News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-04-22
THE MAN UNDER THE BED.
Little Stories Illustrating Bravery in Wo-
men.

Every night hundreds of people. in
fear and trembling, with sticks in their
hands, look below the bed for that
''NIan." Poor Pussie gets many a
knock when her glaring eyes shine
bright through the darkness, and the
stick is brought laundering down on
her sensitive back. If Pussie gives a
fright to her good mistress, she pays
her back when she springs out and
leaves her mark on the good woman's
nose, while her lord and master, unfeel-
ing wretch that he is, growls-" Serves
you right. What in all the world do
you expect to find -
But if women-especially women who
have nerves-oftenest lr4yn.Qr the hid
den foe, they are not tstheq anl, Iearch-
ers, for there is a storSfvK v : worthy
Scotch laird, who ''esma man, ,h
and who brought all hi sssIsehold to
his room, with his shouts Ana laughter.
Fhere they saw the laird pulling out
man by the heels, and heard him cry:
'Come oot I've found We moo. NY
certy, I've looked every NIGHT for twenty
! years, and this is the first sicht hae got
o. ye." Then the laird gave the ''Man"
the reward he had laid up for 20 years.
There is a story told of lady who
somehow saw that man had got below
her bed. She was up IN years. Her
maids slept quite at another end of the
house. She knew that to scream out
was to bring death to herself So she
sat down and calmly read aloud, then
prayed, and then went to bed. And
then the man, conscience stricken. left
the house, and years after said that her
GOODNESS had reformed him; and her
brave and noble conduct had made him
ashamed to rob or hurt any one in that
house.
But there are very few people living
who could copy that old lady's GOODNESS.
Most women would have screamed, or
looked below every bed in the house at
reasonable hour, with her maids
armed with pokers in their company.
Among the many stories of men found
in hiding below the bed there never
seems to have been one who was not
armed to the teeth. And he always
WIS found out and punished as he de-
served. Nor is it to be wondered at
For creeping under a bed is no easy
task. 1t takes learning. And one won
ders how any man armed to the teeth
cNtI HIdud3cu IL. ne muSG nave lelG HIS
position dreadfully.
In the West there is a story of two
servants left in charge of large man
sion near Glasgow. The cook had gone
first up to bed, and when the housemaid
followed she saw the heel of mans
boot where mae butt should be" and
remembering the warning she had got,
she determined to "do' the owner 1t
would never have done to have told the
cook, but she was exceedingly anxious
to tell Aleck, the gardener.
''What time ye're comm to your
led, " grumbled her ''neebour."
Deed ye may say it," answered the
housemaid. "Sic dirty wark as hae
had. l hae fair spoiled a my goon."
"Ye'll be shaking it here an maxim
stour," said the cook.
81 hae mair sense" answered the girl
as she opened the wind@~ and shook
her dress ort&;.,es. s.aIak' it,"
windy. win i,,;S > isS - :.
"Niercy on ds-thssA ~ d Si1
cried the cook. ''Ye'lI ESa f.s.ce the
mistress. My word, you're in for t."
''Ay, but I'll fetch it up" said her
neebour, as she flew down the stairs,
and then on to the gardeners, leaving
the poor cook quite easy in her mind,
little dreaming of EARNED to the ''teeth'
SO near her.
The gardener was in the room before
the ''goon" was, and that man was
pulled out and got his deserts.