The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-12-12


not caring to risk going fnrther and far
ing worse, taking my saddle-bags on m,
arm led my critter around to th,
stable, the proprietor showing the way
When old Roam had been looked after
we went into the house.
The other stranger was sitting by the
fire, and gave me a sharp look as came
forward. I noticed he kept watching
me shary. I didn't fancy his looks
much but after a spell he managed tc
be quite friendly, and it was always my
way to meet that sort of thing half way.
He, too, was on the lookout to buy,
and we compared notes on the subject
till bedtime. Our host was one OF
them sort O. chaps that listens a good
deal without saying much, and his wife
looked as if she daren't say much if she
would.
We paid our bills before going to bed.
The other traveller said he was going to
start before day; but as our roads lay
but little together, I concluded I
wouldn't rise so soon for the sake of
only that much company. Sunrise was
early enough for me.
Our sleeping room was one end of the
cabin partitioned off by itself.
{" It's long time since you and me
slept together" said the stranger, when
we were both ready to lie down.
So it is, +" said L Which side do
you take ?"
"Front. said he, "if it's all the
same to you.
"AIl the same, said I, jumping in.
The stranger followed, and I don't
know what he did, but I soon fell
asleep.
It don't know how late or early it was
when I woke up, feeling chilly. The
moon was shining bright through the
window. The clothes were turned over
from the front side of the bed, and
there stood my bed-fellow, leaning over
me with a big knife in one hand, a
fumbling at the buckle of my belt with
the other.
"Of course you grasped the arm that
welded the knife with one of your
hands and the williams throat with the
other ?" interrupted clustering jury
man.
Well, no, didn't"
'You cried out, then ?''
Sc Nor that, either
We'll, said the clustering iuryman.
"Td like to see the man that would
rob me without tussIe for it. Sup
pose he had killed you-whslt, after all,
is death? Only an eternal sleep, phi
losophy tells us.
That may be, said Uncle ice, ''but
I wasn't a bit sleepy, just thsn.''
"Ha, har' laughed the foreman. ''I
never heard the eternal sleep theory
better answered.
+'Well, continued Uncle Joe, ''I lay
still as a mouse til that pesky critter
undone my belt and slipped it from
under me, which he did so gently that
I hardly felt it, wide awake as I was.
Then he pulled the cover over me. and
tueking it in as carefully as mother
could have done, he buckled my belt
around him, finished dressing and Slip
ped out"
'And you lay there and Let yourself
be robbed without uttering a word ?''
again broke in the clustering iuryman.
''I didn't see no good in speaking, !"
said Uncle Joe; "I knew he'd sock his
knife into me if I so much as chirped,
and take his chance O. cutting his way
through the landlord afterward, if so be
he woke up. No, didn't say word,
but just turned over and took another
nap, and in good time got mp, mounted
old Roam and rode off, just as if moth
ing had happened. 1 got to my journeys
end that day, and bought my land the
next"
'But your money!" the foreman re-
minded him.
go that was all right. said Uncle
Joe.
"Why, didn't the robber get it ?"
Gle got the belt" Uncle Joe an
swered. "You see, mother and me
knew that money belts had got to be so
much in fashion that they were the first
thing every robber went for, and once
they got mans belt, they'd go off con-
tented. So, what does mother and me
do but fill my belt with pewter buttons,
and mother she sewed the double eagles
into the lining of my coonsIin jacket,
which the fur on the outside kept from
| sbovviDor and there 7 carrind than safe
enough"
We were still laughing at Uncle Joe's
story, when the bailiff tapped at the
door. The judge wanted to see us. His
honor had had his supper, and feeling
in better humor, he discharged us from
| durance.
Wages in Europe.
| Sixty cents day is considered good