Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-04-22
THE MAN UNDER THE BED.
Little Stories Illustrating Bravery
in Women.

Every night hundreds of people, In
fear and trembling with sticks in their
hands, look below the bed for that
"Man." Poor Pussie gets many a
knock when her glarng 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 look for the hid
den foe they are not the oEly searchers,
for there is story told of worthy
Scotch laird, who "caught his man,"
and who brought ali his household to
his loom, with his shouts and laughter.
There they saw the laird pulling out a
man 10y the heels, and heard him cry d:
Come oat. Eye found we moo. My
certy, I've looked every nicht for TWEEN
ty years, and this is the first sicht haze
got o. ye." Then the laird gave the
"Man" the reward he had laid up for
20 years.
There is story told of lady who
somehow saw that man had got below
her bed. She was up in years. Her
maids slept quiet 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, coo'ncss.
Most women would have screamed, or
looked below every bed in the house at
a reasonable hour, with her maids arm
ed with pokers in their company. A
mong 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 was found
out and punished as he deserved Nor
is it to be wondered ut. For creeping
under bed Is no easy task. 1t takes
learning. And one wonder how any
man armed to the teeth ever managed
it. He must have felt his position
dreadfully.
In the West there is Il story of two
servants left IN charge of large man.
sion near Glasgow. The cook had gone
first up to bed, and when the house.
maid followed she saw the heel of
man s boot where''nae butt should be-"
and remembering the warning she had
got, she determined to "don the owner.
1t would never have done to have told
the cook, but she was exceedingly anX-
ious TO tell Aleck, the gardener.
"What time ye're comm to your
bey," grumbled her "neebour.'
Deed ye may say it," answered the
house maid. "Sic dirty wark as | hae
had. L hae fair spoiled a. my goon."
"Ye'll be shaking 1T here an maxim
a stour," said the cook.
81 hae mair sense," answered the girl
as she opened the window and shook
her dress outside. "Plague TAX it,"
she cried, there's my goon over the
windy"
"Nercy an us-the woman's daft"
cried the cook. "Ye'l get it free 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, leaying
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.