Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-06-16
The Vacation OF MustaPha.

The Vacation OF Mustapha.
EFrom the Burlington Hawkeye.l
Now in the sixth month, in the reign of
the good Caliph. it was SO that Mustapha
said, 'T am wearied with much work
thought, care and worry have worn me out
I need rspose. for the hand of exhaustion Is
upon me, and death even now lieth at the
door,"
And he called his physician, who felt of his
pulse and looked upon his tongue and said:
'Twodollahs For this was the oath by
which all physicians swore.) "Of verify
thou must have rest. Flee uuto the valley
of quiet and close thine eyes in dreamful
rest hold back thy brain from thought and
thy hand from labor. or you will be a candi-
date for the asylum in three weeks"
And he heard him, and went out and put
the business in the hands of the clerk, and
went away to rest in the valley of quiet
And he went to his Uncle Ben's, whom he
had not seen for 10 these fourteen years.
Now, his Uncle Ben was a farmer and abode
in the valley of rest, and the mountains of
repose rose round about him. And he was
rich and we'll favored, and strong as an OK
and healthy as an onion crop. Outlines he
boasted to his neighbor that there was not
lazy bone in his body, and he swore that he
hated lazy man.
And Mustapha wist not that it was SO.
But when he reached his Uncle Ben's they
received him with great Joy, and placed be-
fore him a supper of homely viands well
cooked and piled up on his plate like the
wreck of a box-car. And when he could not
eat all they laughed him to scorn.
And after supper they sat up with him and
talked with him about relatives whereof he
had never, in all his life, so much as heard.
L aL.as..
and lied unto them, processing to know I'm
ele Ezra and Aunt Bethesda, and once he said
that he had q letter from Uncle George last
week.
Now they all knew that Uncle George was
shot in neighbor's sheep pen three years
ago, but Mustapha wist not that it was 10,
and he was sleepy and only talked to fill up
the time. And then they talked politics to
him, and he hated politics. So about one
O'Clock in the morning they sent him to bed
Now the spare room wherein he slept was
right under the roof, and there were ears and
bundles of ears of seed corn hung from the
rafters, and he bunged his eyes with the
same, and he hooked his chin in festoons of
dried apples, and shook dried herbs and
seeds down his back as he walked along, for
it was dark. And when he sat up in bed in
the night he ran scythe in his ear.
And it was so that the four boys slept With
him, for the bed was wide. And they we're
SO that Mustapha slope not a wink that night,
neither closed he his eyes.
And about the fourth hour after midnight
his Uncle Ben smote him on the back and
spaks unto him saying:
Awake, arise, rustic cut of this and wash
your face for the liver and bacon are fried
and breakfast waitsth. You will find the
well down at the other end of the cow-lot.
Take towel with you"
When they had eaten his Uncle Bon spaks
unto him, saying Come, let us stroll
around the farm"
And they walked about eleven miles And !
his Uncle Ben set him upon a wagon and |
taught him how to load hay. Then they |
drove into the barn and he taught him how |
to unload it Then they girded up their |
loins and walked four miles, even into the |
forest, and his Uncle Ben taught him how to |
chop wood, and then. walked back to supper. |
And the morning and the evening were the |
FIRST day, and Mustapha wished that he were |
dead.
And after supper his Uncle Ben spoke once |
more and said, Come, let US have some |
fun" And SO they hooked up a team and |
drove nine miles, down to Belchsr's Branch, |
where there was hop. And they danced |
until the second hour in the morning.
When the next day was come-whioh |
wasn't long, for already the night was far |
spent-his Uncle Ben took him out and |
taught him how to make rail fence And
that night there was wedding, and they |
danced and made merry, and drank and ate,
and when they went to bed st three o'clock
Mustapha pray ed that death might come to
him before breakfast time. B1t breakfast
had an early start and got there first. And
his Uncle Ben took him down to the creek
and taught him how to wash and shear sheep.
And when evening come they went to
spelling-school, and they got home at the
first hour after midnight, and Uncle Ben
marveled that it wes 50 early. And he light
ed his pipe and sat up for hour and told
Mustapha all about the forty acres he bought
last spring of old Mosey Stringer TO finish
ont that north half, ard about ths new colt
that was foaled last spring.
And when Mustepha went to bed that
morning he bethought himself of a dose of
strychnine he had with him, and he said his
prat wearily aud he took it.
But the youngest boy was restless that
night and kicked all the poison out Of him in
less than ten seconds
And in the morning, while it was yet night,
they ate breakfast And his Uncle Ben took
him out and taught him hoE to dig ditch
And when evening come there was
revival meeting at Ebenezer Methodist
church, and they all went And there were
three regular preachers, and two exhorters
and Baptist evangelist And when mid
night was come they went home and sat
1p and talked over the moeting until 1t was
bedtime.
Now, when Mustapha vas at home he left
ais desk at the fifth hour in the afternoon,
and he went to bsd at the third hour after
sunset, and he arose not until the was
nigh In the heavens
So the next day, when his Uncle Ben would
AXE him out into the field, and show him
40 to make post and rail fence, Mustapha
would swear at him and smote him with an
!x-helve and fed AMI gat himsslf home.
And Mustapha sent for his physician and
cursed him. And he said he tired to
ieath and he turned his face to the wall
md died. So Mustapha was gathered to his
athers.
And his physician and his friends mourned
md said, 'Alas, he did not rest soon enough
He tarried at his desk too long"
But his Uncle Ben, who came in to attend
he funeral. and had to do all his weeping
nut of one eye because the other was blacked
lalf way down to his chin, said 1t was pity,
1ut Mustapha was too awful lazy to live,
md he had no get up about him.
But Mustapha wist not what they said,
because he was dead. So they disidel his
property among them, and said if he want
ID a tombstone he might have attended to
t himself, while he was yet alive, because
hey had no time.