The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-09-10
NUMBER 80.
NICODEMUS DODGE.

teeth, laid him low, and said with cOmposure:
''Wha's the boss %
'1'm the boss, >" said the editor, following
this curious bit of architecture wonderfully
along up to its clock face with his eye.
Don't want anybody fur to learn the bus
mess, tain't likely?''
''WeI, don't know. Would you like to
learn ft?''
"Pap's so pO' he can't run me no more,
so I want to get show somers, if l can, 'tain't
no difference what-I'm strong and hearty,
ard don't turn my back on no kind of work,
hard nur SOFT
'Do you think you would like to learn the
printing business ?"
"Wen, don't rely k'yer a durn what 1
do learn, SOS 1 git chance fur to make my
way. I'd jist as soon learn print'n's any
thing
'Can you read q"
"Yes-middlin'.'
''Write %
"WeH, I've seed people could lay over me
thar"
"Cipher?''
'rNot good enough to keep store, don't
reckon, but as fur as twelve times twelve
amt no slouch. 'Tother side of that is what
gifts me-
"Whcre is your home ?
"I'm from old Shelby
"What's your fathers religious denomina-
ton 20
Him? Oh, he's blacksmith"
"No, no-I don't mean his trade. What's
his religious denomination p"
COIL didn't understand you befo'. He's
a Freemason.
Mono, you don't get my meaning yet
What l mean is, does he belong to any
church p"
"Now you're talkin' Couldn't make out
what you was trying to git through yo' head
no way. Blong to church Why boss,
he's been the pizinest kind OF FreewiIl
Baptis for forty years. They amt no pizen-
er ones'n he is. Mighty good man, pap is
Everybody says that. If they said any dif-
ferunt they wouldn't scd it where / WIS
not much they wouldn't"
"What is your own religion %
"Wen, boss, you've kind o. got me thar
and yit you hain't got me so mighty much
nuther. think t if feller he'ps another
when he's in trouble, and don't cuss, and
don't do any mean things, nor nuthn' he
amt no business to do and don't spell the
SaYior's name with little g, he amt run
min no resks-he's about as saift as if he
b'longcd to a church.
"But suppose he did spell it with little G
what then -
''Nell, if he done it a-purpOse, l reckon he
wouldn't stand no chance, anyway, I'm most
rotten certain bout that"
"What is your name?"
ssNicOdemus Dodup -
81 think maybe you'll do, Nicodemus.-
Wen give you a tIial, anyway
Gan right
'When would you like to begin ?''
"Now.''
So, within ten minutes after we had first
glimpsed this nondescript he was one Of US,
and with his coat off and hard at It,
Beyond that end of our establishment
which was furthest from the street was a de-
serted garden, pathless, and thickly grown
with the gloomy and villianOus 'jimpson'
weed and its common friend the stately sun
flower. In the midst of this moumful spot
was a decayed and aged little frame" house
with but one room, one window and no cell
ing-it had been a smoke-house a generation
before. Nicodemus was given this lonely
, and ghoStly den as bed chamber,
The village smarties recognized 4 treasure
in NicOdemus, right away-a butt to play
jokes on. 1t was easy to see that he was in
conceivably green and confiding. George
Jones had the glory of perpetTating the first
joke ON him, lie gave him a cigar with a
fire-craeker in it, and winked to the crowd
to come; the thing exploded presently and
swept away the bulk of Nicodemus' eve
brows and eyelashes. lie simply said
"I consider them kind of seeg' vars danger
some, and seemed to suspect nothing. The
next evening Nicodemus waylaid George
and poured n bucket of ice water over him.
One day, while Nieodcmus was i'm swim
ming, Tom McElroy "tied'' his clothes. Mic
odemus made bonfire of Toms by way of
retaliation.
third joke was played upon Nicodemus
day or two later-he walked up the middle
aisle of the village church. Sunday night,
with a staring handbill pinned upon his
shoulders. The joker spent the rest of the
night, after church, in the cellar of desert
ed house. and Nicodemus sat on the cellar
! door till toward breakfast time, to make sure
1 that the prisoner remembered that il any
noise was made some rough treatment would
feet OF stagnant water i'm it, and was bottom
ed with six inches of soft mud
But wander from the point. 1t was the
subject of skeletons that brought this boy
back to my recollection. Before a long time
had elapsed the village smaTties began tC
| feel an uncomfortable consciousness of no.
/ having made a very shining success out OF
/ their attempts on the SimplctOn of ''Old Shell
by" Experiments grew scarce and chaTy.
/ Now the young doctor came to the rescue
/ There was delight and applause when he
proposed to them the plan of frightening
I Nieodemus to death, and explained how he
/ was going to- do it. lie had noble new
skeletoH-tlIe skeleton Of the late and only
local celebrity, Jimmy Finn, the village
drunkard-a grisly piece of property he had
bought of Jimmy Finn himself, at auction
Cor fifty dollars, under great competition
when Jimmy lay very sick in the tan-y ard a
fortnight before his death. The fifty dollars
had gone promptly for whiskey, and had
considerably hurried up the change of own
ership in the skeleton. The doctor would
put Jimmy Finn's skeleton in NicOdemus
( bed.
This was done-abOut halt-past ten in the
evening. About Nicodemus' usual bedtime