The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-01-11
JOHN AND HETTY.

OOAA " ISL SIOOu III HIS IUOm 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 andsit was graft.
flying to him t4ehe would not be
forced to econol66. It was about
five O'Clock in th6fternoon as he
stood there ,and fna13S he forgot about
the weather and the Dial and remained
gazing dreamily out over the river,
watching the shadows gather, slowly
hiding the outline of 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 a working man, but
there were few books about, and
the one lying on chair was open at
''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 vien of romance in him.
His real name was not John Twist,
but John something else. The
rough, laboring companions, because
they chanced not to know his proper
name, and because Of a queer twist he
had in one of his legs, which had been
broken and made him walk with gro.
tesque kind Of limp. His age might
have been thirty, and it mil ght have
been thirty-five, you couldn't tell by
looking at him.
lie stood at the window watching
the river until it became dark, and
then he sat down in one of the rickety
chairs the room afforded, and fell tO
thinking again. He was mentally com.
pairing the approaching New Year 'sDay
with such holidays in the past, and the
expression on his face failed to indicate
a satisfactory result. Translated, his
thoughts rambled on somewhat in this
style:
"Ten years ISM a very long period
of time, but there's a big difference.
couldn't reasonably complain of the
outlook ten years ago. I liked the
work on that Minnesota farm, and the
prospect, 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 crippling me, and then this
kind OF existence-levee work 1t is
pretty tough! Wonder whats become
of Hetty? 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 I'll
face it somehow. Id like to know about
Hetty."
He dropped off to sleep in his chair
and dreamed with double nightmare
power. He thought himself on the
Minnesota farm again on good terms
with Hettie and all the world. Then
various queer things happened. Het-
ty eloped with A. Gordon Pym, in a
light wagon drawn by Brobdingnag-
ian gold-bug. He started h0tly in pur.
suit, 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 ears, he got away to Tar.
tary where Kubla Kahn's great-great.
great-great-grandson, the Kahn of
Krueltusk, consigned him to the yelled
prophet Of khorasssan, to be boiled in
caldron of hot pitch. He got away
again only to fall into difficulty with
two mandarins in China, Fou Fou and
Hari.Kari. They wanted to cut his
head Off for button for the cap of the
great Panjandrum, but he escaped
while they were fighting for the honor
of carrying the button. lie fled into
India, and the great Grimgrafin of
Eversobad gobbled him instanter.
Again he escaped by marvellous luck
and was chased for seven days and
nights by a company of thugs all rid
ing Brahmins pickaback. He crawled
into a big cannon on a big fort for d
hiding place, and then there was q
skip Of some years until the Prince OF
Wales came to India. They touched
off the big cannon by way of ce!ebra
tion, and John Twist was shot back in
to his own room on the levee in mo-
ment. lie awoke, cold and cramped
1t is not difficult to have fantastic
dreams, especially in a chair in a room
on the levee. He got up and went te
bed and slept better.
II.
MISS HET1Y PARKER. ):