Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-07-12
A BURGLAR.

and several of the other girls, were
clustered around the stove at recess. 1t
was a cold day, and some OF the seats
in the old school-house were none too
warm, and there was generally a rush
for the stove at recess. A few boys
lowered shyly on the outskirts of the
group and listened to the girls chat
ter. 1t was rarely that a boy dared
raise his voice. However, to-day one
of them happened to be remarkably
wise upon certain topic which was
agitating them all, so he had spoken quite
at length, with the bushes mounting
higher and higher in his chubby, hon
est face. There had been a burglary
the night before in the village grocery
store, and his father kept the store, so
of course he knew great deal about it,
and had right to speak.
Rose Underwood's sister Fanny look
ed significantly at her when there was
q lull in the discussion. ''Say, Rose,
tell them about your burglar, " said she.
Rose colored up and laughed. ut
isn't worth telling"
Eyes, It's, too. Tell it Rose" All
the others chimed in. Tell it, Rose
that's good girl, now do
Fanny can tell it just as well as f.
said Rose. ut was her burglar as
much as mine"
80, Rose! you know it wasn't, cried
Fanny. s'You know you did the most
of it. Tell it. / think you might
Rose smoothed her white apron down
over her plaid dress refectively. ..Well,
it isn't worth telling" she said again.
''All there was about, it happened be-
fore we came here to live,~ you know;
when we lived in Grover. / wasn't but
twelve years old and Fanny was only
ten and half Well, one night Mr..
Green came for mother to watch with
Mrs. Green's sister. She was real sick
with fever, and they were all worn out
at his house taking care of her. And
mother didn't know just what to do
about it. You see father had gone
away. He was out West, going to be
gone six weeks-he'd been gone four
then-and if she went she'd have to
leave us children alone in the house.
There was Fanny and little Abby and |,
and we'd never st;iid alone in Our lives.
/ was kind of afraid, but Mr.. Green
looked dreadful anxious, and spoke
up and told mother to go. l said
think / wasn't.
''Well, mother went, and just as soon
as she got out of the house we locked
up. We all got together in the sitting
room and played dominoes, and popped
some corn, but we felt awful lonesome.
We went to bed in mothers room, that
opened out of the sitting-room, and we
us dared to sleep alone.
II suppose we must have been asleep,
because it was quite late, but all of
sudden something walked us up. sat
right up and listened, and | felt Fanny
shake. What's that says she grab
bing me. Hush, said I. We all list
ened, and we heard it again. We knew
what it was in a minute then. / sup
pose we were too much asleep before.
Somebody was pushing up the kitchen
window. 1t went hard and it kind of
grated. We'd put sticks under all the
windows but that, and that stuck, so we
didn't think anybody could open it.
'''It's the kitchen window says I,
and I jumped right out of bed. Come
says 1, quick And Abby and Fanny
never said a word; they just scrambled
out of bed and tagged right after me.
And few up stairs, and up the attic
stairs. You see, it flashed into my head
that burglar would never think of go
ing up to the attic, for he'd know there
wouldn't be anything that he wanted
there, nothing but old clothes and
things.
when we got into the attic the
moonlight was coming in the window,
so we could see quite well, and there
was an old bedstead with some old
quilts on it in the corner, and we just
got into that and covered us up, heads
and all.
Then we lay there, and shook. We
We're terribly scared, but little Abby
never cried, and she was only seven
years old. Well, we staid there quite
awhile, before we dared peep out from
under the quilts, but finally poked my
head out a little way. Then begun to
sniff, and made the others poke their.
heads out and see if they didn't smell
something. And, sure's you live, we,
could smell ham frying. We couldn't
believe it at first. but we did.
well, we laid there and smelled the
ham frying, and / got more and more,
uneasy. 1t seemed to me I hadn't been
very spunky. and l thought of mothers.
silver spoons, and her gold breast-pin,
and my gold chain, and Abby's silver
cup that she'd had given her when she
was a baby, and wondered if couldn't
do anything to stop the burglars taking
them.
FINALLY got up. Fanny and Abby
were most scared to death to have mo.
But crawled over to the attic window
and pushed it up an inch at a time.
Then put out my head and looked up
and down the street, but didn't see
anybody coming. I begun to think I
never should. But, finally, / did see
Mr.. Moses Lincoln coming. He'd been
out to the Knights Of Honor. that no
belonged to, so he was late.
II didn't dare to holler, though ne
was right down below-our house was
very near the street. So just took the
rag-bag that was hanging side OF the
window and threw it down. II fell IN
the yard and didn't come very near him.