The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1876-03-09

ySs Sc :'s'p i the little bed :. you
q :, Proposed nothing Il I'll, sort,
and you know it, You base, Abandoned.
wretch J. i I shall toll my brotherIof your
conduct il tho morning. Ia .ff:.@5s
81 Oh hovrorl 4, had. caught up the
wrong tube, and had been, speaking to
Miss Gradient, What should ! do!
tried 70 explain. my dear madam, I
assure you il was Ill mistake N
thought I was speaking to your brother.
But ! got noaanswer.s i 't:lMadam, I said,
''do, you hear me Is Still no answer: she
had evidently put down the tube, and
would hear nothing more I had to ssa,y:sI
putin the whistle, and dropped my end
Of the pipe,l and threw myself! back on
the bed TO think II, xtj.;stuI:,;t.3 -,
The bare; idea of me saying such =
thing to that still old lady, was awful to
contemplate. How could meet her at
breakfast at last l determ ined / must
wake up Harry and explain matters 1t
once.y caught up: the pipe blew the
whistle, and presently got an answer.
''oh, have ,uade such, q f., mistake ]
said. Il wanted you to come and sleep
here. but I got hold Of the tube that goes
to Miss Gradient 8 room, and asked her
to'come instead but Of course I meant
you al the time: Do come to me Ut once,
or! / shall try: and find my w.y:to your
III reply only increased my -. horror
and Consideration ! It was shrrill, female
voice, not, Miss Gradient 8, but evidently
Jane, the pretty house.,naid's.. She said !:
tYou wretch! I'd have; ye know AZ I'm
an honest gal, and scorn ye.. You won't
find me a.coming near you and if you
come here you can't get in, for cook s
locked the door, my dear girl, I as.
plain, but she began speaking. from the
end Of the tube, and cut me short.
:. II amt your dear gal; and it's no use
your talking any longer, cause I'm a.
going to plug up the pipe with curl.
papers but shall tell master all about
it in the morning."
Iagain threw myself back on the bed
large drops Of cold Precipitation stood on
my forehead as I thought of the awful
muddle I had got into. Sleep was now
not to DO expected, and longed for a
glimmer Of light. If those COMPOUNDED
shutters had not been closed there would
have been little. Then / made up nv
mind that would feel m way to the
window and try and open the shutters
I got out Of bed and felt my way abou
the wall. The darkness and stiffness were
dreadful. Suddenly heard noise and
started the next instant found it was
the water running into the basin; had
troddcn on the spring in the the floor.
now proceeded, still feeling my way along
the wall: 1must come to the window in
time. :'Ah. here it u.s. I muttered as
felt the curtains; but was mistaken it
was the little bed in the recess. Again I
journeyed onward, knocking my shins
against the chairs, but at last I ex-
claimed, "Here it Is; these are the cur
tains. It was a bow.window, and
passed through to feel for the fastenings
of the shutters ;when-:-. How shall
describe my sensations? I screamed, I
yelled, scarcely know what l did. II
,oas the self:acting sho,cer.ba I had
got into, and the water came down in a
torrent on my devoted head. I suppose
my cries were deadened by the curtains,
for no one appeared to have heard me,
and I emerged dripping from the bath. /
was shivering. drew of my wet night
shirt, and then felt my way to my port
manteau and got another. This took me
some time to accomplish, and was glad
to get into bed again. Strange to say, it
was not long before I got warm; glow
seemed to come over me, but sleep was
still out Of the question.
During all this time I had not got over
the oppression of the intense darkness.
All at once thought, "Why. what fool
l ami! had forgotten how easy it was
to light the gas. I had only to press on
the ivory knob. True, there might be
some difficulty in finding it, but at any
rate would try.
Again felt my way along the wall,
and At length finding the knob, pushed
it in; but no gas was lighted. Instead
heard a terrific noise overhead; it was
the alarm'bell. All the neighborhood
would be aroused. What should do i?
I did not in the least know how to stop it.
must try and find my way to Harry.
AS for the pipe, could not be at all sure
which was number one in the dark. In
my hurry to fnd the door, I lad Just up.
set table with variety Of things upon
it, when Harry, Who heard the bell, burst
into the room at the instant of the crash.
and exclaimed,
"What on earth is the matter %
Nothing. 1 cried. ''If could blu
stop this abominablc bell! L was trying
to light the gas, and pushed in the wrong
knob. i =. ..~--. -
"'.There." said Harry, when he pushed
his way in; 1--we stopped it. But
must now run down stairs to the te(e.
graphs. l can hear the bells ringing the
neighbors have heard the alarm, and are
wanting to know what is the matter :"
and away went Harry, still leaving me in
the dark. When he had sent them each
messages, stating that the alarm was all a
mistake, he came back to ask me how it
happened and lighted the gas for me.
81 could not Sleep I said, ''and want.
ed to pet q light: but unfortunately, I
pressed in the wrong knob and set the
bells ringing..'. ~
'Oh, we'll. never mind it's all right
now. But must 60 and get into bed