The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-02-07
Milllkens' Grief,

rains had filled the cistern up so finely,
too. 1t had been perfectly empty, and
Mr.. Millikens had Just got it cleaned
and fixed up in time for the welcome
showers which filed it with an abund-
ance of nice pure water. And the next
morning Mr.. Millikens delivered his
family touching lecture on the bles-
sings of water, and in his beautiful and
vivid imagery, he quite surpassed the
Davidson fountain. And then when he
stopped the car at Maple street night
before last and walked rapidly to his
happy home. how do you suppose he
felt when his staring children met him
at the gate and yelled in excited chorus !:
"Oh pa, pa, pa, Mrs. Muggridgers'
cat went and fell down our cistern and
drowned |"
Mr.. Millikens always did hate that
cat of the Muggridgers'. A great
brindled monster, with only one eye
and the hair scalded off its TAIL it had
killed more little chickens in the Milli-
kens' coops than there are rats in Iowa,
and many time and oft, she had
found her way into the Millikens cellar
and filed her bloated form with cream
and sirloin steaks. Aud Mr.. Millikens
could not remember the number of
times he had sprained his arm and
nearly threw his shoulder out of joint
i'll huling bricks at that cat, which
would sit ON the back fence, singing
serenades aud win1ing placidly at him
with Its lone eye, and wondering what
all the racket was about. That cat had
been the chairman of the anti-midnight
district central committee for three
years, and had attended more caucuses
and called more conventions in Milli-
kens' back yard than it had hairs on its
back. 1t had made the summer nights
burden to Millikens all its life, and
now it had drowned itself in his cistern
1t was piece of demoniacal spite
work. You couldn't make Millikens
believe otherwise there was terrible,
fiendish intelligence in that cat, and its
desire to torment Millikens had been
greater than its love of life. Ever
since Millikens had scalded the hair off
its tail he had been expecting some
thing like this.
If it had been decent kind of a cat,
he said, as he pulled off his coat, tucked
his trousers in his boots and began the
painful labor Of emptying the cistern
with bucket, he might have stood it to
get the cat out, and go on using the
water but that one-eyed, rat-tailed,
hideous, serenade screecher, faugh! The
disgusting thing, he would never use the
cistern again; he would fill it up as soon
as he got the water out, and would dig
another one Dog gone the cat, he said.
He toiled manfrlly ON, and the water
grew lower with terrible slowness. He
felt the bucket strike the hody of the
floating cat several times, but he hadn't
hauled it up yet. He kept on tugging
at the bucket rope till his arms ached.
And his back. And his legs. And his
head.
No, he snappishly told Mrs. Millikens
wasn't coming to supper till he had
it was spelling. What2 Well, let the
flies eat everything up, he didn't care
he could eat the flies, he reckoned (sar-
castically), couldn't he? Hey Well,
he didn't care if it did take him week,
he was going to keep at it till it was
emptied. Dog gone the cat, he wished
1t was Muggridger himself that was in
the cistern. Blast cat, anyhow.
How he did haul water, and splash his
clothes and sweat and swear, aud how
the neighbor's wives hung over the front
fence and talked glibly to Mrs. Milli-
kenS about the catastro,,le o, ~..l livm LIE
wished tney We're all in with the cat.
And Mrs. Muggrider came and hung
over the fence and wept, and told won
derful stories of that cats sogacity and
its affection for children. "Affections
for my Chickens" Millikens muttered.
And the women talked and iabbered, and
pitied Mrs. Muggrider more than if il
had been one of the children that had
been drowned. Millikens toiled on, his
face very hot at being made the focus of
so many eyes. Dog gone the dog-gonned
cat to thunder, he said, with considera-
BILE asperity. How he did hate cats, he
said.
The cistern was getting pretty low
now. The sun had gone down behind
the western hills, in a glory of peaceful
eplendor, and the ruddy tints of the dy-
ing day touched the clouds and sky with
serene, solemn beauty, almost too
ethereal to hang over a world tainted
with the blight of sin and one-eyed cats.
The noisy prattlers at the front fence
felt the hallowed influence of the hour,
and Silence laid her fingers on their lips.
Only Milliken's stertorous breathing aud
the plash, plash of the bucket broke the
oppressive silence. Thank heaven, Milli-
kens sighed, it is nearly empty.
Miau- u-ow-ow-oow
A weird, unearthly shrek that curdled
the blood in the bravest heart, and made
Millikens drop bucket, rope and every
thing down into the cistern. He stood
up and glared in speechless amazement
at Muggridger's cat, perched on the back
fence, which winked pleasantly at hin,
with its lone eye, and went on calling
the names of the delegates. There
wasn't damp hair on it. When Milli-
kens could speak, he called his children
and savagelv demanded what they meant
by telling him that lie about the cat.
Well, pa, they said, "we thought
it fell down the cistern. anyhow; but we
couldn't see very well just where it did
go. and maybe it only run around the
box"
There was weeping and wailing in
Millikens' house that night, but long
after the sobbing children had found a
place they could lie on without bowling,
the voice of Muggridger's cat was dis
tinctly heard closing the debate, which
had been unusually long and stormy, in
an eloquent argument against the ad-
mission of violin strings free Of duty.
Millikens heard every word of it, and he
pounded his pillow and Topped over to a
new position.
"Dog gone that cat |" he said.-Bur-