Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1886-03-04
The SYRINGA Bush.
BY PAUL PAsTNoR.

Mr.. Ma0innis was not afraid of ghosts.
He never had been-he never would be.
II he had said so once he had said so five
hundred times, perhaps more. 1t was one
of the supremest satisfactions OF his life to
laugh at the women folks and the children
when they talked about ghosts. "Pooh,
pooh, nv dears!" he would cry. "The idea
of being afraid of what doesn't exist
afraid of nothingl 1 declare, it makes me
tired!" (Mr. Maginnis fully sympathized
with the recently published views of Mr..
Walt Whitman on the subject of American
slang.) It sometimes used to make Mr..
Maginnis turn fairly purple in the face with
Laughing to hear how the visiting servant
Girls came in all of shiver in the evening
after seeing Mr.. Maginnis' own last weeks
underclothes mistily waving upon the
clothes-line. 1t was always with fiendlsh
delight that the worthy man beheld white
COW or an old spawned and decrepit milk.
white horse abroad In the golden evenhde,
for he knew that in very short time some
an old maid or school
ma am, or fat cook with dozen bundles
under her arm, would be frightened out of
their false teeth. Such was Fletcher Ma
ginnis-a disbeliever In things super
natural; q little, pudgy, bay -windowed,
prosaic, short. t.breathed, everyday grocer,
who never sarded his sugar because he
fully believed that somebody else had at
tended 10 that little matter before him.
Now it happened in the regular course OF
events that winter approached, with its
usual heraldry of frosts and mittens and
the arrival of the man with the fve-inch
stove pipe elbow under his arm. Mr.. Ma
pinnis, as usual, resurrected his ulster, and
cracked the same old chestnut, as he met
the blue -nosed ice man delivering his last
blocks of crystal comfort at the back door
Mrs. Maginnis began to gather in her choice
plants, lamenting meanwhile that she hao
neglected this important domestic duty un-
til the complexion of her nose, tweaked by
the remorseless fingers of Jack Frost, mus
surely attract the attention of passer'
by. One delicate syringa bush (Magin'
mis- called it syringe bush, but then Ma
einnis had no eye for beauty, no olfactor,
organ capable of aesthetic titillation) sh,
debated long over, undecided whether Il
remove it, roots and all, to the cellar, o
venture to intrust it to the chilly embraces
| of winter. Finally she decided to give it
nice, fashionable, corn -colored ulster o.
straw, which Magnnis should purchase TO
her, and some competent son of Erin Gu
and fit to suit the requirements of the bush
But meanwhile sharp night threatened
Maginnis had gone to the store, to be alb
sent rather later than usual, he said, as
was "lodge night;" and unless some cover
ing we're provided for it the precious syring
would probably freeze. So Mrs. Maginni
went into the house and got an old skirt o
hers and sheet. II was quite dark, bu
Mrs. Maginnis laughed as she spread ou
the balloon like garment and slipped it owe
the bush, thinking what il anybody shoul
see her nowl Then she wrapped the sheet
fold on fold, around the bush, and fastene
il with that woman's Uade mecum, pin.
|
IL was considerably "small" in the morn
ing when Maginnis got away from III
"lodge." He felt queer. The piercing ai
OF the early morning cut TO his very maj
row. He shivered, actually trembled-
something he had not done for twenty -thre
years, although he was a married mar
Somehow, his head seemed TO be bursting
He grabbed his hat-rim, and with the great
est difficulty discovered the connection be
tween his brow and the tightening band, an
tilted the hat upon the back of his heaC
How strangely the stars lookedl How th
leuround seemed to glide forward and bach
ward beneath his feet. He started dizZil
in the direction of home, every now an
then stopping 10 allow the shifting cart
time to subside; then, clasping the unbu
toned ulster feebly with both hands,
staggered on again.
Fletcher Maginnis was drunk--a littl
Not so drunk that he didn't realize IL hin
. self, but Just drunk enough to be somewh
dazed and apprehensive and oblique