The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-01-25

Flittertip looked thoughtful; and they
all walked to where the carriage was
waiting. Before going away he said, /"
am deeply sorry for your friend, DR..
Lindsay. May ask if it would hurt him
II l had an interview with him; though
I'm afraid my purchase of the estate will
DC out OF the question now"
dare say you can see him, !" said
Lindsay, with some doubts in his mind.
"Very well, will call on him the day
after tomorrow" said Flittertip, and they
drove away.
They had no sooner gone than the sup
posed lunatic came up in high glee 10
Lindsay.
"Well," he said, roaring with laugh
ter, didn't do the trick beautifully.
Did you ever see anybody 50 scared, and
how magnificently tomatoed the old girl
in the back" And Mr.. Bollop began to
caper about in a fashion which would have
justified any one in regarding him as
really mad.
g Yes; think you frightened them, ~
said Tom.
"And he'll not take the place now,"
said Bollop.
mo; believe not" replied Lindsay,
"but he says he's coming over to see you
the day after tomorrow"
"Indeed!' said Bollop. "Then shall
have to do the lively lunatic again. All
right, I'll worry him."
Yes; you'll have to keep up the char
acter," Tom answered: but in his own
mind he was little troubled. Flittertip
might be foolish and frivolous, but Tom
didn't like his look as he went away.
However, there was nothing to be done
now but to 60 on with the masquerade
Bollop was in high spirits. insisted on
Tom dining with him that night, wore
his wreath triumphantly, and nearly fud-
died himself by toasting the Lunacy Com
missioners in successive bumpers of port.
In fact, Tom felt like the wizards ap.
prentice in Goethe's ballad, who, having
raised spirit, could not lay it. Old
BollOp was so charmed with the part he
had played, that he was with difficulty
restrained from wearing his wreath in the
village, and he INDUCED in such antics in
his own garden that his cook contided to
Rose that she believed master was "a lit
tie queer in his head"
The day arrived on which Mr.. Filter
tip was to call, and Tom found, rather to
his disgust, that he had to go off to an ur-
gent case in distant village. He had
intended to be present at the interview,
for there was evidently danger of old
Bollop's overacting the part and appear.
ing too mad. But as there was no help
for it, Mr.. Jerry had to he left to him.
self, and Tom, with many misgivings,
drove away, leaving him trying on new
wreath and arranging his drawing-roOm
in as eccentric q fashion as he could de.
wise.
When he returned in the evening he
found that the visit had been made and
Bollop was more triumphant than ever.
Flittertip had come, he said, with two
friends Lindsay wondered what that
meanD to see him and look over the place
again, and he had given him another
fright and sent him away more disguised
than ever. Questioned as to the strang-
ers, he said they had only stayed short
time and then driven away. Flittertip
had remained and tried to soothe him,
but had finally retired on a threat of an
other shower of tomatoes. On the whole
BollOp had spent a merry afternoon, but
Tom began to wonder how this mad mas
Queradc would end.
Next morning he heard some news
which made him still more uncomfOrta-
BILE. In the first place he learned that
Flittertip had taken up his quarters at
the village inn for few days; and in
the second one of his patients informed
him that the two visitors whohad arrived
with Flittertip the previous day were
doctors from the neighbOring town.
Tom saw the situation at once. Filter
tip meant war. He had brought couple
of medical men over to certify to Bollop's
insanity, and the next move would be the
conveyance of Mr.. Jerry to the nearest
asylum. The Honorable Ferdinand was
modern edition of Lord Foppington, in
some respects; but here was evidence of
an amount of sagacity which might bring
Jerry's performance of the lively lunatic
to a painful termination.
1t was clear that Bollop must he warned
at once, and DR.. Tom went off and in
formed that worthy of his peril, urging
him to go away for a few days, and un-
dertaking to make his peace with Filter
tip. But it was useless. Bollop's blood
was up at the bare idea. He had delight
ed in pretending to be mad, but he was
furious at the thought of his sanity being
seriously called in question. He told
Lindsay, CURLY, that he could take care
of himself, and vowed eternal vengeance,
very illogically, on the head of Flittertip.
But BollOp was more alarmed at the
doctors news than he confessed, and he
was puzzling his brains how to get him.
self out of the scrape, when fortune fav-
ored him in very unexpected manner.
He stayed at home all the morning, in
a rather perturbed state of mind, but in
the afternoon he ventured out for walk.
He took the road toward the country
town, and as he started he noticed Filter.
tip lounging about in the park, not far
from his garden wall. He was evidently
on the watch, thought Bollop, and he
longed to resume his character and assail
him again with tomatoes.
As Mr.. jeremiah Bollop walked medi-
tatively along the road, he presented the
spectacle of highly respectable gentle
man of mature years engaged in a quiet
constitutional. He looked like o man
who had been long resident in the neigh
borhood, and who would therefore he
capable of affording any information con-
corning it.
He was evidently regarded in this light
by two men, strangers rs ii appeared, who
were driving toward Raeburn in a phaeton.
As they came up with Jerry they stopped,
and asked him civilly If he would be
good enough to show them which was Mr..
BOllop's house.
jeremiah was rather startled for q mo.
ment, but he recovered his self-possession
and saw exactly how things stood. Here
were his would-be captors; how was he
to put them off the scent? He was just
going to answer, when the man continued,
" and we want to get to the George sir,
the village inn; we have to meet Mr..
Flittertip there"
A plan of deliverance and revenge
flashed across Bollop's mind in moment.
These were the men from tine asylum,
that was certain now. And they knew