The Arizona sentinel., 1875-03-27
A Night Encounter with a Rocking.
 Chair

Old McStinger was going tt
 bed little waVy the other night
 and not wishing to disturb Mrs
 McStinger, who mad a tongue like
 a rat tail file, he thought just as well not to turn OF the gas, H. i got ou very well until he reached
 the dOoro of the chamber where his patient wife lay sleeping. Here he paused 8 m0ment, Balancing
 on his heels like q pole 0n 8 jug 1 gler'S nose. Then he made a dash ! for it, in order to make a bee-ine across the t.vos. 4M..o. 4I-,.o ....e,ss55.. e,,s5.
 with her sual exemplary forti'
 tude, had placed the rOckiDg-chair
 with such gifted skill that no man
 could come into the room without
 running over it; 50 the first thing
 he knew McStinger stubbed his
 toe-nail off against the rocker,
 which knocked the seat against
 the craZy-bone of his knee, and
 made one of the long arms prod
 him in the stomach. Simultane-
 ously he feli over the chair cross
 wise, and it kicked him behind
 his back before he could get up
 from the floor as he stood on all
 four5. The engagement was now
 fully opened. Before McStiuger
 could get up straight, his knee came down on one of the long
 rockers behind, and the back of the chair came down on his head
 with a Whack that laid him out flat on the floor; and, before he could move, the chair kicked him three times in the tendereSt part of his ribs with the sharp end of the rocker. This made him per fectly furious, and he scrambled up and made blind rush at the chair, determined to blow up the enemy's works. He ran square against the back, and it rocked forward with him, turning a com- plete somersault over the handles, l throwing McStinger half way across the room and landing ou top of him, digging into his 8bdo- ] men like bulls horns, as he lay spread out on the under side. It would have been a good thing for 1 McStinger if he had lain still then l and let the chair have it's own i way. II lay daS oil Its 6aen, with the long points of the rockers en- braeing his abdomen, and didn't seem to want to do anything ac- tive just then. But McStinger make up his mind to give it up yet. He rolled over side- ways and upset the chair. It fell with crash on its side, giving him a furious dig in the liver, which made him straighten out his legs, spasmodically, barking one shin from the instep to the knee on the rocker which hung in the air, and getting the chair on its feet again, where it stood backward and forward at him, like, wary old ran mak- ing feints of putting it's adversary, in order to throw him off his guard. The blow in the side near ly finished McStinger, and while laying there rubbing his wind back again, he was just beginning to reflect whether his honor re- quired him to proceed any further in the affair, when Mrs. McStinger began screaming all the names in the crimes act, under the impression that the Charley Ross abductOrs were trying to commit burglary, bigamy, rob- bery and everything else on her. UD to this time she had been speechless with terror, and had '8in there trembling, shedding precipitation, and &ccuDui2ting power, until she had i gained the screaming capacity Of ] 8 camel-back engine. She Lad | just reached her third 5f0rz0gdo : GcceleropdC, when old MCStinger succeeded lu getting ! lC his feet once more and became dimly visible. to Mrs. Mcstinger. With one last wild parting shriek, r she sprang from the bed and made a dash for the door, near which the rocking chair still stood menacing the whole universe with buttingmotion. Mrs. Me Stinger had no time for investi- gation just then, and she pitched over the rocking-chair and clear down stairs, the chair after her, turning over and over, and kick ing Mrs. McStinger at every jump until they both landed in the hall below, where the chail broke all to atoms. This ended the fight.
 His arm had stolen around her