The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-03-22
RED AND WHITE.
BY E. A, CUSTER.

"How's Northwestern this morning,
Uncle Zekea' asked Dick Spriggs
across the restaurant table.
''Slumpcd off six points, blame itp
scowling viciously over his paper at the
steak brought by the waiter.
Ezekiel Spriygs laid down his paper,
and picking up his fork, stuck it into
the meat. AS he withdrew it and saw
the rich, red juice oozo out, his face
frightened. Spriggs was somewhat of
an cpicurc.
'six points pretty big drop" said
Dick, possessing himself of the paper
and alternating between it and his
breakfast; show d'yo come out1'
But spriggs was busily engaged in
tearing off hugo pieces of steak and
chewing them with much the same ex-
preston that n chicken exhibits when
taking drink of water. Business was
business, but breakfast was breakfast
just then, and while Dick chartered and
read extracts, Spriygs turned his eyes
to the ceiling at every bite and gave
himself up to soulful enjoyment of what
was before him. Dick skinned lightly
over tho news, took e cursory glance at
the editorials and paused at the lower
corner of the page, then he read aloud:
Possibly the reason why, when red
headed girl appears on the street, white
horse soon makes its appearance, will have to
be sought for in history. Away back in the
early Greek and Egyptian days, red-hairel
girls were justly priced above all"
"Whadz that2" interrupted Spriggs.
spriggs was bachelor anf though rich
was not especially addicted to tho fair
sex.
Dick leaned thoughtfully back in his
chair. 'Its n dodgasted funny thing,
Uncle zcke, but it's fact, never KNEW
it to fail; strai hit as string, too"
wen, WnaC i3 lit
"Why, don't you sec, the saying is
that where ever you see a red headed
girl there is always white horse in
sight. l believe it now-didn't at first.
Why only last Sunday night l went to
church with Miss Austin-you ought to
sec her, Unclc z Z;ke----" Dick paused
with piecs of steak halfway to his
mouth and gaze yearnin5ly at the
blank wall. "WelI, as I was saying,
went to church; coming out saw di-
rcctly in front o. us girl with hair
just about as red as you Ind it. Onc
OF the rules of the g m, is that you
must always go somewhere that il ac-
ccsslble to the horse after seeing the red
hair, so l mad, an excuse about short
cut and dragged Mabel out the side
door. thought l had the white horse
sequence dead this time, but just as we
came out the door, sure enough the in
evitable white horse came trotting round
the corner. There wasn't another four
legged animal in sight and didnt see
any the whole way home. I've tried it
every chance and never knew it to fail. >
Spriggs gruntcd an inaudiblc response
and rose from the table. BY noon he
had forgotten all about it but the sight
OF red-haircd girl brought tho sub ject
to his mind. In spite of its evident alb
surdity there was something odd a1d
uncanny about the notion and Spriggs
almost unconsciously began to scan
tho passers-by. Turning the corner he
came plump ayainst another maid with
fiery hair and sure enough there, hitchcd
to a post, was a rather scrawny but an
unmistakable white horse. This was
the beginning of his downfall for there
and then he determined to see exactly
what was in The saying. Now Spriggs
was nothing il not methodical. A long
life of sinel, blcssedness and business
training had male him so, and he en-
tered into the investigation in somewhat
the same manner as he would some great
business question.
The major part of the next day was
spent in keeping tally of the horses that
passed his off window; and the fol
lowing day in an extended hunt of red
headed girls without regard to their So
called accompaniment. The result
was that while one horse in every fifteen
was white, only one female in thirty -ont
had red hair. A series of afternoon sit
tings at his club window brought out
the remarkable fact that for every seven
women that passed, two horses were in
sight. This was to be the basis of the
test. Spriggs reasoned that the chance
against the sequence werc about two t.
one, for according to his observations,
in the ordinary days run, there were
twice as many red haired girls as whit,
horses. This of course did not allow
for unusual occurrences or for nigh
travel, when there were fewer horses OF
the street. At the end O
the first week the result was
failures, one; verifcations, forty
eight. Spriggs did not quite believe in
4 tho I,,t h.