The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-20

Once more / dreamed Of the lottery, !
and upon waking, with my feet upon |
the stove, once more I saw No:T472
glowing forth QUITO it's. iron door,
like some mysterious warning, or per-
chance-a-Sa'-- COR n ,Providen-
tial- iltimation as to how to lay out
yoilr money to the best advantage,
suggested l, dernurely. '.Well, yes
of course; it's very odd. looked at in
that light; ;,sbut I've been thinking of
tia good deal III the meantime, and
the ticket-office has not yet closed; SO
!. will just trouble you, my boy. to
take this money, and don't say word
to anybody; but if No. 472 is on
hand, bring it; and if it's sold, find
out who has got it, and bring me
word. soiN haye it, whatever it costs
me; and if that ticket does not come
upsa prize, I viii never spend sill
yer sixpence again in fnttery of the
jade fortune"
: AS my father had threatened this
for eighteen successive years, il did
not give me great hopes of his refor-
nation; while my expectations of the
ticket in question turning out n prize
were equally low. However, there
was no course for me but to obey. It
was late, but being the Saturday be-
fore tho drawing, the Offices were
allowed to be open until alters p. m.
SO if the ticket should be unsold, 1
could get it that night. 1t was, how
ever, not at oil probable that this
should be the case; and was not sur-
prised to hear that No. 472 had been
purchased many days before by a
gentleman living in the country-or
what was then the country-about
half q mile North OF Kensington Pa
lace. My father seemed very disap-
pointed when took him this news;
and wishing me goodnight, retired
to his private room, saying that he
had some business to transact which
would occupy him until very late. /
had been in bed and asleep, { knew
not how long, when was awol1c by
hearing the front-door closed, (al-
though as softly as it could he done,
and thinking there might be some
thing wrong, / hurried on a few
clothes. and slipped down stairs. My
fathers hat and great-coat were not
hanging up i'll their usual places, so
that felt certain it was he who had
just gone ont; nor had I far to look
for the reason, for the door of his
private room was open, and I could
see from the hall the magic stove be-
fore which he had been sitting, with
No. 472 cleaning from the iron door,
as he had truly described them, in
letters and figures of flame. 1t was
evident that my father had been un-
able to resist this third manifestation
but had hurried off to Kensington to
knock the gentleman up, and buy his
ticket, whether he would or not.
Under such circumstances, what a
price would ne have to pay for it? At
the same time, l could scarcely blame
him; l had now the evidence Of my
own eyes to corroborate his cxtraor-
dinary experience. Here was No.
472 glaring and cleaning out of All
iron door, which was ordinarily rs
blank as -. was going to say
q lottery ticket, but I avoided that
metaphor as an i'll omen! Yes, there
was the N, and the o, and the 4, and
the Z, and the 2, as distinct as the red
letters in the calendar There was
certainly something in it; and deter
mined to wait up until my father
came home to tell him what I myself
had seen. The worst of it was that
the Goals in the scuttle were exhaust
cd, and that after an hour or so-antl
| knew that he must he q long time
away-the room would probably he
getting cold. Tn this surmise l was
correct; but rs the stove waxed cooler
ait: ccc!laGs, something far more dis
agreeable than cold supervened. /
saw that the magic letters waned and
waned as the fire within got low, and
long before it went out, they had
grown quite black and dinvisible; then
the truth cleaned upon me, chill and
bare enough-the wonderful inscrip-
ton was, after all, only the number
Of the stove, inscribed upon it by the
iron company that sold it, but which
conll not be seen, without very close
inspection, until it became of white
heat. dared not sit up for my
father any longer, nor had 7 the
heart to tell him, when he explained
to me the next day how fortunate he
had been in purchasing the ticket for
only three times the cost price, how
wofully he had been deceived.
Here Sir Joshua paused, and re-
piled to q general murmnr of salts
faction with courteous inclinat;ons Of
his rich brown wig. But Miss Pene-
lone who had heard tho sforv al ,,.;