Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-14
A NONSENSE STORY.

A NONSENSE STORY.
Do you think all your youngsters
know about game called Telling a
Story?" One person begins story, and
goes on till the company are interested,
and then suddenly s:ops at an exciting
poin., and one sitting next mEst take It
up and 60 on. 1t is capital game for
long evenings. Here is one that grew up
in our sitting-room the other night.
We were sitting around the fire, be-
tween daylight and candle-light, young
folks and kittens, when somebody said,
"Let us tell a nonsense story"
Gall right" said papa, land mamma
shall begin"
So mamma began:
"There was once cobbler who had
his shop in the market-place OF Bagdad.
1t was very small shop and over the
door was this sign: "Old shoes made as
good as new A great many shoes
went IN at-the shop door, and if they did
not come out quite as good as new, the
owners never made any complaints, for
the cobbler always did his best, and new
er refused to undertake job, no matter
how bad it was. One day stranger
came into the markst-place and
walked slowly about, looking in at
all The shop windows. He was a
very small man, with little
shrivelled face and keen black eyes like
a weasel. His hair was long and he had
hands like claws. He was wrapped in a
long black cloak from tip tc toe, and his
shoes had high heels and narrow, pointed
toes, like no other shoes that had ever
been seen in Bagdad. When the cobbler
saw him looking in through his window,
he felt the very flesh creep on his bones,
and when the stranger walked in at the
shop door, the cobbler was SO startled
that he swallowed the pegs he had in his
mouth. The stranger only nodded, and
drew from under his cloak very ragged
shoe. In fact, you could hardly call it
shoe, but lot of holes held together by
strings of leather.
"'I have read your sign,' said the
stranger, 'and want you to mend this
shee.'
"The cobbler looked at it and his teeth
chartered.
est is very DID, he said.
"'Mend it. said the stranger, 4 will
wait tor it. And he sat right down be-
tween the cobbler and the door.
''The poor man went to work, and,
wonderful to tell, the patches grew in
to place as fast as he fitted them on, so
that in half an hour there was as fine a
shoe as ever came from the last.
"'Here is the money said the strang-
er, offering him curious silver coin.
"You are quite welcome, said the
cobbler, putting his hands under his
leather apron; for he said to himself, I'll
not take the fend's money But while
his hands were still under his apron, he
felt the money slip into his pocket.
'Good-day,' said the stranger. 80
long as you spend the shilling wisely, it
will come back into your own pocket;
but when you put it to bad use, you
will never see it again
sHe stepped out of the doorway, and
though the eobbler ran to the window
he was nowhere in sight. 1t seemed as
if he must have sunk right down through
the pavement. The cobler said"
Mamma stopped suddenly, and papa,
who sat next, was obliged to finish the
sentence and go on with the story.
'Beiabers, but the ould chap must
had pressin' business, to be after laving
in such haste. Wherever he would be
gone, don't know, and no shut up his
shop and started out to find the strang.
er. BE sailed five times around the world
and at last he was shipwrecked on des-
ert island, mile and a half east OF the
North Pole. The people were very
glad to see him, because the last shoe
maker had just frozen to death, and they
made him king. One day he went to E
! sunday-school picnic, on the top of ont
the highest mountains. and while he wal
looking for a good place to make the
chowder, he saw small door IN ledge
of rock, with sign over il, (which read
"'No admittance except on business
began Harry, instantly taking up the
story. $50 the man went in, and found
himself at the entrance of long vaulted
chamber. The walls with strange inscrip.
tions, and on a table at one end was q
feast Of all manner Of dainties, spread fol
one person. BE sat down and ate until
he was satisfied, and then turned to &C
out. But the door was locked, and he
| could not find the smallest opening in
the rock. SO he took up his lantern and
went down long flight of stairs, ane
then through narrow passage until he
came to an immense court. On the stone!
| in one corner, man was lying who ap
peared to be dead. He went up to him
and it was his brother. In his pocket h
had a card, saying"
"sGood for one drink of old rye wills
KY" "The cobbler called the police
and IN half an hour they came rushing
up and arrested him for assault ant
battery. The judge asked him if h
owned any real estate in Patagonia, ant
paid the old-clothes man in barrel stave
and jujube paste. And no one had1eve
heard of the old woman, so they spoke l
in three different languages, and had friet
cells for dinner. And afterwards the cobb
Ter went back to Bagdad and wrote tn
history of his life In seven volumes, an,
every one who read it said:''
"Nonsenser' added mamma, and tina
was the end of the story.
If you don't think this is funny, jus
try it some night when everybody !
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