The Owosso times., 1882-01-06

off his clothes, mOistens his hands,
grabs his property viciously, yanks ii
this way, then that, shoyes it ahead of
him q moment, turns tail and lugs it
after him another moment, gets mad
der and madder, then presently hOists
1t into the air and goes tearing away
in an entirely new direction; comes to a
weed; it never occurs to him 10 go
around it. No; he must climb it, and
he does climb it, dragging his worthless
property TO the top-whicA is as bright
thing to do as it would be for me to
carry sack of flour from Heidelberg
to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple;
when he gets up there he finds that that
is not the place; takes cursory glance
at the scenery, and either climbs down
again, or tumbles down, and starts off
once more-as usual, in new direc-
| tion.
AT the end of half an hour he fetches
up within six inches of the place he
started from, and lays his burden
down. Meantime he has been over all
the ground for two yards around, and
climbed all the weeds and pebbles he
came across. Now he wipes the sweat
from his brow, strokes his limbs, and
then marches aimlessly off, in as vio-
lent hurry as ever. He traverses
good deal OF zig-zag country, and by
and.by stumbles on his same booty
again. He does not remember TO
have ever seen it before; he looks
around to see which is not the way
home, grabs his bundle and starts, He
goes through the same adventures he
had before, finally stops to rest, and
friend comes along. Evidently the
friend remarks that last years grass
hopper leg is very noble acquisition,
and inquiries where he got it. Evident
ly the proprietor does not remember ex-
actly where he did get it, but thinks
he got it ''around here somewhere"
Evidently the friend contracts to help
him freight it home. Then, with a
Judgment peculiarly antic pln not in
tentional), they take hold of opposite
ends of that grasshopper leg and begin
to tug with all their might i'll opposite
directions. Presently they take a rest,
and confer together. They decide that
something is wrong, they can't make
out what. Then they go at it again,
just as before. Same result. Mutual
recriminations follow. Evidently each
accuses the other of being an obstruc-
zionist. They warm up, and the dis
puUe ends i'll fight. They lock them
selves together and chew each others
jaws for while; then they roll and
tumble on the ground till one loses a
horn or leg and has to haul off for re-
pairs. They make up and 60 to work
again in the same old insane way, but
the crippled ant is at disadvantage;
tug as he may, the other one drags off
the booty and him at the end of it. III
stead of giving up, he hangs on and
gets his shins bruised against every OBJ
structiOn that comes in the way. By
and-by, when that grasshepper leg
has been dragged all over the same old
ground once more, it is finally dumped
at about the spot where it originally
lay. The two perspiring ants inspect
it thoughtfully and decide that dried
grasshopper legs are u poor sort of
property after all, and then each starts
off III different direction to see if he
can't End an old nail or something else
that is heavy enough to afford enter
tainment and at the same time value
enough to make All ant want TO own
it.-Mork Ttoaila's "Iramp abroad"