 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
STOPPING A 'BUS.
Mrs. Partington had watched three quarters of an
hour for an omnibus, and she swung her umbrella as one
drove up, and the driver stopped his horses near where
she stood.
“Now, Isaac,” says she, feeling in her reticule
for a copper, away down under the handkerchief, and
snuff-box, and knitting-work, and thread-case, and
needle-book, “be a good boy, dear, while I am gone,
and don't cause a constellation among the neighbors, as
some boys do, and there 's a cent for you; and be sure
you don't lay it out extravagantly, now; and be keerful
you don't break the windows; and if anybody rings at
the door, be sure and see who it is before you open it,
because there is so many dishonest rogues about; if any
porpoises come a begging give 'em what was left of the
dinner, Heaven bless 'em, and much good may it do
'em! and — why, bless me! if the omnibus has n't
gone off, and left me standing here in the middle of the
street. Such impudence is without a parable.”
Her spectacles gleamed indignantly down the street,
after the disappearing 'bus, and, for a moment, anger had
the mastery; but equanimity, like twilight, came over her
mind, and she waited for the next 'bus, with calmness on
her face, and her green cotton umbrella under her arm.
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |