Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-01-05

Jane" l said. "and may be hs
wouldn't
.'Oh, he would. toor' interrupted JED:
1T won't hurt aunt bit wouldn't
think of doing it if thought any harm
/ could come of it. Painting never hurts
any one. Like as not it'll cure Aunt
Jane of her cowardice. when she finds
out that the burglars only me-"
At few minutes before nine o'clock
JEFF crawled. giggling and chuckling.
under the bed in Aunt James room.
purposely leaving one of his big boots
| partly exposed.
l concealed myself behind the big
chair, and we kept talking to each
other in giggling whispers.
Aunt Jane always came to her room
| at exactly nine o'clock. and she was
not moment behind time ON this par
ticular evening.
She came into the room with her
lamp in her hand. She seemed to be
in merry mood not common to her.
and was softly singing quaint old
ballad about a certain " Dung Horace"
who was 'both naughty and proud"
and who came to an untimcly end in
consequence of walking off an open
draw-bridge when his nose was turned
haaghtily skyward.
Having put the lamp on the mantel.
Aunt Jane began taking down her
hon l- has,. IS xx,hsaI, ,l L.
her dressing-case; what was left she
combed for long time. jeff and l
were getting tired of waiting when
Aunt Jane suddenly darted forward,
dropped on her kness and peered under
the bed.
To our unspeakable amazement, she
simply cried out, in her hardest, most
metallic tones: '.Mercy ON me! I've
found him at last!'
With swift, masculine motions she
drew her long sleeves above her elbows.
sprang toward the boots that were
sticking out from under the bed. and
then-well, neither jeff nor l retained
a very distinct recollection of all that
followed.
jeff says that when Aunt Jane jerked
him out from under the bed his head
struck something on the opposite side
of the room and he saw stars. The
contents of the water-pitcher on Aunt
James washstand were then dashed into
his face; then her feather-bed was
thrown on top of him and Aunt Jane
threw herself across the feather-bed,
eXclaiming:
i've got you! You'll be smothered
to death if you don't lay still! James!
James! james, she screamed, at the
top of her voice.
James was my father. He did not
Immediately respond to the call, and
jeff began struggling with renewed
vigor. heard him cry out, in
smothered voice: ''Aunt Jane! o, Aunt
Jane?' but she was so excited. and the
voice was so smothered under the bed
that she did not know it, or what he
said.
When father and mother appeared
VIZ thC SSCuC pCA vas etllA uuOCI IuC
bed and Aunt Jane was holding tn
bed over h M and belaboring him with
both hands in state of gasping ex-
haustion.
1.-The scamp" she cried, rs father
appeared. Found him--under my
bed. He thought he'd--scare mel
s'pose-but he-he-didn't"
II should say not said father, as
he stopped over and seized JEFF by the
shoulder and cried out: Here, sir!
what do you-why. jeff"
do not care to dwell on what fol-
lowed. jeff and l were strangely reti-
cent on the subject for weeks there
after, and We agreed that it was best
not to tell our school-boy friends about
it-as we had previously intended do
ing. But Aunt Jane talked freely
about it to any one who would listen.
and always ended the story by saying.
truthfully:
Its good thing for boys to be
smart, but when they get too smart it
sort o reacts on them in a way that
amt as agreeable as it might be, but
does 'em good. ~ L. Harbour, in
Youths Companion