“‘Yes,’ said I, for I felt just the least bit termagantish, ‘but such things do not happen now-a-days.’
“Mr. S—— looked again, and I was quieted, though I felt very much like laughing.
“‘One can sleep on the sofa,’ continued my husband, after a pause.
“It was the nearest approach toward calculating probabilities that I had ever known him to make; but I took somewhat of a wicked pleasure in replying,
“‘Not if he is very tall—and then he would probably roll out, it is so narrow; and, after all, that is only one.’
“‘Chairs!’ suggested Mr. S——.
“‘Don’t you think,’ said I, rather hesitatingly, ‘that they would rather go where they could be better accommodated?’
“‘Anna,’ said Mr. S——, as he deliberately laid down his pen, ‘I am really sorry to see you so unwilling to contribute your mite toward entertaining those who should be welcome guests in every house.’
“‘Mite, indeed!’ thought I; ‘but that sounded better in a sentence than ‘superhuman efforts.’’
“‘Mr. S——,’ said I, in a sort of frantic hope of reducing him to reason, ‘there are exactly two spare-beds in the house—these divided among six full-grown men are not very extensive accommodations.’