Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-12-16

instead OF entering the stralnlng basket,
fell upon her feet and burned them Be-
verely. She dropped the kettle and
gave vent to n shrek of agony, which
speedily brought Panfila to the spot.
"Accursed one twice accursed one
thrice accursed one p screamed the old
woman, transformed into a basilisk
You can't think of anything except
getting married. May God permit that
you may marry the devilp
A few days later young man, coming
from no one knew where, made his ap-
pearance in the town. He paid ardent
court to Panfila, and soon proposed to
her. Panfila, wild with joy, accepted
him. He entreated Aunt Holofernes to
give her consent to the match, but the
old woman savagely refused. Then no
gave her several valuable presents Che
was reputed to be immensely rich), and
she recons1dered her refusal, and reluct-
antly gave him permission TO marry her
daughter.
Preparations for the wedding were at
once commenced. While they were in
progress the voice of the people began
to rise in denunciation of the stranger.
1t is true that he was handsome, and
generous, and aflable, and was not above
clasping i'll his white, jeweled fingers
the black, horny palms of the humblest
laborers :, but they were not to be won
over to him by his courtesy and conde-
Scension; their opinion of him, though
as rough, was also as hard and solid as
their hands.
The more Aunt Holofernes gazed at
her future son-in-law, the more she
disliked his looks. In spite of his thick
hair, her keen eyes detected upon his
Uranium certain protuberances that are
not to be seen upon the heads of saints,
and she remembered with dread those
terrible words that she had hurled Mt hor
daughter that memorable day when she
burned her foot with the boiling lye.
At length the we4ding-day arrived
Aunt Holofernes had made cakes and
refections-the first sweet, and the lat.
ter bitter; she had provided an oUo
podrida for dinner and q harmful pro
ject for supper; and she had prepared
barrel of wine that was very mellow ane
generous, and plan of conduct that was
very far from being entitled to those
epithets.
When the newly y-married couple were
about to retire TO the nuptial chamber,
Aunt Holofernes called her daughter
aside and whispered these words in her
ear:
As soon as yUu get in your room fas-
ten all the doors and windows, and close
every aperture except the keyhole. Then
take branch of blessed olive and wave
u Ger your husband. This ceremony is
customary in weddings, and signifies
that within the house the man is to be in
subjection to the woman.
Panfila, obedient for the first time in
her life, promised to do all that her
mother commanded.
When the bridegroom saw the branch
Of olive in the hand Of the bride he ut
tered shrek Of terror, glanced wildly
around in search of some place of exit,
and then made frantic dive through
the kcyhole for be it known that the
husband Of Panfila was, as Aunt Holo-
fernes had suspected, the devil in per-
son. The sable individual is accredited
by fame with a great deal Of knowledge,
but he learned to his cost that his mother
in-law knew far more than he just as
he was congratulating himself on having
made his escape, he found himself a close
prisoner in n bottle, the mouth of which
the old woman had applied to the key
hole. In tones most humble, and gest-
ures most pathetic, he entreatcd her to
set him at liberty +; but she resolutely re-
fused. Hobbling up a neighboring
mountain ohb dtl'Ooltti VIC hbtllt upon
the summit, shook her withcred fist
aifectionately in her son-in-law's face,
and returned home rejoicing.
On the summit of that mountain his
Satanic Majesty remained ten years.
During that time the earth was as tran
quill as a pool of oil. Everybody at
tended to his own business instead OF
his neighbor's; robbery came to be a
word without Specification weapons
moldered, gunpowder was consumed
only in artifc fcial fires, the prisons we're
empty; in fact, during this decade only
one deploreble event happened the
lawyers all died of starvation
But, alas this happy period could not
last forever. Everything in this world
has to have an end, except the discourses