The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-04
wHI9TLlNG AWAY GHOSTS.
The Exercising Power of Yankee Doodle
Night 1t Didn't Work.

Night 1t Didn't Work.
r. f. HuIdlel
0f course. readers have all heard of whist
;,, Fl, sae, up courage | did it once. l
,,12,.r.j I'D my cherry-red lips and blew the
i.ru,namIiaut air through them in a way
i caI.ulatpi to discourage the most persistent
collin that ever gobbled All this happened
g,ban was vouug-when the first faint rays
Of the lamp Of love began to penetrate my.
r1tawav coat ami gnaw at my heart like
rat at the pantry door, when L was head
over heels in love with old Ben Cope's daugh-
tor Claris,q and walked four miles through
the primcval forest after singing school for
the privilege of standing at the bars that
kept the mould out Of her fathers door
ward. and feeling bad because | wanted to
kiss her. bit was too baShful to ask.
1t seemed to me that with all his broOding
darkness. Wilzie Collins never described an
article that brooded as the darkness that
hung over four miles of woodland road
broodei when 1 wanted to go home after
cyrtinr Clarissa. 1t seemed to me that
Hads made brooiing darkness Il speciality on
every other Friday night, and that it stored
most Of lis stock in that neck of the woods
along the raging Skillet Fork, which was the
name of the sullen stream that dispensed
malaria in that county. When left ClariSsa
at the barn in The dead hour of night, after
standing by her side in silence for two hours
wishing for kiss and listening to her heart
pounding away at her ribs trying to give me
q hint that she was willing, and th0p sneak
ing of with plain, unrespOnsive goodnight,
Inever felt as if that four miles Journey
through the woods was Just the sort of recre-
alton would choose if l had had the privi-
lege Of selecting from a complete stock OF
choice styles Of amusement; but, as that was
all that was left me, generally began whist
ling Yankee Doodle a" soon as the trees
got between me and the house of my love. in
the vain hope that no ghost would risk him
self in the presence of a man who could
whistle that tune four hours in succession
without rest or refreshments.
One evening, when l was scratching my
back on the bar post and wondering whether
it would rain before morning, and Clarissa
was feeling under her back hair for a tick,
she casually inquired if was not afraid of
the SpoOkS in the timber She spoke SC
seriously that felt cold chllls racing up and
down my back, and my hair seemed to get
right up on the top of the hill to make an
observation This was the first time spoobs
nae ever been mentioned in all our delibera-
ions, and the subject did not set we'll on my
stomach. Of course | could not appear
co"ardly IN the presence of my love- so ]
told her, with cOntemptuous toss of the
mead that was not the least bit afraid. She
asked me what l would do if l were to see a
ghost told her that l would whistle ana
90 right ahead
nave always believed that she had tired
oL my attentions, and wished to secure a beat
mat could take a hint, if it should be SNUG.
gied INTO his food; for when she heard me
speak OF whistling she laughed a little, apollo
seVc laugh, and said she supposed if l was
aDout to be married l would not show my
auecIlon TOR my bride to be by any more
passionate demonstration. and then she
laughed and said anybody could tell who |
was IN the woods by my whistle, and after a
"LI good night we separated.
was about in the middle of the wood. and
little past the middle Of Yankee Doodle
very close to the dandy" in fact-when I
ID" something coming down hill ahead of
HE. Yankee Doodle" died right where he
was. l chopped him off short, and stood
mere with my mouth puckered up. ready to
80 o. Out without the moral courage to pro-