The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-12-24
WHAT JEDD PALLFRY FOUND IN
TIE COFFIN.
A Christmas story.
BY T. B. RICH.


Old jedi Pallfry turned down the gas
a little, glanced nervously at sombre
row of new collins on each side of him,
locked the shop door, and stood in the
street.
1T was Christmas Eve, and the snow
fakes, like tiny white birds from Para
disc, were lighting on the chimney-tops
and in tie long streets of the city.
Every night at that same hour, eight
. o'clock, for ten years, the undertaken
iIad turned down the gas, locked the
door, and placed the same key under the
same mat, and stood in the same posi-
Sion for moment by the window before
turnipg into a narrow, Zlg-Zag street
which, to him, ended at his supper
table.
But this time he was not going home.
THE antique Mr.. Hans Spuyten Duyvel,
whose death his amiable relatives had
been impatiently awaiting for the last
quarter OF century, had died that day;
and old Jedd had been seut for to put
the habilments of the grave on Mr..
.SSpuyteu Duyvel's body, and two bright
.ials dollars on his eyes, the which small
change was afterward transferred to the
pocket of the ancient undertaken.
Now old Pallfry had made collins ever
since his youth, and for thirty years
really lad more intimacy with the dead
.,h@n dealings with the living. There
was nothing in the whole world so beau
tiful to him as coffin-rlnless it was an
, order for one. He had worked at his
tttvN1e at all hours of the night; he had
;nmSe little collins, and fat ones, and slim
oaes; and by the CHASTITY chickering's of
a lamp at midnight he had laid the cold,
white dead in the vanished boxes with
out feeling one throb of sympathy in
that old iron-bound heart of his.
But that Christmas Eve he shuddered
us he turned down the gas, and the long
wooden tenements, with their covers of,
seemed like so many satin-lined gate
ways leading to perdition. He felt as if
a thousand strong currents of air were
blowing him toward them. He could
hardly keep from stepping into one;
% and it required oil his strength to reach
the door and lock it. Jedd drew long
breath.
= It's always so--every Christmas
=; Eve she does it.
AS old Jedd Pallfry muttered this be-
tween his thin, bloodless lips, he flat
tened and wliitened his nose on the win
dow-glass, amd looked into the gloomy
shop suspiciously. He saw nothing at
first but the accustomed number of cof-
ins, and the velvet pail folded on the
counter, ard those two slim black stools
which we have all seen in our homes,
6oG pity us! But, as he looked, his
dim, almond shaped eyes grew suddenly
20 orbs. A strip of the flooring had com
nenced swelling and bullying and warp
ing. Little by little it grew into the
shape OF mound; tiny emerald spears
of grass shot out of it III every direction;
then it was dotted all over with yellow
eyed daisies, and a rose-bush, with a
SINGLE white bud, sprung up from the
center. Jedd Pallfry's sight became SO
acute that he could see the perfume of
she rose floating up in beautiful, soft
folds like the fumes from a censor.
Jedd rubbed his eyes, as well he
might. When he looked again he saw
the shadow, then tho skeleton, of tree;
then this took miraculous form, and a
willow trailed its green lengths over the
mound. And he saw the noted sun