, 1880-09-10
that Deceiving Hammock.

..Ive been a foot |" gragIeI. Harper
Yesterday as he united parcel in his
front yard and shook out new ham
mock. "Here I've been looping around
all through this internal hot spell when
| might Iust as well have been swinging
in hammock and have my blistered
back cooled off by the breezes,"
Anyone can put up hammock. All
you've got to. do is to unite about SOC
knots, unravel about 500 snarls, and
work over the thing until you can tell
whether the open side was meant to &c
up or down. This puzzled Harper TO.
fully twenty minutes, but he finally got
it right and fastened the ends TO two
convenient. trees, , s.-e
Then he took off his hat and coat and
rolled in with great sigh of relief.
No, he didn't quite roll in. He was all
ready to when the hammock walked
away from him, and he rolled over on
the grass and came to stop with a Gro
quetl ball under the small of his back.
% "Did you mean to do that ?" called a
boy who was looking over the fence and
slowly chewing away on green apples. i
"Did IL OF course l did Git
down ofsn that fence or III call police
man I" r
The boy slid down and Harper brought
UP a lawn chair for the next move. It's
the easiest thing in the world to drop off
a chair into a hammock. Lots of men
would be willing to do it on salary of
$l0per week. The trouble with Har
per was that he didn't drop all bis body
at once The upper half got into the
hammock all rigat, but the lower half
kicked and thrashed around on the grass
until the small boy, gwhoy didn't mean to
leave the neighborhood until the show
was out, felt called upon to exolaim
,...You can't turn handspring with
your head allIwoqnd up.in that ere net,
and III bet you money on it !" ~.
Harper suddenly rested from his
labors to rise up and shake his fist at
the young VILLAIN, but that didn't help
the case a, bit He hadn't got into that
hammock yet. He carefully looked the
case over, and decided that he had his
plans too bigb. He therefore lowered
the net to within two feet Of the ground,
and he had il dead sure. He fell into
it as plump as d bag Of shot going down
a well. He felt around to see if he was
all in, and then gave him swing. No
person can be happy in a hammock un-
less the hammock has, pendulum mo-
tiop, This hammock Of Harper's was
just getting the regular saltwater swing
when his knots united and he came
down on the broad of his back with
such ajarthat the small boy felt called
upon to obseryez:aiaiow ,rt.-a
p "That amt no way to level lawn
you want to use regular roller"
2 o After the Hvictim9 had recovered con-
sciousness hefeTawled slowly out, gently
rubbed his back on an apple tree, and
slowly disappeared around the corner Of
the house in search Of some weapon
which would annihilate the hammock
at one sweep, and though the boy called
to him again and again, asking il a
minstrel performance was to follow the
regular Snow, Mr.. Harper never turned
his head nor made sign. 1 g
"This is a nice time Of night for you
20 be coming in, said mother to her
daughter, who retained from walk at
10 o'clock. "When l WAS like you,
continued she, ''rny mother would not
allow me ont later than 7 o'clock" ooh,
you bad nice sort of mother" mm.
mard the girl 81 had, you young
JADE said the mother, "a nicer mother
than ever you had"