Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-10-13
Down Cellar.

Vi, anyways admit It when, I've done
wrong. There's nothing meaner than
70 pretend that you haven done wrong
when everybody knows you have. I
didn't mean anything by it, though,
and Sue ought to have stood bv me.
when did it all on her account, and
just because pitied her, if she was my
own sister, and it was more her fault. I
really think, than it was mine. .
MIR. Withers is Sues new Young man.
de comes. every Monday, Wednesday
ana riaay evening. and Mr.. Travers
comes all the other e. enings. and Mr..
Martin is liable to come any time, and
generally does--that is, if he dosen't
have the rheumatism. Though he
hasn't but one real leg. he has twice as
much rheumatism as father, with all
his legs, and there is something very
queer about it. and ii was he, get
leg or something better than cork, and
perhaps he d have less pain in it. -
1t all happened last Tuesday night.
just as it was getting dark, and Sue was
expecting Mr.. Travers every minute,
who should come in but Mr.. Martin.
Now Mr.. Martin is such an old ac-
quaintance, and father tn INKS so much
OF him, that Sue had to ask him in,
though she didn't want him to meet Mr..
Iravers. So when she heard somebody
open the front gate, she said: .'Oh, Mr..
Martin I'm so thirsty and the servant
has gone out, and you know just where
the milk is for YOU went down the cellar
to get some the last time you were
here do you think you would mind
getting some for me?" Mr.. Martin
n d often gone down cellar to help him.
self to milk, and don't see what makes
him so fond of it, so he said: Certainly
with great pleasure" and started down
the cellar stars.
IL wasn't Mr.. Travers. but Mr. With
ers, who had come on the wrong night.
He had not much more than GOT into
the parlor when Sue came rushing out
to me, for l was swinging in the ham,
mock on the front piazza, and said:
MY goodness gracious Jimmy what
shall do here S Mr.. Withers and Mr..
TraverS will be here in few minutes
and there's Mr.. Mar in down cellar and
/ feel as if l should fly what shall dog'
l was real sorry for her, and thought
I'd help her, for girls are not like us.
They never Know what to do when they
are in a scrape, and they are full of an
sence of mind when they ought to ha e
lots of presence of mind. So said:
"Ill fix it for you, Sue. Just leave it
all to me. You stay here and meet Mr..
1ravers who is just coming around the
corner, and I'll manage Mr. Withers."
Sue said; You darling little fellow
there don't muss my hair" and went
in, and said to Mr.. Withers. in an aw-
fully mysterious way; Mr.. Witheis, /
hear Noise in the cellar Don't tell
Tue. for she's dreadfully nervous.
Won't you go down and see what it is?''
VI course | knew it was Mr. Martin
VINO was making the noise, though
didn't say So
''Oh, it's nothing but rats, Jimmy"
said ne; "or else the cat, or maybe it s
the cook"
"No. it isn't said I. eff was
you, I'd 60 and see into it. Sue thinks
you re awfully brave
Well. after little more talk, Mr..
Withers said he'd 90, and l showed
him the cellar door. and got him started
down the stairs, and then l locked the
door, and went back to the hammock,
and Sue and MIR. Travers they sat in the
front parlor.
Pretty soon 1 heard heavy crash
down cellar, as if something heavy had
dropped, and then there was such a
yelling and bowling, just as if the cellar
was full of murderers. Mr. Travers
jumped up, and was starting for the
cellar, when lie ia nted away, and hung
tight to him, and wouldn't let him 90.
l staid in the hammock and WOULDN'T
have left it if father hadn't come down
stairs, but when | saw him going down
cellar, Invent after him to see what could
possibly be the matter.
Father had candle in one hand and
big club in another You ought to
have been there to see Mr.. Martin and
Mr.. Withers. One of them had run
against the other in the dark, and thew
thought they were both burglars. So
they got hold of each other, and fell
over the milk pans and upset the soap
barrel. and then rolled round the cellar
floor, holding on to each other, and
yelling help, murder. thieves, and when
we found them, they were both in the
ash bin, and the ashes were, choking
them.
Father would have pounded them with
the club if hadnt told him who they
were. He was awfully astonished, and
though he wouldn't say anything to
hurt Nh. Martins feelings, he didn't
seem to care mach for mine or Mr..
Withers's, and when Mr. Travers final
iy came down, father told him that he
was nice young man, and that the
whole house might have been murdered
by burglars while he was enjoying him
self IL the front parlor.
FIR. Martin went home after he got a
little of the milk and soap and ashes and
things off OF him, but he was too angry
to speak. Mr.. Withers said he would
never enter the house again, and Mr..
Travers didn't even wait to speak to
Sue, he was in such a rage with Mr..
Withers. After they were all gone, Sue
told father that it was all nv fault, and
father said he would attend to my case
in the morning: only, when the morning
came. he told me not to do it again, and
that was all.
l admit that did do wrong, but /
didn't mean it, and my only desire was
to help my dear sister. You won't catch
me helping her again very soon.-
Jimmy Br0aCn." an Harper's Young
PeOD(e