The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-05-28
KETSER'S DREAM.
HOW HE ANTICIPATKD DEATH.


Last December my friend Keyser dream
ed one night that lie would die ON the 18th
of January. SO strongly was he assured of
the fact that the vision would prove true
that he began at once to make preparations
for his departure. He got measured for a
burial suit, he drew up his viii, he picked
out nice lot in the cemetery and had it
fenced in he Joined the church, and Sc
iected six of the deacons as his pail bear
ers. He also..requested the choir to sing at
the funeral, and he got them to run over a
favoIite hymn of his 10 see how it would
| sound. Then he got Toombs, the under
taker, to knock together a burial casket,
with silver plated handles, and cushions
inside, and he instructed the undertaken to
rush out his best hearse, and to buy sixty
pairs of black gloves to be distributed
among the mourners. He had some trouble
deciding upon = tombstone. The man at
the marble-yard wanted to shove off on him
a secondhand one, with an ange, weeping
over kind of flower-pot; but Keyser
finally ordered a new one, with design
representing a rosebud with broken stem,
and the legend, "Not lost, but gone
| before.'
Then he got the village newspaper to put
a good obituary notice of him in type, and
he told his wife that he would be gratitied
If she would come out in the spring and
pant violets upon his grave. He said it
was hard to leave her and the children, but
she must try to bear up under it. These
Affections are for our good, and when he
was an angel he would come and watch
over her, and keep his eye on her. He
said she might marry again if she wanted
to, fcT, although the mere thought Of it
nearly broke his heart he wished her above
all to be happy, and 20 have some one to
love her and protect her from the storms of
the rude world. Then he, and Mrs. Key
! ser, and the children cried, and Keyser, as
| a closing word of counsel, advised her not
to plow for corn earlier than the middle OF
March
On the night of the 10Th of January there
was a food in the creek, and Keyser got up
at 4 o clock in the morning of the 18th, and
worked until night trying to save mis-
buildings and his woodp:le. He was so
busy that he forgot all about its being the
day of his death, and, as he was very tired,
be went to bed early and slept soundly all
night.
About 6 O'Clock on the morning of the
18th there was ring at the door bell.
Kevser jumped out of bed, threw up the
front window and exclaimed
''Whos there? ?''
| H. h. .o;l ~
"What do you want at this time of the
morning ?' demanded Keyser.
ssWant," said Toombs, not recognizing
Keyser, ''Why, I've brought around the
ice to pack Kcyser in, so he'll keep until
the funeral. The corpse'd spoil this kinder
weather if we didn't
Then Keyscr remembered, and it made
him feel mad when he thought how the
day had passed and left him still alive, and
how he had made fool OF himself. So
the corpse said
'sWell you can just skeet around home
again with that ice /; the corpse is not yet
dead. You're a leetle too anxious, it
strikes me. You're not goin' to chuck me
into a sepulchre yet, if you have got every
thing ready. So you can haul off and
unload"
About half-past 10 that morning the
Deacons came around, with Grape on their
hats and gloom on their faces, to carry the
body to the grave, and while they were on
the front steps the marble yard man drove
up with the rosebud tombstone and shovel,
and stepped in to ask the widow how deep
she wanted the grave dug. Just then the
choir arliv, d with the minister, and the
company was assembled in the parlor
when Keyser came in from the stable
where he had been dosing a horse with
patent medicine and mash for the glanders.
He was surprised, but he proceeded to ex-
plain that there had been little mistake
somehow. He was also panied to find that
everybody seemed to be a good deal dis
appointed, particularly the tombstone man,
who went away mad, declaring that such
an old Fl aud ought to be ranmed into the
ground anyhow, dead or alive. Just as
the Deacons left in a huff, the tailor's boy
arrived with the burial snit, and before
Keyser could kick him off the steps the pa
per carrier flung into the door the Morning
Argus, in which that obituary occupied a
prominent place.
Anybody who wants a good reliable
tombstone that has a broken rosebud on il.
and that has never been used, can buy one
of that kind at a sacrifice foi cash, from
keyser. He thinks that bad dream must
have been caused by eating too much sau-
sage at supper.-AdT Adter.
HERE are some of the devious ways and
wanderinps of a loye-,etter: 4 Boston lady,