The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-03-03


seemed to him several feet He plunged
and struggled and broke hisway through
the ice to the shore, but when he struck
terra tirma he found that he had left one
shoe somewhere in the muddy bottom
of the brook. This was too dreadful.
for only II week before he had promised
his father, who had none 100 much
money, that he would be more careful
of shoes in the future The idea of
wading into the brook and searching for
the lost shoe was terrifying, but love for
his father made Harry equal to it, sc, he
CROPPED in the bottom unsuccessfully un.
til his arms were nearly frozen and coy
cred with mud beside. Then he went
home crying. BY the time he had ex-
planned to his mother and been scolded
and changed his clothes and eaten his
breakfast, he remembered that he had
not looked in the hollow stump for the
rabbit. Somehow, though, he did not
90 back to do il.
As for Ned, he followed the track that
he had selected until he found himself
on the farther side OF the thicket in
which Harry had shot Joe, Suddenly
he came upon Il boys footprints and u
drop or two of blood. Ha! evidently
Frank with his pistol had shot q rabbit!
just then the "iirst bell' of school, which
rang at quarter before nine, sounded
through tine clear morning air, and Ned
% determined that as it was time to hurry
back anyhow and 90 without breakfast
in order not to be reported late, he
might as well follow Franks footprints
with the chance of oycrtaking him and
seeing his rabbit.
SO Ned hurried along, and as he APP
preached the second house after reach
ing the high road he saw Frank coming
out. He had no rabbit but he did have
bandaged hand in a sling, and on
Ned's asking for an explanation Frank
said:
"The pistol burst and broke one of my
fingers. Farmer Jones' wife did it up
for me. Father always said that the old
brass pistol wasn't safe with shot. |
wish | ever could get sense enough to
remember whatever father says"
Joe reached school hungry, breathless
and very red in the face about half q
minute after the last stroke of the last
bell, and Ned joined him two minutes
later. Harry did not appear until the
afternoon session, and Frank was absent
for week. The results of the trip
summed briefly were as follows:
Lost recesses for day, two; ditto for
a week Harry 81, one; bloody noses,
one; turned ankles, one; wounded feet,
one; empty stomachs until noon, two;
broken bowstrings, one; broken bows
one; lost darts, seven; broken glass tube,
one; lost shoe, one; burSted pistols, one;
broken finger, one; rabbits caught, none;
disguised boys, four
The grand systematic movement in
defense of the right of the township to
its own native rabbits has not been fol-
lowed up with that persistency and vigil
lance that are the attributes of all true
patriotism. Joe, Frank, Ned and Harry
have since seen many party of city
sportsmen alight from trains at the
Plainville station, but tile worst they ever
said was:
81 hope they'll have the same luck
that we did and the reader must admit
that no unkinder wish could possibly be
offered.
And yet when either of the boys tells
the story of their unsuccessful morning
he is certain to say
"That was A GLORIOUS rabbit-huntp'
John Hdbb0I0n, IN OHr Continent