St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-05-25

he amt been out of town since to put
'em in any other bank. Aud he's afraid
of bankers, he-he-he, the fool =
"The man with the lamp looked
round and says, is all the winders
covered up all right p And Arthur
oh, dear he nodded, and the mean
man says, Now, spy round sharpr
$50 they pulled out the draws in
that bureau, aud the table draw and
looked in the top of the stove, and all
round, but they\ne thought of the
shot-bag. And then l noticed that
lamp begun to flicker, flicker, puff, puff,
puff, not very fast so did the short
man, for he says, "What the devil ails
the thingq'
"'Wants oil praps,' says the other.
SO they didn't think no more about it.
And they KEEP on lookin' ;\and 1 KEEP
on lOOkin', but couldn't do nothin', for
| was stiff with fright. The lamp KEEP
goin' siz, flicker, puff siz, flicker, puff /;
puff, puff, puff, fast and hard. At last
the short man got mad about the money,
and says,
" 1T amt here. Mebbe it's in that
room,' pointing again toward me. They
was the other side of the room, and
they started toward me the short man
comm first, holdin' the lamp in front
of him, and Arthur Ja-Oh he come
behind. They KEEP comm, comm, step
by step, talkin' and scoldin' about
where they'd hid that money and it
seemed as if froze up and the lamp
all the time KEEP goin' puff, puff, siz,
flicker, puff; and the light gOin' down,
and the chimbly gettin' smoky, and the
short man was jest putin out his hand
to my door when there was a sudden
great blaze and awful bustin' noise,
and glass abreakin', and groan and a
man runnin'. | didn't know what to
do. And after IA second or two / made
up to look through that crack again
for | see it was light outside and | was
afeared the house would burn up, and
| see-Oh awful IA man lynn there
still as death, and his clOes afire, and
kerrsen aburnin' on the floor, for there
wasn't no carpet. And | don't know
how | ever got up spirit anOugh, but
opened that door and | snatched a pail
of water and poured it all over that
man and | rushed into the bedroom
for a comf'table and spread it over the
floor and got on the top of it and
stamped, and stamped, and in a mint
there wasn't no fire. And then | reach
ed up and made a grab for the shot
pouch, and ran off down the road
can go pretty fast yet, Mister Jones
down to Hagley's folks. AS good luck
would have it, the baby had the measles
and some of 'em was up and let me in.
Then | told 'em about it, and Hagley
and his boy Jim and the hired man got
| n tn ah 1 n Lon
tern. Oh it was awful! They found
that man stun-dead. A piece of that
kerrisen lamp had gone right into him
and made great hole. Ough fearful
| never could look at him. I'd seen all
/ wanted to. They told me about it ;
that was anough for me-"
"He was j. o. F., was he ?" the lank
Jones inquired.
"He was j. o. F. Grundell found
out he was Il reg'lar bugler by trade,
and he had him laid out in the grave
yard very respectfully. Grundell set
up that stone, and | made up them
lines, and he cut 'em in himself; and
not wantin' to say anythin' bad of a
dead man, we only put it that he died
'by lamp not statin' how"
"Well but who was the other man
Arthur who 2"
"Oh won't tell. Some few knows
it. but not many. let him know pref
ty soon after that see him, and said
I'd never tell no one who it was if he'd
never do anythin' of the kind again.
Bnt he run away pretty soon after that,
and like to broke his poor mothers
heart, the dear soul They think he's
gone to Californy."
Then the lank and specialized Jones
thanked Mrs. Grundell for the story OF
j. o. F. and the lamp; and departed
for the home of his beloved Susanna
meditating, as he walked thither, upon
the veriticatiOn, in a special instance
of the statement that no home is with
out its skeleton.-C Christian Union.