The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-05-25

Now come here and listen to the story"
"When I was stationed at Peterwar-
dein with the Hungarian Uhlans we had
captain in the squadron, a man who
had hump between his shoulders and
was always wanting something new, and
as full of whims as donkey is of gray
hairs; if he fell into q gutter he didn't
rest until he tumbled into a ditch too,
and if he wore boots to-day would have
shoes tomorrow and slippers the day
after. Yet he had plenty of money and
the follies his foolish brain invented, his
purse made good, at least for time.
"What then was more natural than
always have crowd of hungry comrades
about him who stuck like burs, drained
him like leeches, but laughed at him
like rascals behind his back. Well, one
of this brotherhood told him that the
greatest pleasure in the world was to sit
in glass coach drawn by four horses
and ride up and down the high road.
Our little captain remembered that he
hadn't done this, so it was something
new, and as my friend Cobbler Samekow
in Rostock used to say, consequently
the glass coach and mares were procured
and the greatest pleasure in the world
began, but also came to speedy end;
for when our little whipperstraw of a
captain sat in the glass coach and slid
from one window to the other, like the
devil in a medicine bottle, the people
stood still and laughed as if they saw an
ape.
"After three days it was an old story,
but luckily the colonel of the regiment
married young wife and she had set
her heart on driving up and down the
highway in a glass coach drawn by four
horses. The colonel had no objection
except the expense, and for years had
sung in the evening the beautiful song,
Die Traktementen, die sind zu klein!
but he had always considered directly
afterwards how he could best in
crease his property, and three days be-
fore his wedding won from q Hungarian
count q calash with two horses, one of
which was a regular screw.
$50 he went to my little captain and
told him how delightful it would be to
turn coachman and drive himself, and as
the two things needful to make trade,
a clever man and simpleton, met, the
bargain was struck, the colonel's wife
ROb Sl6So CO6CJL ANU CoPeoAA shC
calash and the screw.
"One fine morning when all Peter
WARDEN expected no harm, my little cap.
tain was sitting in his new calash driving
himself, and ran the pole through the
window of the colonePs ladys coach.
This made great stir, and the colonel's
adjutant came out and asked it the devil
was in him.
mo said the captain, mot in me,
bl, the Mares They talked it over and
over till the talking became bargaining,
and the bargaining became a swap. The
adjutant was also one of the people who
know how to manage so that no harm
comes up the rope to them whom they
lead dogs, and my little captain got in
exchange for his calash and pair of mares
a saddle horse, q gray, which if it had
been the same in front as it was be-
hind, would have left nothing to be de
sired.
81 knew this gray thoroughly; it had
been sent to Bukowina the year before
to make up the number of horses want
ed for the cavalry; and the little captain
received in exchange for his two horses
one good for-nothing devil, for there
were ten furious fiends and fre.eaters in
this one gray, which ran with all four
legs in the air at once, and was of no
use in Gods world except to stand
in the stable, eat oats and smash the
groom's shins.
"Well, my little captain got this very
gray, and the next day mounted it and
rode through the streets of Peterwardein
into the fields, and the ten devils in the
gray rode with him, but remained asleep
and the gray danced along the road like
Clerk Blocken's old black mare. My
captain was riding onward thinking of
nothing in particular, when q hunter
came up with dog, and my little cap
tain began to wonder where the hunter
was going, and what the dog was doing
with the hunter and the hunter with the
dog. While he was thinking over these
circumstances the ten devils in the
gray walked, rubbed their eyes, and
whish!-my little captain was lying in
the ditch.
Here, my son." said my uncle Mat
thies, "here." 1 thought his COMPOUNDED
moral was coming, and ducked. "No,"
said he, mot yet, the story isn't finished
here my son originates the saying: When
do mountain and valley meet? To which
the answer 10: When Pucklichter falls
into ditch.
''The COMPOUNDED gray then ran round
the race course till it reached the spot
wha~o xho - v,<a;u Law ~hou IL kiNkAd