The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-09-24

little g-what then"
"Well. II he done it a-purpose,
reckon ne wouldn't stand no chance
be oughtn't to have no chance, any way,
I'm most rotten certain bout that.n
"What is your nameP"
"Nicodemus Dodge
81 think maybe you'll do, Nicodemus.
Wen give you trial, anyway"
"All right"
"When would you like to beginP"
Now"
So, within ten minutes after we had
first glimpsed this nondeseript, he was
one of us, and with his coat off and hard
att.
Beyond that end of our establishme ent
which was furthest from the street was
ideserted garden, painless, and thickly
grown with the gloomy and villianouS
"jmpson" weed and its common friend
the stately sun1ower. In the midst Of
this mournful spot was a decayed and
aged little" frame" house with but one
room, one window and no ceiling-it
had been a smoke-house a generation
before. Nicodemus was given this
lonely and ghostly den as bed-cham-
Der.
The village smarties recognized a
treasure in Nicodemus, right away-a
butt TO play jokes on. 1t was easy to
SEQ that he was inconceivably green and
coniding. George Jones had the glory
Of perpetrating the first Joke on him.
He gave him cigar with fire-cracker
in 1t, and winked to the crowd to come;
the thing exploded presently and swept
away the bulk of Nicodemus' eyebrows
and eyelashes. He simply said:
81 consider them kind Of seeg'yars
dangersome," and seemed to suspect
nothing. The next evening Nicodemus
waylaid George and poured a bucket Of
Ice water over him.
One day, while Nicodomus was in
swimming, Tom McElroy "tied" his
clothes. Nicodemus made bonfire Of
Toms by way of retaliation.
A third joke was played upon Nico-
demus day or two later-he walked up
the middle aisle Of the village church,
Sunday night, with storing handbiA
pinned upon his shoulders. The joker
spent the rest of the night, after church,
in the cellar of deserted house, and
Nicodemus sat on the cellar door till
toward breakfast time, to make sure
that the prisoner remembered that If any
noise was made some rough treatment
would be the consequence. The cellar
had two feet of stagnant water in it, and
was bottomed 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. Be-
fore long time had elapsed the village
smarties began to feel an uncomfortable
consciousness of not having made very
shining success out of their attempts on
the simpleton of "Old Shelby" Expert
ments grew scarce and chary. Now tho
young doctor came to the rescue. There
was delight and applause when he pro-
posed to them the plan Of frightening
Nicodemus to death, and explained how
he was going to do it. He had noble
new skeleton-the skeleton OF the late
and only local celebrity, Jimmy Finn,
the village drunkard-a grisly piece ol
property he had bought of Jimmy Finn
himself, at auction, for fifty dollars, un'
der great competition, when Jimmy lay
very sick in the lanyard fortnight be,
fore his death. The fifty dollars had
gone promptly for whisky, and had con-
siderably hurried up the change of own
ership in the skeleton. The doctor
would put Jimmy Finn's skeleton ir
Nicodemus' bed.
This was done--about halfpast ten II
the evening. About Nicodemus' usua
bedtime-midnight-the village joker'
came creeping stealthily through thu
iimpson weeds and sunAowers TOWARD
the lonely frame den. They reached
the window and peeped in. There sa
the long-legged pauper on his bed in
very short shirt and nothing more. Iii
was dangling his legs contentedly baci
and forth, and wheeling the music o
"Camptown Races " out of a pape
overlaid comb which he was pressing
against his mouth; by him lay a new
jew's-harp, new top, solid india rub
Der ball, handful of painted marbles
five pounds of "store" candy and
well-snawed slab of gingerbread as biI
and thick as a volume Of sheet music
He had sold the skeleton to travelling
Quack for three dollars, and was enjoy
ing the result. From. Mark TRAINS Ne'
Book, - Tramp abroad