The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-12-23
WHAT jed PALLFRY FOUND IN
TIE COFFIN.
A Christmas Story.

BY t. b. ALDRICH.
Old Jedd Pallfry turned down the gas
IN little, glanced nervously at a sombre
rxsw of new collins on each side of him,
lacked sHhe shop door, and stood In the
street.
nc was Christmas Eve, and the snow
flakes, like tiny white birds from Para
disc, were Lighting on the chimney tops
and In the long streets of the city.
Every night at that same hour, eight
O'Clock, for ten years, the undertaken
Kzad turned down the gas, locked the
door, and placed the same key under the
same mat, and stood In the same posi-
&ion for a moment by the window before
turning into narrow, zig-zag street
winch, to him, ended at his supper
table.
But this time he was not going home.
3he antique Mr.. Hans Spuyten Duyvel,
whose death his amiable relatives had
u88een isnpatiently awaiting for the last
quarter of century, had died that day;
>Sad old Jedd had been sent for to put
the habiliments of the grave on Mr..
half dollars on his eyes, the which small
/&s3A6U&S WIS h1bOIHdLO tIduC1CLIOu w UA4O
pocket of the ancient undertaken.
Now old Pallfry had made collins ever
since his youth, and for thirty years
really had more intimacy with the dead
ss1lan dealings with the living. There
1xes nothing in the whole world SO beau
tisE TO him as coffin-unless it was an
order for one. He had worked at his
trade at all hours of the night; he had
gzn2de little coffins, and fat ones, and slim
sez1es; and by the CHASTITY chickering's of
a lamp at midnight he had laid the cold,
white dead in the vanished boxes with
auE feeling one throb of sympathy In
a8Eaf old iron-bound heart of his.
But that Christmas Eve he shuddered
So he. turned down the gas, and the long
wooden tenements, with their covers of,
seemed like so many satin-lined gate
wsys leading to perdition. He felt as If
Il thousand strong currents of air were
&kQwing him toward them. He could
EEardzy keep from stepping into one;
szad it required all his strength to reach
the door and lock it. Jedd drew long
Emeath. Is ~
81 It's always so-eyery Christmas
Eve she does it. .
ms OlL OCuu mucUClOO tAAc 10
a6peen his thin, bloodless lips, he fat
5 tened and whitened his nose on the win
<Eow-glass, and looked into the gloomy
Stop suspiciously. He saw nothing at
zFiFs5 but the accustomed number of cot
Sffzs, and the velvet pail folded on the
counter, and those two slim black stools
which we have all seen in our homes,
God pity us! But, as he looked, his
dluas almond shaped eyes grew suddenly
10 orbs. A strip of the flooring had com
mAenced swelling and bullying and warp
ing. Little by little it grew into the
sslaape of mound; tiny emerald spears
of grass shot out of it in every direction
then twas dotted all over with yellow
eyed daisies, and a rose-bush, with a
SINGLE white bud, sprung up from the
.eenter. Jedd 2allfry's sight became SC
acute thai he could see the perfume OF
,1zaa rose fosting up In beautiful, soft
Odds like the fumes from censor.
.Jedd rubbed his eyes, as well he
might. When he looked again be saw
azae shadow, then the skeleton, of a tree
Ghex this took miraculous form, and o
willow trailed its green lengths over the
srzourd. and he saw the noted sun