Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-12-27
JOHN AND HETTY.

John Twist stood in his room look
ing out upon the levee. and chuckled
to himself that the weather was so
mild. Circumstances beyond the con-
troll of John Twist had prevented him
from laying in an abundant stock of
coal for the winter, and it was graft
flying to him that he would not be
forced to economic. 1t was about
five O'Clock in the afternoon as he
stood there, and finally he forgot about
the weather and the GOAL and remained
gazing dreamily out over the river,
watching the shadows gather, slowly
hiding the outlines on the Illinois
shore and darkening the intervening
eddies until the broad tossing expanse
of water seemed to the man at the
window made up of thousands of
black imps fighting desperately over
something, maybe for possession of a
dead man drifting along on the sands
below. Somewhat imaginative was
the man at the window, and on this
occasion more than ordinarily so. 1t
was the room of working man, but
there were a few books about, and
the one lying on chair was open at
1.-The Story of A. Gordon Pym the
worst kind of reading for twilight.
A rather original fellow, this John
Twist, an honest, somewhat philo-
sophical and altogether unfortunate
man, with vein of romance in him.
His real name was not John Twist,
but John something else. The
Twist" had been bestowed by his
f-p,,rb lahprincr app,naninnc haoauca
they CHANGED not to know his proper
name, and because of queer twist he
had in one Of his legs, which had been
broken and made him walk with gro
tesque kind of a limp. His age might
have been thirty, and it might have
been thirty-tive, you couldn't tell by
looking at him.
He stood at the window watching
the river until it became dark, and
then he sat down in one of the rickCtv
chairs tho room afforded, and fell to
thinking again. He was mentally
comparing the approaching New
Years Day with similar holidays in
the past, and the expression upon his
face failed to indicate satisfactory re-
suit. Translated, his thoughts ram
bled on somewhat in this style:
Ten years isn't very long time.
but there's a big difference. l couldn't
reasonably complain of the outlook ten
years ago. l liked the work on that
Minnesota farm. and l liked the pros
pect. looking forward TO the time when
I'd have Hetty and we'd own the little
place alongside her fathers. Not
much of an ambition, but very COM
Portable. Then the miserable quarrel
with Hetty, and the river life, and the
accident Gripping me, and then this
kind of an existence-levee work! It's
pretty fought Wonder what's become
of Hettyf Married. probably, to some
big-chested fellow, and settled down
alongside the old folks. Well, it's
been bad for me and is bad yet, but III
face it somehow. I'd like to know
about Hetty."
He dopped off to sleep in his chair
and dreamed with double nightmare
power He thought himself on the
Minnesota farm again on good terms
with Hetty and all the world. Then
various queer things happened. Hetty
eloped with A. Gordon Pym, in a
hight wagon drawn by Brobdingnag-
ian gold-bug. He started holly in
pursuit, when he was caught up by a
huge bird and carried off, suspended
by his clothing to the North pole, just
as Uncle Sam is in the pictures on the
Soda-fountains. After trouble with
the polar bears, he got away to Tar
tary where kubla Khan's great-great-
great-great-grandson. the Khan of
hrueltusk. consigned him to the yelled
prophet of khorassan, to he boiled in
acaldron of hot pitch. He got away
again only to fall into difficulty with
two mandarins in China, Fou Fou and
harl-KarL They wanted to cut his
head Oft for button for the cap of the