Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-03-15
Gathered In.

LAST Sunday, a boy walked into the
Methodist Church and sat down in a pew
as quietly as ever good boy sat down.
But the end of white string dangling
out Of his pocket trailed over the end of
the pew as he went in, and attracted the
attention of young man who sat behind
him. The young man stealthily reached
forward and got hold of that cord, and
began to pull in the slack. He didn't
think, when he began to pull, how long
that string would pay out. He pulled
about eleven yards out of the pocket, and
then began to blush and grow awful hot,
because quite number OF people around
there were looking at him. He didn't
know what to do with the string he had
already coiled up between his feet, and he
didn't know what to do with the unfailing
supply that seemed to come just as long
as he pulled. He drew ii out more and
more slowly and when he had about
eighteen fathoms out and no end yet, the
usher showed a couple of young ladies
into that pew. The guilty looking young
man got up and walked out into the aisle,
tangling his legs in the cord as he went.
The young ladies passed into the pew,
and snarled themselves up in the string,
like the lady of chalott, as they shook
themselves down on the cushion and set
tied into their places with a becoming ex-
preston of unruffied goodness. Then the
young man, who stood in the aisle with
the white cord twisted and tangled around
his black doeskins, until he looked like
huge fly that had waltzcd through a spi-
der's web, backed across the isle to let the
usher rush down after strange worship
er who was lingering just outside the
door. The usher hadn't gone three steps
before he slowed down to four miles an
hour and stepped high, and made furtive
grabs at his ankles and in several
other ways attracted the attention of
the congregation and showed very plainly
that all was not well. The young man, at
that time, was sitting down, and in his
frantic efforts to divest his legs of their
entangling alliances, was kicking the foot
stool all around, and beating an irregular
tattoo on the back of the pew with his
heels. And every time he jerked that
string the two young ladies, who were
blushing scarlet, made swift but furtive
dashes with their snowy fingers at their
restless feet And while the young man,
with every drop of blood in his system
concentrated in his head, was kicking the
stuffing out of the foot-stool and the
young ladies were doing their best to
keep him from pulling their shoes off
with that string, and the usher was
walking down the aisle stepping so fran
tically high that everybody thought his
foot must be asleep, the boys father, y no
sat in the front pew on the other side If
the church, caught the eye of his boy AID
beckoned to him. And the all-uncon-
scious boy arose and walked up the cen
ter aisle and across in front OF the pulpit,
his kite string paying out like log reel,
and stretching out behind him in long
trail, along which groups of deyout cit-
zens straddled and kicked, as though they
were so many frogs strung upon wire.
And that boy didn't know anything about
the whole affair, until the congregation
had pulled out its pocket knives and cut
his kite string into more pieces than there
were hairs in his head. And only after
they got home did that boy quite discover
his loss, and then he told his father he
couldn't imagine what mad become Of his
kite string; he had a whole bali of it
when he went into church. and there was
only little nubbin left Of it.-Burltngton
Hank EDe