The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-08-31
The Story of Three Rusty Nails.

AZ proper uOTuluS uOuI 1Ol IcSpcCId-
BILE people to be seen abroad a man about
thirty summers old was observed paving
over dirt heap near the Essex Market
he had lost the ring out of his nose or the
gruttly replied:
"B'yes; shall have to hurt some of
you if you don't 60 to keeping away from
me.''
They saw him pick up three eightpenny
nails, bent and rusty, and he slipped them
into his vest pocket and sauntered leisure
ly along to the market. The motherly
proprietor of an eating stand had just got
her table spread with all the luxuries of
the season, and as soon as she saw the
stranger she beckoned him to come nearer.
Breakfast, ell ?" she queried. "Well,
sit right down. You have come to the
best stand on this market. l assure you
| that can give you a better meal for the
money than any other lady in North
America
1t didn't take him long to sit down. He
dropped into chair as if he had on a
jacket stuffed with bars of lead. and he
fell to eating just as naturally as if he had
enjoyed three square meals per day all his
life. He didn't have much to say, but sat
there and ratified knife and fork against
his teeth and gulped down provisions as if
he had walked all the way from the Big
Horn country.
"And now don't fail to try my custard
pie," she observed, as she handed him
over pie eff there is any one special
thing | brag on it is my eustard pies.'
While she was putting more coal under
the coffee-pot the stranger might have
been seen feeling in his vest pocket. Per-
haps he was after tooth pick-perhaps
he wanted to see if his ten dollar bill was
safe.
YES; looks like a very healthy pie"
said he, as he poised his knife and fork
"I've had a great fondness for Gust bird pie
ever since l was an innocent child. This
particular pie looks
He stopped there. For some reason
the knife would not go down TO the lower
crust, and custard pie ought to cut as slick
as grease, but this one wouldn't. The
man sawed away, rose up and sawed
again, and as the woman wondered what
on earth was the matter, he dipped in his
fork and raised rusty nail on line with
her eyes.
'.My stars!" she gasped, as she took the
nail in her trembling fingers.
II should think So" he grimly replied.
'Let's investigate little further
a second nail came up on the tines of
the fork, and the woman whispered:
How on earth did they get there:'
Yes, just so,' he replied, going down
for the third nail.
The three nails were laid in row on
the table between them, and, clearing his
throat, the man scowled tiercely at the en-
barrassed female, and said
woman, never was there more das-
tardly attempt to take human life!'
"1-I-!" she stammered.
"Would-be murderess, keep silencer
he interrupted. 'Was it your fiendish
plan to spike my breakfast to my lungs,
or did you anticipate that would get
one of those nails crossways of my tho
rax?"
May Heaven, forgive me; but such
thing never happened BEFORE" she
whispered. a
"Do you know, arch traitoress," he
continued, that when a rusty nail comes
in contact with custard pie the pie is at
once transformed from healthy dessert
to virulent poison? Oh! of course you
know it. The plot was to poison me and
get possession of my funds!'
+ So help me Heaven! l never dreamed,
of such a thing!' she replied. "How
them nails got there I don't know, but
such a thing never happened before.
There isn't more tidy stand on this
market" '.-' =, I =
~ have no time to halt until a legal in ]
vestigation can be made" he said, as he
wiped off his chin. 1T may be mis-
take; perhaps 1 could put you in prison
for life. You may feel grateful that am
the good hearted man I am "a = q
She didn't ask any pay and he moved
on. 1t was half an hour before police
man came along and heard her story and
posted the man as a fraud. She hurried
hand and big fork in the other, and was
last seen falling over baby cart on the
sidewalk.-N. 7. Herald. -