ON ACCOUNT OF MOTHER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3556, 1 December 1882, Page 4

ON ACCOUNT OF MOTHER.

Mr and Mrs Mulkittle sat in the familyroom, discussing tbe household expenses and the general financial debility which usually hovers over a family when the end of one month and the beginning of another draw near. The minister was lamenting man's inability to live within his income, and his wife was deploring her lack of clothes, when the boy turned over among the covers and asked : 1 Pa, was it Jacob that had a fight with the angel ?' ' Gfo to sleep,' yelled Mr Mulkittle, ' I told you not to talk to me any more about religious questions. Tho other day, when Mr Pofcmayer, the minister, was here, you made yourself ridiculous. Go to sleep now, and don't ask any more qnestions.' 'You ought to teach him,' interposed Mrs Mulkittle. ' Haven't I tried to teach him ?' exclaimed her husband. 'Haven't I tried to tell him concerning the Bible, and hasn't he made himself ridiculous each time ? ' ' All boys are inquisitive and annoying,' replied Mrs Mnlkittle. 'It is our duty to teach him. You wouldn't like to have it said that you refused to teach your son. See if you cannot make him understand. It is your duty.' ' Pa,' said the boy, c was it Jacob that had a fight with the angel ?' ' No, my son,' said the minister in a voice which had evidently been subdued by his wife's protestations. ' Jacob wrestled with the angel.' ' What made 'em wrestle ?' ' Because ib was God's design.' 'Did Jacob throw the angel?' 'No. , ' Then the angel threw Jacob, didn't he ?' ' Yes.' ' The angel was a bad man, wasn't he ?' ' No, the angel was good.' 'But if the angel throwed Jacob he was a bad man. Was Jacob strong ?' ' Yes, I suppose so.' ' Was the angel strong ?' 'Yes.' S ' Did you ever wrestle ?' ' Yes.' ' Was you throwed ?' ' Sometimes. , ' Did you ever wrestle with an angel ?' IGo to sleep, sir. Yon are losing sense every day.' ' How losing it ?' ' Go to sleep, I tell you.' ' Was Abraham a good man ?' ' Yes. That'll do now. , 'If Abraham's brother had been Abrabread, they would have had a sandwich, wouldn't they ?' The good man sprang from his seat, despite the protestations of his wife, and turning down the cover produced music of a discordant nature that was heard some distance away. Tho minister is determined not to answer any more questions.—Arkansas Traveller.