 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
“MEMENTO MORY.”
Before Old Roger left boarding at No. 47, he forfeited
all regard of the quiet inmates of the house by the
perpetration of the following atrocity, which was the
true reason of his leaving, and not the quality of the
bread-pudding, as many believed. Mory, the Kilby
street clerk, got married, and moved off. It had always
been a custom with Mory to pile his dishes up in a
curious manner, after he had used them, — cups, saucers,
plates, in a heterogeneous heap. A day or two after
his departure from the house, Old Roger was observed
piling his cup and saucer and plates in the same manner,
and he took those of his neighbor to add to the pile.
The boarders watched him silently, in much surprise,
and one of them, a little bolder than the rest, ventured
to ask him what he was doing that for.
“O,” said Roger, very placidly, crowning the pile he
had made with the cover of the sugar-bowl, “I am only
erecting a memento Mory.”
Mr. Blifkins, the serious man, exhorted the more
volatile boarders on the impropriety of laughing at such
an outrageously sacrilegious use of a respectable dead
language. From that day Roger had cold shoulder for
dinner, and the coldness of the landlady became suddenly
manifest in cold potatoes, and in the rheumatic
condition of his room attic; so he left.
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |