Bill Arp's Portiere

I had rat her v.o.k on a hot day than play cards or base bnll or read a senuational nove). Jt is fortúnate I for me that Ilovework, for I'llalways j 1 have a plenty of it to'do as long as i Mrs. Arp lives and her children are i nearly as bad. Right now they are waiting for me to make some octagon steps to put their ilowers on, and if ! there is any more troublesome job I 1 don't know it. It takes mathematica and scieuce i , and lots of work to make these j j gons and octagons. They saw one ■ 8omewhere and so I've got to fix it. ! I ordered a single door from the parlor to the new dining-room, and while I was gone they juggled with the ! penter and madehini put large doublé : , doors with whinnadeddles all aroUnd i i and a fine mortised lock with gilded I knobs, and of course I surrendered. The carpenterfound out the very flrst day who was running this domestic j machinery, and he acted accordiug. Not long after these doublé doors were finished there was a small, long box come from New York by express. If quilting frames had not been abolished I would have thought they were ] in the box, and so when it was sent up with the charges all prepaid I was told that it was a "poniere" - and had cost me nothing but was a presi ent from one of the boys. I stood olí at a respectful diatance and watched j them open it for I had never seen a portiere and had ome dignified curiosity. It proved to be some contraptions for that doublé door, and after they had it all fixed up and suspended to the long rod with silver hooks and parted in the middle with silver chains, it did look mighty pretty. They said it was made of shekneel or some such material and was all the j style now. 1 notice that when we have company to diñe or take tea, i and the company is on the piazza, [ they are taken through the portiere j every time, though it is nearer through ; the hall. When the bigdoorsare open and the portiere drawn gracefully aside they say it presenta a beautiful vista to look clear through the dining-room window. They alluded to the vista several timns, but I have been unable to find it. An old dilapidated kitchen that we don't use is the siijht from that window, and that is all the vista I see. Women have an eye for the beautiful, and I reverencb their taste, butsometimesit takes me a week to di3cover the aesthetic and fall into raptures over it. - Bill Arp in Atlanta Constitution.