He is getting too Old and Wabbly to
do Odd Jobs around the Place, and it looks to me like an awful
Imposition."
So he went to the Old Gentleman and said: "Father, I know the Children
must annoy you a good deal; they make so much Noise when they play
House. Sometimes we want to use the Piano after it is your Bed-Time,
and of course that breaks your Rest, so I have been thinking that
you would be a lot better off in some Institution where they make a
Specialty of looking after Has-Beens. I have discovered a nice, quiet
Place. You, will live in a large Brick Building, with a lovely Cupola
on top. There is a very pretty Lawn, with Flower-Beds, and also an
ornamental Iron Fence, so that the Dogs cannot break in and bite you.
You will be given a nice Suit of Clothes, the same as all the others
are wearing, and if you oversleep yourself in the Morning, a Man will
come around and call you."
"In other Words, me to the Poor-House," said the Old Residenter.
"You need not call it that, unless you want to," said Joel. "If you
choose, you may speak of it as the Home for Aged Persons who got
Foolish with their Fountain Pens."
So Joel put his Father into the Spring Wagon and hauled him over the
Hills to the Charity Pavilion, where all the Old Gentleman had to do
was to sit around in the Sun looking at the Pictures in last year's
Illustrated Papers and telling what a Chump he had been.
But sometimes a Man is not all in, simply because he looks to be
wrinkled and doddering.
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