Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-07-02
Moved In.

-Four members of the Bicycle Tour
lists Club were relating their adven-
lures of the past season, and the one
last addressed, tall, handsome ath.
lete, laughed slightly as he knocked
the ashed from his cigar before re-
plying.
"A droller adventure than mine,
boys, never happened. There's the
pathetic, the ludicrous, the tragic,
the sentimental, all combined in this
story of mine, and it's true, every
word of it. 1t happened, let me see,
just six weeks ago to-day.
81 went with Clark and And
erson, you know, up to Bethlehem,
from there to the White Mountains,
then to Lancaster.
"Now just before start J.
sad to me coaxingly;
Nf yCu go as far as r1aucasurI',
don't forget that Janet Harding, the
only cousin L have in the world, lives
in the next town.
'All right | replied. Janet Hard
ing lives in the next town to Lancas-
ter. I'll remember
Janet Harding unmarried would
have been bad enough, but with a
husband, two giddy girls and an over
grown boy of seventeen, could /
stand it? Mother thought l could,
and mother rules our house.
When we started on our bicycle
trip to Dixuille Notch | planned to
see the Hardings, bowl leisurely up
to the door, introduce myself to
Mrs. H., joke with the girls, and
then proceed; but man proposes, etc.
AS luck would have it my bicycle
broke down, and | had to leave it at
the Falls, a little village five miles
from Lancaster, for repairs. Clark
and Anderson went on without me
to North Stratford, where / was to
meet them by train, and l proceeded
on foot to the Harding farm, some
two miles from the Falls.
The farm, a smooth interval dotted
with fields of ripening grain, and the
large verandahed house and great
roomy barns clustering about it, but
not too near, all bespoke plenty ,com-
fort and hospitality.
Hospitality, did 1 say? Well, l
shan't take it back, although | found
the door locked and not a living
thing in sight except an old white
hen. Mark the exception, for that
hen plays an important part in my
adventure.
| noticed her, and in particular
marked the proud complacent step,
the conceited 'car-car' she uttered
as she looked at me knowingly from
the corner of her eye. Little did
no matter. You will see
by and by the golden thread that
binds all the points together.
Well, here we were, the white hen
and l, but Janet Harding was not, nor
the boy, nor Mr.. Harding.
| decided to go to the barn and
lie down on the hay, the new-mown
hay, and await their coming.
For me to think is to act. A few
later | had climbed to the
NOW and esconsed myself under
brace in the corner where the after
noon sun glinted through a long
crack, making slanting dustbeams
across my breast.
| made a few verses as | lay on
the fragrant hay, but L didn't poetize
long. | fell asleep, and | dreamed,
and my dreams grew thicker and
blacker and heavier, until at last |
dreamed that Janet Harding and the
whole family were seated on my stom-
ach, and oh, the pressure l groaned
and walked myself up, but | wasn't
much better off then, for Egyptian
darkness reigned about me, except
for the crack where the light still sift
ed through.
"Where was /? What was the mat
ter? l couldn't think, the horrible
pressure was so maddening. All
about, around, above, were packed
piles of oats. not shelled oats, you
know, but oats before they are
on the stock, or whatever
you call it. While / was asleep /
had been moved in, and that's all
there was to it, except that | couldn't
move hand or foot. Two or three
loads must have been thrown on top
of me, trod down, and clinched, so
to speak.
Well, | tumbled around q bit and
and got my hands free and poked
the grain away from my face little.
[ was in a corner, as L told you, un-
der a brace, and this gave me a
chance for my life, that and the
crack, which gave me breath of air
in the hot, sitting place. 1 was just
as effectually immured as were the
monks in olden times when they were
walled up in their living tombs, for
no amount of strength served to lift
the burden particle.
By and by something futtered at
my feet and rose up and cackled.
1t was the white hen.
> l knew her and she knew me, but
bless you, she didn't want anything
of me nor my company. | could see
that. But she couldn't get out? Oh
but couldn't she? She cooked her
head impudently to one side, stepped