The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-04-14

on the arCnWaV was cCnOeQ DaCk Dy
the swift running waters of the river
beneath-each wave of which seemed
lifting itself to look at us, and was
struck down again by the arrowy
glance of the moon, shivering and
running away to tell the pebbles along
the shore what strange people with
hats on and even shirts and pants
they had seen. And now right in
front of us loomed up the walls Of
the hotel where we were to pass the
night. 1t was by far the highest toned
hotel in the place-in fact it was the
only one. 1t consisted simply of four
stone walls about 10 feet high without
any roof. There was no bed-cham-
Der, no bed, no carpet, no floor, no
light, no fire, nothing to sit down on,
nothing to eat, and so far as we could
see no proprietor, but there aOas a
door and it was locked, for fear some
body might think there was something
inside, and 60 in and steal it, / sup
pose, and by i'll luck someone had
gone off with the key. Crecor, Mr..
Lees servant went off to hunt it up
and soon returned with the clerk of
the hotel who ushered us in horses
and all, through the front door into
the parlor. We had thought Of tele-
graphing ahead to have the bridal
chamber reserved for US, but we were
glad that we had saved ourselves that
expense, for it happened that we were
the first who registered that night
with the exception of donkey and
a man and his wife and we had pretty
much the whole range of the hotel. We
selected corner where there seemed
to be the fewest stones and least
rubbish and cleared place to put up
our tent. And now for something to
eat. Mr.. Lee had brought along
whole chest full of bread and cake
and canned goods, and chicken and
eggs, etc., and we were well provided
for-all but the appetite. We didn't
any of us seem to want anything after
the long, hot, dusty ride, but just
watermelon apiece aud then to get to
bed in the shortest and speediest man
ner. But to get to asleep was another
matter. How it was with my travel
ing companions, whether they felt as
l did, l don't know, but there was
such horror of desolation about the
place, such an awful oppressive night
silence, that made me think Of all
that / had ever read in the Bible of
jackals bowling in ruined palaces, of
hooting owls and creeping foxes, and
satyrs crying to their fellows,
that l determined as soon as / struck
the bed that, if anybody got to sleep
before did, he would have to be
lively about it. l wasn't going to be
the last awake that night anyway, and
so bent all my energies to it. / had
heard that if anybody would start
slowly and count five hundred it
would surely put them to sleep. And
so began. | got up to 45o and was
just falling off into slumber when it
occurred to me that l had only fifty
more to 60 on, and maybe l wouldn't
make. and of course that excited me
and woke me up. l thought perhaps
/ had counted too fast, and concluded
to give it another trial. l began more
slowly. l kept saying to myself "now
not too fast hold on |" and of course
that kept me awake. reached 4oo
and then waited and while l was wait
ing for someting to happen before l
said 500, the thought flashed through
my head, "Well, now it seems to me
it wasn't 500 that puts folks to sleep
after all-it was a thousand" ALI
right, would try a thousand. did.
l went on to two, three, five thousand,
then | became wrought up and said
I'll do it If it takes 10000; I'll lie
in this bed all night and all day to-
morrow if need be and count mil
lion--and / believe l should have
done it il another plan hadn't hap
pened to occur to me. / had read
somewhere that if person could
only get his body into certain
position, no matter how wide awake