wife, turning white around the mouth, and leaning faintly against the mantelpiece. “Where did you find it?” asked Jones, looking as if it was a Galling gun directed Inwards him. “ I f-f-found it in your overcoat pocket,” sobbed Mrs Jones, “that’s when- !” “ Then you pat it there !” suggested Jones, carrying the war into the enemy’s camp, “ I don't use hairpins ! What do you suppose 1 want of the thing ?” And he assumed an obstinately virtuous look tliat might have deceived even a woman. But it didn’t deceive Mrs Jones, who suddenly changed her tactics.

*‘ Jeptha,” she saiil in a soft, persuasive, sealskin-cloak tone,“ if you ever loved me in the s s sweet days that are past —it—it you have the least regard for me new, tell me—tell me where you got that hairpin !”

She could not have chosen a more forcible w«y of appealing to his feelings. The wretched man twined his fingers in his gray hair, dug his toes into the Amsterdam rug, and gritted his teeth as he nerved himself to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth— { ‘s’help me M’rin.” He began, with bis eyes cast down, and in a low troubled voire, that trembled with canned and condensed misery, “It was only yesterday,” he said, feeling as if it ra'ght have been a c> ntury before ; “ I had been to the restaurant 3> “ Oli ! oh 1 oh 1 you told me you never ate a mouthful all day,” interrupted Mrs Jones. “ to collect a bill owing to me,” continued Joivs in hollow speech, and as I came out out I saw something glittering on the walk, I thought of what my good m m mother had told me years before--To see a pin and let it lie You 11 come to want before you die ; To see a pin and pick it up You’ll sure to have good luck “ Maria, I had no thought of evil when I stooped down to pick up the pin, as I supposed, hut it was that miserable hairpin. I—l—l wasn’t it, Anthony?—and I picked it up—a thing any man might do with perfect impunity.” “Is that all ?” asked Mrs Jones calmly. “ That is nil,” asserted Jones with a truthful smile, “ Then where did this blonde hair come from ?’’ inquired the wife holding it up for his inspection, “Did you find this on the side walk ?” Then Jones realised that the way of the transgressor is hard, and he owned up, and really did tell the truth ; how that he stepped into a dry goods store on the avenue to get a pair of new kid gloves ; how a pretty girl buttoned them on for him with a hair-pin ; how she gave it to him because it was more convenient than a glove butti ner, and that he hoped to die if he’d know her from a side of sole leather—a story that any reasonable woman would see carried truth on the tlie face of it. Did Mrs Jones believe it ? A-hem 1 The iui"hbors complained next, morning of the racket, and said if Junes was going to rehearse private theatricals again this winter they’d compel him to move—see if they wouldn’t.