•18 



-^HE AMEBIOAN BEE KEEPER. 



Jannar 



THE HUSBAND'S SOLILOQUY. 



When we clean house, I'm homele.KS for a week. 



When we clean lioase, my life is cold and bleak. 

 My wife she wci ks .-iw: v 

 And "airs the hous: " :[ll day. 

 Oh, what a disari;',y 

 When we clean house -I 



When we clean house, woe fath-omloss l3 mine. 



The things are shook and li;-:i:r u-)on a line. 

 I canniit find my d -ihcs, 

 And where my i;;( '. s.luium goes 

 The future only shows 

 When we clean hou.so. 



When we clean house, I feel that I have sinned. 

 When we clean house, we mostly live on Wind. 

 We have our little snacks 

 And dine on beats and whacks 

 And soap and carpet tacks 

 When we clean house. 



—Detroit Free Press. 



GREATEST OF THREE. 



He was first of all her husband's 

 friend and then her own, and this is 

 the story of liow she saved him iu a 

 time of great danger and stood herself 

 on the brinli of another and greater 

 peril. 



Evey Lancaster was one of those wo- 

 men who marry men they averagely 

 love and are faithful wives and devoted 

 mothers so Vug as passion, going down 

 the country lane of their peaceful lives, 

 passes them by on the other side. She, 

 perhaps, loved her husband more than 

 these women usually do, but then she 

 was made of sterner stuff, and where 

 there is more to conquer there is more 

 to suffer Small blame to her, since 

 heaven had made her charming. Small 

 blame to Edward Yereker, her hus- 

 band's friend, since he found her so, and 

 he himself as goodly a mau as you 

 would meet on any summer's day. Her 

 husband. David Lancaster, was a good- 

 ly man, too, and worthy of her and of 

 Edward Yereker, his friend. 



But there were three of them, and 

 three is an evil number concerning men 

 and women. 



It was during the summer of 189:] 

 that Edward Yereker and Evey, bin 

 friend's wife, began to be more than 

 friends. He was staying with the Lau- 

 casters down in Surrey in their pretty 

 little red house on the edge of the pret- 

 ty little Lluo river, aud David was go- 



j.ngup auci cijwn to Jjoudon every day 

 becau.-e it v,as yet early, and the vari 

 ous vacations and holidays had not be 

 gun. So he ai:d she were left a goo( 

 deal on one another's hands. Satai 

 found mischief, not for those idL 

 hands, bat idle eyes, for that summe 

 one's hands remained in one's lap an( 

 it was too hot even to talk, but it is a 

 easy to look at one's neighbor as to star 

 blanldy into space, and eyes can do i 

 great deal by themselves, take it alto 

 gether. 



So these two sat in the shady gardei 

 under the big cedars and looked at om 

 another for want of something better t< 

 do and found the occupation suffice fo: 

 all the ir needs. 



Evey Lancaster was a good woman— 

 by nature, not by art. I mean she wai 

 naturally good and had not become s< 

 by trying very hard. She had been wel 

 brought up; she read decent books, and 

 therefore, only a few, and she mean 

 every word of her share in the mar 

 riage service. 



But, alas and alas, she was a woman; 

 and a pretty one, and Edward Verekei 

 was good looking and a man, thougl 

 somewhat unusually moral and possess 

 ed of a .sense of honor. Moreover, thej 

 both loved David. But David was awaj 

 all day, and — I mistrust June and the 

 devil in a green garden! 



I don't know that anything would 

 have come of it if tragedy had not step- 

 ped in; Adelphi tragedy, battle, murdei 

 and sudden death in one of its most r,p- 

 palling forms in the shape of hydropho- 

 bia. 



Evey and Edward had been unneces- 

 sarily energetic that day. Perhaps they 

 both uncomfortably realized that sit- 

 ting under the trees saying nothing was 

 becoming a little exciting. At any 

 rate Evey went to the gunroom and 

 broui;;bt out a Smith & Wesson of her 

 husband's, and they set up a mark iu 

 the meadow outside the garden, and, 

 having prudently removed the cows, 

 practiced shooting in the cool of the 

 day. They shot very badly, but (hey 

 had to look at the target, and that was- 

 comparative safeiy. They got tired of it 

 at last, and she sat down under one of! 

 the great oak trees flanking the garden 

 with the revolver in her lap, while he 

 sauntered across the grass to rearrange 

 the somewhat shaky tareet. 



