The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-03-12
TIE ODD EGG.
-The Danger of Having Thirteen to "a Doze
Quit
ConISTH, M

THE Danger of Having Thirteen tn IL Dozen.
He was rather tall and bony, and
showed heavy, dragging limp In his
right leg as he sided up to the bar.
His clothes had worn smooth on the
cuff and collar, and were disposed to
wentilate st the elbow, but were still
sufficient to keep out ordinarily cold
weather. With not ungraceful move
ment, and a sleight that could only
come of long practice, he dropped
well-chewed quid into his left hand,
which he placed behind him, leaning
forward with his right elbow ON the bar.
"Egg-nogg? no, thank you. Jest
leetle whisky straight, barkeep', no
sugar. / know it's liable to occasion re-
mark shyin' at egg nogg-so near the
holiday season, too-and it's very kind
and perlite in you, stranger, calling on
me to come for'ard here with these 9TH
,er gentlemen-an' egg-nogg bein' the
do to refuse, but the truth is, hain't ct
a egg or tackled any fruit of that de.
scription fur goin' on six years. Sing
Jar. you think? Well, I've got my rea-
sons. P'raps you never knowed Dave
Gilchrist? No? Well, me an Dave
was ole pards. We was both in the
same regiment In the last war. I'm
older'n Dave. He was only boy when
he was shot through the lungs at Stone
river. Well, 1 nussed him through it,
an after the war we both cum here to
Indiany. pever was much account
for farmin'; but went to work on
Dawes ia hers farm.
Dave was mighty good-lookin'
young Teller, and his father owned a
quarter-section of as good land as the
sun ever shines on, with just two heirs,
Dave aud his sister Artemesia-'Meeshy
for Shorthand the gals began to purr
round him like cats round cream
crock. soon saw he was hooked, an
by grass wilder who hadn't been in
the neighborhood but few weeks. She
hadn't seen me, but I had her, and
bknowed her from the jump. Well, 1
tined to reason with him to give her up.
a. She knowed every keerd in the matri-
, mcrial deck, as it were, and she could
stock tue deal on him every time. Then
!, says to him:
&" You don't want to marry a woman
VITA q husband liable to turn up at any
minute like Enick Arden in the play
whats that to your says he.
Much says 1. I've been married
an divorced, an know the ropes
We'll, it was party tough fur him,
but he said he'd give her up. But he
couldn't stay there, he said.
"'Got to get her out of my mind,
somehow, and the best way is to put a
thousand miles between me and her,
says he.
"'Ive got a brother says I, thinkin'
of him all to wunst-hadn't thought of
him afore for years. brother out in
Washington Territory, a steady teller,
not bit like me; and, il you say the
word, Dave, your old pard as recon-
mends the vermifuge will help you
take it.
$50 we packed up our traps one
night, very sudden, an Dave left q let
ter TO his sister Meeshy, an / writ one
to the widder. We intended to go to
California, and from there to Washing
ton Territory, but, when we got to
Frisco, we changed our minds, and
went down to Arizony, and went into
sthe mines. Well, we went there, and
were gettin' along purity well, when
Dave took down with the rumatiz.
Stranger, you don't know what the
square John Henry rumatiz is, and you
.never will till you get it in the mines.
Dave poked along for several months
~couldn't work, couldn't even wait on
,himself-an' the little money we had
:, begin to melt away. / knowed he'd
never get well there. So ono day up
an tells him, I'm argoin' to California
At this he means out that he'd never
a-thought I'd give him the dirty shake
that way, after the years we'd been
together. and broke down cryin' like q
baby. Dave was q game boy, you
>bstcher your boots. but. when we git