The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-08-26
A TARDY REMINDER.

The backlog in our great Texas fire.
place had just been punched after an
approved method, and the flames were
leaping up as flames will ON windy
nights, roaring steadily and starting
shadow dances In the corners of the
room. Suddenly some quick change
subdued the flame till it merely hung In
the smoke above the hearth, and at this
moment most unearthly sound, ap-
psrently at our very door, startled me
into an unbecoming posture, that was
taken advantage of by my friend, who
thereupon indulged In succession of
chuckles of kind could never locate
In him. He soon recrossed his legs,
however-he could never chuckle ex-
cept with feet wide apart as he
did 10:
"You never heard screech-owl be-
fore, reckon. We hear them often in
Indiany-ofte and he added, after a
moment, more intensely, and as if a
little startled by some thought often"
"Was that an owl? Heavens it sound
ed more like the scream of locomotive
whistle"
"rve a notion of writin' home to-
night. jim"
"You have ?" It startled me almost
as much-quite in different way-as
the screech-owl's terrible song. The
words carried me back to our place of
meeting year before. Taking Mis-
sissippi river boat at Cairo, I found I
must share my state-room with another
OR rather he with me, since was the
later conner. He did not strike me
favorably at first. I was a New En-
gland boy and suspicious of everything
south of st. Louis, and this man looked
not unlike the men had been cautioned
against. He could not very well help
that, indeed, since had been warned in
very general terms That mcluded every
one did not know. However, we shook
hands, exchanged some remarks meant
to be facetious, and in few days knew
his name-William jackson.
cat home they call me Bill-short,
like myself, you see" he said, and
grinned In bashful sort Of way that
came very near to capturing me on the
spot. In fact, he was not short, but,
instead, the tallest man I ever saw of
his length of leg and body for what he
lost elsewhere he made up In neck
that never ceased to be q wonder to me.
It ran up like the watch-tower of fire.
engine house, slim and so long that,
while his shoulders barely reached mine,
his head overhung all others, and was
two inches more than six feet above the
ground. His head was large, too, and
that made his general appearance more
striking, while the general slimness OF
his body ended below In pair Of enor-
mously large feet. His face was much
tanned and smooth-shaven, except the
upper lip, which was covered by a coarse
stubble Of ferce-standing, sandy hair.
But no description of him would be
complete that did not touch on that
feature of his countenance which was Of
ten concealed entirely and which would
have made him trusted anywhere. As a
fellow-traveler said, ellis general looks
is agin him. but his mouth captures me.
He said his mouth, but he meant his
laugh-not that there was much noise
about it, but it was 30 far-reaching In ite
effect on his own person. First, around
his mouth would break two deer
wrinkles; then outside Of these two
more; and so on, on till his eyes were
brought into the whirlpool Of wrinkles
and the long standing ones on his necl
and forehead shaped themselves to the
general effect Of one supreme expression
Of delight. It was then You believed
him from your very heart. I did, and ht
never, as he himself would express it
"threw dirt on me-.
After all, he had, 80 far as I learned
little to often bring forth 30 great {
revelation on his face. But few of tn
amenities of life had been his at any time
He said little of home" somewhere il
Indiany'.-except when at one time b
spoke bitterly of his dead fathers gram
mistake I'm life, which it appeared wa
simply this, that he kept his childrel
Qboys and girls, large family on tn
farm till he died, then they came of ne
cessity out into the world to find them
selves great, grown-up babies-nothini
more-without any other feeling thal
that they must, as Jim said, "hitch O
to some one" All the girls, but on
who died, were too old to "hitch ON.
The boys did the best they could in tha
line, and after q time Jim " "hitched on
to met was IN New Orleans, after con
ing down from Cairo-and we soon b.
came what at the West they call "pards.
We were friends, at any rate, and, ha'
ing Joined forces to the amount Of abor
$3.50, were farming In Texas on poc
lands on what our landlord calle
"sheers;" that II, he furnished the tool
mules and Land and We The brains IN