Family life -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Saving and investment -- Fiction
Mr. Fenelby turned toward his wife suddenly, still holding his pen
in his hand. He had not written a word, but his face glowed.
"I tell you, Laura!" he exclaimed. "This is the best idea we have
had since we were married! It is a big idea! What we ought to
do--what we _will_ do--is to have a family congress and adopt this
tariff in the right way, and write it down. That is what we will
do--and then, any time we want to change the tariff we will have a
session of the family congress, and vote on it."
"That will be nice, Tom," said Mrs. Fenelby, biting off her thread,
but not looking up. Mr. Fenelby turned back to his blankbook. He
dipped his pen in the ink again, and hesitated.
"How would it do," he asked, turning to Laura again, "to call it
the 'United States of Fenelby?' Or the 'Commonwealth of Fenelby?'
No!" he exclaimed, "I'll tell you what we will call it--we will call
it the 'Commonwealth of Bobberts,' for that is what it is. 'The
Domestic Tariff of the Commonwealth of Bobberts!'"
"Yes," said Mrs. Fenelby, holding up her sewing and looking at it
with her head tilted to one side, "that will be nice."
Mr. Fenelby wrote it in his blankbook, at the top of the first blank
page.
"Fine!" said Mr. Fenelby, growing more enthusiastic as the idea
expanded in his mind. "And the congress will be composed of
everyone in the family. No taxation without representation, you
know--that is the American way of doing things. Everything that
comes into the house has to pay a duty, so everyone in the family
has a vote, and every so often the congress will meet in the parlor
here--"
"Does Bobberts have a vote?" asked Mrs. Fenelby.
"Ah--well, Bobberts is hardly old enough, you know," said Mr.
Fenelby hesitatingly. "We will--No," he said with sudden
inspiration, "Bobberts will not have a vote. Bobberts will be a
Territory! That is it. Grown-ups will be States and infants will be
Territories. Bobberts can't vote, but he can attend the meetings of
congress and he can have a voice in the debates. He can oppose any
measure with his voice--"
"I should think he could!" said Mrs. Fenelby.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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