Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-09-06

night, and my timely presence scattered
them"
"God bless my soul! f" said tho old
lady, as she dropped the milk, "and I
| did not know it. )"
"But you hammered away like a first
class blacksmith. y
"Indeed, did not, SAID she; ''and
my milk, that's all gone. I slept I'M
commonly well; better than usual. [
always sleep soundly when it rains.''
Would it be believed that the old
woman denied the hammer incident in
toto Had been dreaming? Was it
| force of imagination, the teeming of a
delirious brain? A shocking Dad cold
| in my head assured me that it had been
reality.
I was quite out of heart all the next
day, and went to bed at night in most
unhappy state of mind, Was my rest
to be broken in upon again? 7 had
| hardly fallen off into feverish elumber
when heard the accursed hammer again.
I covered my head with the bed clothes.
Rat-tat-tat 1t went. T. could not be a
hammering of my Imagination, for put
my ear to the wall and felt, the vibra-
tions through the fimsy partition, Oh,
| the unutterable selfshness of that old
woman! A what ii she were robbed of
a silver teapot or so or a dozen tea
spoons! [ was desperate now. rushed
down stairs. Fortunately it was not
raining. found my barrel at once, and
that was reassuring. / excoriated my
self again. [ scaled the wall and landed
with crash on the other side on q pile
OF hower-pots some one had carelessly
placed there. waited moment for the
noise to subdue. [ knew that if any
robbers were there the noise [ had made
must startle them. [ rubbed a very
badly skinned ankle and waited and
nothing came. .l
Night after night went on that ac-
cursed hammering. Was to be doomed
to the terrible task of discovering thieves
in that old lady's garden; and what was
worse, my chivalrous conduct, my daily
ing with death, receive no recognition +?
| Evidently there was some mystery. /
was the victim whose sad end was being
plotted.
I never went to sleep after that with
out stufing cotton in my ears, and
always in most wretched state of mind.
| was a martyr of my Observation-Disclosures
] was being robbed of my sweet sleep.
Life became burden to me. The old
lady was either laboring under some
hallucination or was crazy. There was
only one thing which made me suffer all
these torments, and that was the belief
that [ was hero in the eyes of the
granddaughter. / can not say that she
ever directly expressed herself in that
way, but looking at her at times when
met her in the street, as [ addressed a
few words to her, l thought I recognized
an expression on her face which told me
of her sympathy. .-
These nocturnal visits at last preyed
on my spirits [ want to bed now with
my clothes on. had bought a second
hand revolver. L had become reckless,
L am quite sure that had / met small
| boy about the size of Oliver Twist at
night i'll the old Iady's garden, L should
have shot at him.
The rapping would cease for a night
or two, and then commence again. [
| felt that this business must come to q
stop. My employers, leading grocers,
had noticed my sleepliness during bust
ness hours and had complained about it.
One night this spring YEARLY /
climbed the garden fence, pistol in hand
for it had become mechanical pro-
cess now-and L dropped into wash
tub of water, placed with devilish in
genuity on three-legged stool. As I
| fell over my pistol went off. The neigh
| borhood was aroused at last, but I dis
| Jinctly heard in the bathroom that over
| looked the old lady's garden, peals Of
| laughter, and a young woman appeared
at the window who was apparently en-
| joying the scene.
If this brutal conduct on the part of
that girl were not sufficient, think of the
impertinence of young man who called
next day on me at our place of business.
AS / have said, / am clerk in the whole
sale grocery line, and druggists clerks
are always stuck-up creatures. The
young sprig twirled stick in one hand
and In the other he had card. am to
suppose bis name was written on it.
"See he," said he, making the stick
whizz through the air within few
inches of my nose. "See he, oIeomar-
garine, Goldfish, priInes, pickles, and
glucose, you have been fooling around
grandmother's place long enough, and
you are precious ass; and Mary Jane
that's my cousin, a lady I'm going to
marry-has had quite enough of your
nonsense. What a prime proprietary
idiot, with revenue stamp on it, you
must be not to know that the old lady
has got robbery on the brain when she's
awake, but when she's asleep of nights,
bless her, she shores away like hum
ming top. A Chinese cracker under her
ear wouldn't as much as faze her. Now
the ole woman never had any use for
your hammer, but I guess from what
Mary Jane has told me that she has
been pounding around with it quite pro-
miscuously. Now, see here, mere Is
your hammer, and do you take it before
I make you swallow it, handle, claw,
and all, just as if it were glass of cream
soda, and the very next time I hear you
have ventured to cross that fence, or to
put that big foot of yours into my grand
mothers house, will just thrash you
dizzy, and listen to some good advice
change yaur boarding house, figs, even
If you have to go back on your land
lady,"