The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-04-16

the best of friends; when, to keep the
game alive, Jack Bigley went and got
pint Guinness stout bottle, cleared the
table, and, putting the neck downward,
sat on the bottom, and spun himself
round Bless you, it was beautiful.
never saw anything like it. His hands
and legs flew out, and he went out like
teetotum or top, till Tom Burrows must
Apon it by making believe the bottle was
his peg, and wanting to take him up IN q
spoon.
We were all too good -humored to quar-
rel, and we did have the jolliest night
you ever knew. We had more singing,
and when the song hadn't any chorus we
made one-a good rattling one, too-and
we encored one another two or three
times over, and then began again.
We never had the slightest idea of
breaking up, and should have gone ON
until the milk came round if it had not
been for Tom Burrows, who, from being
the larkiest fellow of the whole lot, sud
denly broke down and began to cry.
It was no use slapping him on the
back and trying to comfort mm-he
would keep on crying and talking about
| till it upset Bob Rummins, who wiped
| one of his eyes, and said he hadn't beep
! toschurch for nine Sundays.
/ That spoiled it, you know, for Bob got
worse than Tom Burrows, and would
! keep on saying that he meant to turn
! over u new leaf Then Tom Burrows
/ came and called him brother, and they
stood and shook one another's hands,
| and cried into the same pocket handker-
chief till Dick Wharton said he would
| go home now, and went and laid himself
/ down under the table amongst the oyster
! shells, with big lobster claw under the
/ small of his back.
I'm not quite sure about which way /
! went home, but / remember how nice
/ and fresh the cool night air felt, and that
all the policemen were walking In pairs.
I mention that last, you know, lest you
! should thing that / was In the slightest
! degree overcome. In fact, when /
! dropped my umbrella, and then when
my hat fell off, as 1 stopped to pick it up,
1 remember what I said to the pair of
/ policemen who were civil enough to pick
| them MP and we chatted so that they
walked home beside me and, as I'd got
thick gloves on, they felt in my waist-ceat
! pocket for me, and got out my latch-key,
/ and opened the door.
! Just to show ycu that I was perfectly
correct. I'll mention what the pair of
| policemen said, and that was
| 'EOf course YOU can find your way up-
! stairs, sir %
| And they wouldn't have said that if
had been in that reprehensible state
in which some young men return home
! from bachelors party.
| All. l recollect everything perfectly.
/ How they had left no candlesticks for me
| in the proper place, and how something
was left in the passage way for me to
/ stumble over, and then the rug at the
foot of the stairs was rueked up, and two
| stair-rods loose, SO that three times over
/ was nearly stumbling up the stairs.
| ''There's light in my room," re-
member saying.
| And that accounted, of course, for
| there being no candle left in the passage.
| So smiled to myself, as / paused for a
moment ON the landing, and tried to hum
over the chorus of Rambling Dap," just
| to amuse my landlady, and to let her
! know that was back safe. But I was
so out of breath that I forgot it, and
| turning the handle with my left hand
my left hand because held my umbrella
/ in my right walked in.
/ You see, I am SO perspicuous about all
! these little facts that it shows you could
/ not have dreamed or imagined what /
saw. For there, with my camphine
| lamp on the table, the bottle of brandy
and a Jug of hot water, sat two skeletons
in the easy chairs, one on each side of
the fire. One of them was sitting looking
right elbow rested on the table, and with
| his left hand he held a long clay pipe be-
! tween his teeth, and puffed out cloud
/ of smoke. The other seemed in rollick-
ing frame of mind as well as body, or
rather bones, for he sat with his legs
crossed and hanging on the arm of the
/ easy chair one of my cigars was be-
| tween his teeth alight, and he held up a
| glass of steaming brandy and water, as
! II - L.,
me as I came in.
I was not frightened, not bit of it !;
! for I'd known these skeletons for the last
! two years. They lived, when at home,
i In the second case on the right hand side
/ as you went into the museum at Fawkes' !;
but how it was that they had taken it
! into their heads - skulls, / mean to
| come out and visit me, was puzzler.
i So / stood looking at them, when the
/ rollicking one actually began to chant be-
tween his teeth-and, mind you, without
/ bling Dan, +" finishing off by clanking his
bony legs together, his phalanges rafting
! like castanets.
e-.Your health, old fellow he said
then
And removing his cigar, Ne drank a
hearty draught of brandy and water.
81 was frightened, tell you and I
| was perfectly clear in the head, I tell
/ you for I 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 sacrum and
| the upper bones of the peivis, and they
were quite dry.
/ ss Absorbed, my boy, absorbed he
| said, laughing and it was a strange,
harsh laugh. !" Now, then, Rather, have
a 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.
seShnt 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 I complied. g Now come and sit
down, and TIL give lecture on osteology;
for you're horribly shaky about your
houo0