Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1886-03-04
A FrescOed Reality.

Mr.. Timothy Bliggins Is the owner OF a
corner grocery on the West Side, and tho
bane of his life is that he must rise with
the lark and be on deck to accommodate
the people who never take time by the fore-
lock in household matters, but persist In
buying their provender in driblets and 60
tomes arUuIitI.' IA Inese pevpIv nOuIu' Stoon
up in provisions the night previous, like
rational beings ought to do, Bligeins could
slumber and snore like a Christian until
his eyelids relaxed of their own accotd, but
rs they don't do it, he must bounce out
with the first yawn of day, open up the
grocery and hang out the Goldfish.
But that's the rub.
IL is EASY to write Of the splendofs OF
sunrise, from hearsay, but getting up In the
night while the stars yet twinkle TO sell milk
and bacon to women with frowsy heads and
children with jelly tinted faces Is q condl-
ton of things not much crowded with
poetry.
SO Bliggins says.
Nothing comes easier than sleeping late
in the morning, but to get up when the eyes
are heavy and weigh out sugar by the ounce
and butter by the cents worth, requires an
order of courage that could eat gtnpowder
with teaspoon,
But we meander from Bliggins.
For 10, these many years Bliggins has been
bachelor and q boarder, but he Is such no
longer. In fact, he is married and gone to
housekeeping. Before this change In his
habits he slept in room over his store, and
was called 10 life every morning by his
clamorous customers, but when he got into
his own house some other means of being
aroused became nece Ssary.
So he bought an alarm clock.
1t was cheap nickel-plated concern,
with staring face and a harmless look.
| Bliggins wound up the contrivance, set II
according to directions, and went to bed.
But he couldn't sleep.
Bliggins is moderately honest person,
for q groceryman, and seems to have a
fairly quiet conscience, but in spite OF
| these soothing advantages somethi &
seemed to bother him like bad debt, and
slumber was denied him. Somewhere in
his innermost being was deep-rooted
conviction that the clock was fraud, and
would not be on hand with its part of the
programme at the proper time.
For that reason he was wakeful.
He knew to the minute when a lot oi
slipshod women with shawls over theil
heads and milk pitchers in their hands
would be standing at the door of hi
grocery, but he didn't know when tn,
clock would cut loose and tell him to besti
himself. He had never had any experienc,
with that kind of clock, and being {
heavy sleeper he was not over sanguin
that it would be equal to the emergency
even though it might slip its halter at tn
proper moment.
Hence he rolled and tumbled.
His wife slept like frog in winter, bu
Bliggins couldn't get so much as refresh
ing nap. II he dropped into doze he wa
sure to claw the air at the very same instan
and spring up in a cold sweat of apprehen
sion that il was nine o'clock in the mornin
and the cream of the days business gon
TO the bow-wows. Finally, however, afte
! fuming and fretting until he had tired him
self TO exhaustion, he dropped aslee
lust before the nighthawk went to roost an
dreamed that he had opened up and wa
taking in money faster than he could max
change. He had barely got into soun
slumber when noise like Bedlam cut loos
smote the air and chilled the wax in hi
, ears with A.
"Ker-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-!-!- !-p
that made his flesh creep as he bounce
straight up in bed, with his hair on enc
. the collar of his night shirt trembling wit
fright, and his eyes fairly popping with dis
may, while his wife was waltzing around
the middle of the room, shrieking "Mul
der!" at every Jump in tho biggest kind {
/ italics, and knocking down whatever can
in her way.
! Unless it was nailed TO the wall.
For as much as a minute Bliggins didn
y know whether his name was Scott or MC
/ Carly, but he finally caught his breath an
4 hoped out of bed with so much suddenne
that he skinned an ear on the edge of
q base-rocker and tangled up both feet
what he swears was q barbed-wire bustl
!. from which with volley Of unpunctuate
: remarks he managed to tear himself and s
4 banging around in the d dlrk in the crazie
I kind of bewildcrment until bad luck guild,