The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-04-03
THE FLEA AND THE PROFESSOR.

THERE was once an aeronaut will
whom things went badly; the balloon
burst. tumbled the man out. and broke
INTO bits. His boy he had two minutes
before sent down with a parachute-th
was the boys luck !; he was unhurt and
Went about with knowledge enough tc
make him an aeronaut too, but he had nc
baIlocn and no means of acquiring one.
But live he must, and so he applied
himself to the art Of legerdemain and to
talking i'll his stomach; in fact he be-
came a ventriloquist, as they say. He
was young, good-looking, and when
ne got moustache and had his
best clothes on, he could be taken for a no.
bleman's son. The ladies seemed to think
well of him; one young lady even was so
taken with his charms aud his great dex-
terity that she went off with him to for
eign parts. There he called himself Pro-
fessor-he could scarcely do less.
His constant thought was how to get
himself balloon and 90 up into the air
with his little wife, but as yet they had
no means.
They'll come yet," said he.
s. If only they would" said she.
1--WE are young folks" said he, and now
am Professor" She helped him faithfully,
sat at the door and sold tickets to the eX-
hibition, and it was chilly sort of pleas
ure in winter time. She also helped him
in the line of his art. He put his wife in
table-draWer, large table. drawer; then
she crawled into the back part of the
drawer, and so was not in the front part,
quite an optical illusion to the audience.
But one evening when he drew the drawer
out, she was also out of sight to him she
was not in the front drawer, nor in the
back one either, nor in the house itself
nowhere to be seen or heard-that was
her feat of legerdem air, her entertainment.
She never came back again she was tired
of it all, and he grew tired of it, lost his
good-humor, could not laugh or make
jokes land so the people stopped COM
ing, his earnings became scanty, his
clothes gave out; and finally he only
owned great flea, which his wife had
And he dressed the flea and taught it to
perform, to present arms and to fire a
cannon off,-but it was little cannon.
The Professor was proud of the flea,
and the flea was proud of himself; he had
leaI ned something, and had human
blood, and had been besides to the larg-
est cities, had been seen by princes
and princesses, had received their
high praise, and it was printed in the
newspapers and on placards. Plainly it
was very famous flea and could sup
port professor and his entire family.
The flea was proud and famous, and yet
when he and the Professor Travelled they
took fourth-class carriages on the railway;
they went just as quickly as the first-class. |
They were betrothed to each other; it |
was private engagement that would |
never come out; they never would marry,
the hea would remain bachelor and the |
Professor widower. That made it bal
ance.
Where one has the best luck" said |
the Professor, "there one ought to go
twice" He was good judge of character,
and that is alsoa science of itself. At last |
he had Travelled over all countries except |
the wild ones, and so he wanted to 20 |
there. Ihey eat Christian men there, |
to be sure, the Professor knew, but then |
be was not etproperly Christian and the flea
gas not properly man, so he thought
hey might venture to travel there and |
Ehave good success.
They Travelled by steamship and bv sail
ing vessel; the flea performed his tricks.
and so they got a free passage on |
the way and arrived at the wild
country. Here reigned a little Prin-
cess. She was only eight years old,
but she was reigning. She had taken |
away the power from her father and
mother, for she had will, and then she |
was extraordinarily beautiful-and rude. |
just as soon as the flea had presented |
arms and fired off the cannon, she was so
with him that she said, "Him
or nobody !" She became quite wild with |
love and was already wild in other ways.
"Sweet, little, sensible child! !" said her
own father. "lf one could only first make
a man of him!"
'Leave that to me, old man." said she,
and that was not well said By little Prin-
cess when talking with her father, but she
was wild. She set the flea on her white
hand.
"Nowyou are man, reigning with me,