The Osceola times., 1876-09-23
Voices of the Night.

Voices Of the Night.
Mr.. Joskins has not been resident of
Burlington more than six months. He
came here from Cleveland, Ohio, and
after looking around, he selected resi-
dence out on West Hill. because it was
such quiet locality, and Mr.. Jo.kins
loves peace and seclusion. 1t is a rural
kind Of a heighborhood, and all of Mr.
Joskins' nelghbors kept cows. And every
cow wears bell. And with an instinct
worthy of the Peak family, each neigh
Dor had selected cowbell of different
key and tone from any of the others, in
order that he might know the COW of
his heart from the other kline of the dis
trict. so that Mr. Joskins nights are
filled with music, of rather wild, bar
barrie type; and the lone starry hours
talk nothing but COW to him, and he has
learned SO exactly the tones of every
bell and the habits of every correspond
ing COW, that the voices of the night are
not an unintelligible jargon to him, but
they are full of intelligence and he un-
derstands them. 1t makes it much
easier for Mr.. Joskins, who is very
nervous man, than if he had to listen
and conjecture and wonder until he was
fairly wild, as the rest of us would have
todo. As it is, when the first sweet mo-
ments of his slumber are broken by sol
emn, ponderous, resonant
Ka-lum, ka-lum, ka-luml
Mr.. Joskins knows that the widow Bar
berry's old crumple-horn is going down
the street looking for an open front gate,
and his knowledge is confirmed by a
doleful "kalum-pu-lum !" that occurs at
regular..intervals, as old crumple pauses
to try each gate as she passes it, for she
knows that appearances are deceitftl, and
that boy can shut a front gate in such a
way as to thoroughly deceive his father
and yet leave every catch unfastened.
Then when Mr. Joskins is called up from
his second dose by lively serenade of
"To-link, to-lank, lank, lankle-ink-
lie, lankle, Observation-Disclosures kink,
kinkw He knows that Mr.. Throop's
young brindle is in Throstewaitc's
garden and that Throstlewaite is sail-
ing around after her in pair
of slippers and night shirt. And
by sitting up in bed Mr.. Joskins can
hear the things that Mr.. Throstlewaite is
throwing strike against the side of the
house and the woodshed, thud, spat,
bang, and the character of the noises tells
him whether the missile was a clod. a
piece of board, or brick. And when
the wind down the street is fair it brings
with it faint echoes of Mr.. Throstle-
waite's remarks, which bring into Mr.
Joskin's bedroom the odor of bad gram
matical construction and wicked wishes
and very ill-applied epithets. Then
when the final crash and tinkle an
nounces that the COW has bulged through
the front fence and got away, and Mr..
.Joskins turns over to try and get little
sleep, he is not surprised, although he is
annoyed, to be aroused by sepulchral
"Klank, klank, klank w Like the chains
on the old-fashioned ghost of murdered
man, for he knows ii is Throstlewaite's
old duck legged brown COW going down
to the vacant lot on the corner to fight
anything that gives milk. And he waits
and listens to the "Klank, klank, klank,"
until it reaches the corner and terri
fic din and medley of all the COW bells
on the street tell him the skirmishers
have been driven in and the action has
become general. And then from that on
till morning, Mr.. Joskins hears the
" tinkle-t tankle," of the little red COW
going down the alley to prospect among
the garbage heaps, and the "rankle-
tankle, rankle-tankle" of the short tailed
black and white COW skirmishing doyn
the street ahead Of an escort of badly rs
sorted dogs and the "tringle-de-ding,
tringle-de-ding, ding, ding" OF the
muley COW that goes along on the side
walk, browsing on the lower limbs of the
shade trees, and "klank, klank, klank,"
of the fighting COW, whose bell is cracked
in three places, and the incessent moo.
ov-oo-ah-ha" of the big black cow that
has lost the clapper out of her bell aud
has ever since kept up an unintermittent
bellowing to supply its loss. And Mr..
Joskins knows all these cows by their
bells, and he knows what they are doing
and where they are going. And although
it has murdered his dreams of quiet
home, yet it has given him an opportu'
nifty to cultivate habits of intelligent OBJ
servation, and has induced him to regis
ter vow that if he is ever rich enough
he will keep nine cows, trained to sleep
all day so as to be ready for duty at
night, and he will live in the heart of
the city with them and make them wear
four bells apiece just for the pleasure OF
hi, neighbors. burlington Hipk Eye.