Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-05-22

as soon as the servants began to stir at
five o'clock in the morning, could go
to bed and get three or four hours sleep
anyway. 1t was idle; after I had made
myself comfortable, and opened
my book. the words ran togeth-
er, and it was impossible to at
tach any sense to them, and what
the book was all about L haven't the
least idea. There was will, and a love
affair, and murder, and a changing
of children in the cradle, but couldn't
imagine how people could write and
expect one to be interested in these
trifing things when such trouble as
mine was in the world. | heard the
clock strike the slow quarters, and then
strike twelve. | put the book away,
and got my sewing. But that was no
better, for after few stitches it oc-
CURED to me that my light, streaming
through the open folding-doors aud OUT
of those shItterless back windows with
only the lace curtains for screen, was
a direct invitation TO those strolling beg
sars of the back alley, and l tossed
down my work, and turned down the
gas, and thought would 60 and sit by
the glimmer of the Latrobe IN the back
room. How still the night was! lis
tened, and listened, and listened, till
my ears were strained. Now and then
some street singers wandering along
their way. far off, and seemed to be the
only people in the universe; now and
then the slow and heavy foot of pc
liceman sounded In some square. L
II, IL. otr low
hurried home with ringing steps; but
all that was comfort, and not at all sus-
picious. At last, however, | heard it
what / had been listening for, Of
course; d humping and humping to
which my heart beat an echo; and then
a hurrying and scurrying and scratch
ing that told me the rats were stealing
the patatoes in the cellar. [ breathed
more freely; it was actually something
agreeable to feel even the rats alive In
the neighborhood, as long as they did
not forsake the cellar for any other
place. Cats then; the rattle of window
sashes; SCOT falling down the chimney;
the starting of some timber Or some
spike-all the noises without source
that one hears at night, as if they were
part of the stirring of the springs In the
earth, came along after that i'll slow
succession, and the clock struck one.
was wretchedly sleepy now. Even
sitting bolt-upright IN my chair and
FACILITATING with fear, it was all | could
do to keep awake, when suddenly L
started as if there had never been such
thing as sleep in the world. There it
was-a stealthy, muffled movement at
the cellar grating at the front of the
old house, a lifting of the iron, a rattling
of the glass, leap, a fall, q smothered
curse-there was somebody in the Gel
lar! My heart stood still; my voice
was utterly gone; if my life had de-
pended on it, could not have spoken.
Death and destruction in the shape of
that burglar, were stealing nearer every
minute. | was sure that there was an
accOmplice in the house, in my room.
[ expected he would presently pounce
on me and pinion me. / half rose to es-
cape through one of the front windows,
but remembered that had nailed them
down-and that if it were not SO, l
could not have left the chair into which
[ fell back. 1t seemed to me | heard
the low regular breathing of the &C
complete; and then, all at once, was
sure | heard something very different,
something that set the blood bubbling
IN my veins as music never did before
the subdued whistling of familiar
strain beneath my feet, and Recognized
that it was Tom, the sculllOn, who had
been belated, and was now keeping his
courage alive. But before l could
speak to Tom he had crept up the
stairs and was beyond my reach; and l
was too proud, after ali, to seek any
one in the house and let the torture |
was suffering be known.
All was still again. The distant clock
struck two. But in the silence itself it
seemed to me [ heard that breath 60
on, as one hears a sound in the hollow
of ones hand. I was absolutely sure
of it. | had that vague sense Of the
presence of somebody In the room
which everybody has known. | re-
mem 5ered a story had once read Of a
person waking to find mailman in the
room, and nearing his fingers feel along
the wall paper, the sound drawing near
er. 1t grew so real to me, as | dwelt
on it with this sense that troubled me,
that felt [ must scream or die, and |
couldn't have screamed if [ had died.
Isuppose that 1 must have fallen
asleep in my chair in spite of myself
then; | hardly could have tainted, |
think, for when | awoke with start it
was striking three; and the gas, al
though had turned it down, was burn
ing more brightly, perhaps because
turned off nearly every where else in
town. Involuntrily l turned my head,
and there at one of the long back win
dows stood great shadow, the thing
that had awakened me, a great black
outline, huge man, 4 negro, looking IN
OH me. Whether it was hOuse-breaker
who, seeing me, decided that [ was sit
ting up for my husband, and he would
be too soon interrupted to make his
venture, or whether it was one of the
colored policemen, who had come to
ward us that the alley door, with all Its
cracks, was fastened only by a chip, l
never knew; for, this time, | tainted in
reality, and the whole world slipped
away from me into dead blackness.
When l came to myself, as the saying
is, | was lying back among the cushions
of the armchair, and as my eyes open
ed on that dreadful window l saw that
it was vacant, and nothing had been
disturbed. [ sat up for moment, feel
ing deathly sick. 1t was of no use to
struggle, | saw; let the worst happen, L
must go to bed. turned the gas down
still lower, undressed myself as best l
could, got my night dress from the
wardrobe where it hung, and pinned
inside it all the money that Reuben had
left me, being in to great a hurry him
colE 10 Ia The l,r,l- al Ic,,.acit II