The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-03-12

if about to drink my health, nodding al
me as / came in.
l was not frightened, not bit of it
for I'd known these skeletons for the last
two years. They lived, when at home
i'll the second case on the right hand side
as you went into the museum at Fawkes'
but how it was that they had taken il
into their heads - skulls, L mean-tC
come out and visit me, was puzzler.
So / stood looking ut them, when the
rollicking one actually began to chant be-
tween his teeth-and, mind you, without
dropping his cigar-the chorus of Gram
bling Dam, finishing off by clanking his
bony legs together, his phalanges rattling
like castanets.
"Your health, old fellow" he said
then.
And removing his cigar, he drank q
hearty draught of brandy and water.
" l was frightened, tell you and /
was perfectly clear in the head, l tell
you for l was SO surprised then that i
remember looking down into the easy
chair to see if there was a pool of brandy
and water trickling down through the
empty ribs.
But no-I could see the sacrIlm and
the upper bones of the pelvis, and they
were quite dry.
Absorbed, my boy, absorbed" he
harsh laugh. "Now, then, Rather, have
drink of this" he said to his bony Wis
avis.
But the other skeleton only nodded his
head slowly twice, and went on smoking,
the wreaths curling up toward the cell
ing.
"Shut the door, old fellow" said the
rollicking skeleton to me. 81 don't
want rheumatism in my bones, if You do
in yours. That's right" he continued,
as L complied. "Now come and sit
down, and I'll give a lecture on osteology;
for you're horribly shaky about Your
bones.
"Who told your" / said, L deter
mined to keep n bold face on the mat
ter.
81 heard old Bogus abuse your artic-
ulation paper, and tell you that you'd
put the patella in the wrong place. Ha !
ha ha we hear a good deal, don't we,
Rattler?"
The other skeleton nodded its head
slowly again and this solemn, slow
movement did give me something of n
chill. AS for the rollicking fellow, L
didn't mind him bit and to show him
that L didn't, l spirked him with the
ferule of my umbrella in the same way
that Rummins did Tom Burrows when
he was standing on his head.
CT say " he said, "don't do that"
"Why not ;" said "What do you
mean by coming and taking possession
of fellows room?
"Spose. I'd got my thoracic viscera
with me, and you'd abraded the surface
of my lungs, or scratched my pleura !;
you wouldn't have liked it, know"
"Well, perhaps not :" said, "but
anyhow, L wish you'd CO."
81 Don't hurry u.s." he said eve
don't often get night out. Mix your
self glass.
did so, and lit a clay-pipe. But /
didn't care for it; so / lit cigar,
and sat, smoked, and looked at them,
That's good brandy" said the roll
licking skeleton, after another draught
{" say, what do you think l died of "
Hung for burglary, should say, or
entering peoples houses in their alb
sence."
"Get out" he said CT had d. t..
horribly. Take care of yourself-don't t
youl !"
Z" Not if can help it, 1 said.
And then 1 started, for Rather had
gone. Now, L didn't see him go, and /
know he didn't pass my chair. But he
was gone, and there was an end of it.
It's curious life, mine, said the
rollicking skeleton, "wired together as
L am. I'm glad of change. A case
bottles all very well, but a glass case is
too much of good thing"
Then he leaned over toward me in g
curious, sneering fashion, laughing will
his feet, if l may so express the way il
which he made them culver and he
annoyed me so that said to him Mt last
Pray keep still. F"
81 would" he said, "but it's time tC
get up"
And he rose from the chair and walked
into the wall, straight in, without I
pause and somehow those words of hi
made such an impression on me that the,
seemed to hang in the air, and they wer,
the very first l heard later on in TN,
morning, when my hot water wa
brought to the door.
Ali you may say what You like, bu
if it's possible for two skeletons to ge
out of case and come down severa
streets in the dead of night, and visit
medical student, those two visited me.