The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-07-11

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than to have had her frightened rs you
came rear frightening her. Mind yea,
Sam, we only mean this for a joke.
And with this, the two men wentaway,
taking no heed of the joker's cries and
protestations. But they did not go far
away until they were sure there would
be no more passing on that road for the
night.
On the following morning Jerry set the
news a-going Of Sans present situation,
| and ia half an hour after sunrise a nun
dred people were collected around the
willow tree. There stood Sam, just as
he had been left the night before, shak-
ing and shivering with cold. The OK
skin had been fixed so as to fit him nice
". and he did really look like an ox
fastened up there. He had sewed up the
hide so that his legs and arms fitted into
the skin of the ox's legs, and his OWL
head was where the original eaput had
been, while the horns arose majestically
above the whole. Just above him APP
peared the broad fire board, and it bore
the following announcement in charac-
tiers which could be read with ease, even
at a great distance:
This is Sam Peabody, the great joker.
And this is one of his own jokes in which
he got trapped himself"
Jerry took down the board and let Sam
read it, and then put it up again
..Ha. ha, hat Vot a joker cried one.
He came out here in that rig, to
brighten poor women said Tyler.
"Sam, how's beef:
Il say, Sam. can't you give US a horn:"
What a long tall"
"Who ever seed a hox year boots
afore::"
These, and like ordinations, issued
from the crowd, and all the while poor
Sam was begging for s--c Il to come
and take him down.
I'm the name of mTyf he groaned,
won't somebody let me go:'
Cant think Of it yet returned Jerry
Smith. Your joke IS too good to be
lost. You must have taken a good deal
of pains to make that dress fit Sc nicely,
and | should think you'd want folks to
see it"
by jingor, screamed little Adam Snip,
| going close to the victim. ''you have a
worse fit now than | ever had. Shan't /
send for the DOCTOR"
Atthis the crowdlaughed uproariously.
They would have had pityfor any one else
intown, to have seen him in sucha situa-
ton. but for Sam they had none, for they
knew that for years he had been annoying
all whom he could, and now, since he was
caught in a trap Of his own setting, they
thought it best TO punish him. At 0
| o'clock nearly all the inhabitants Of the
village were u there, and by this time
Sam began to cry. Even Jerry was
touched now. and going up to h eyictim,
he said:
Now, Sam, I'll let you down OF II
condition. Promise that you'll never at
tempt to perpetrate a practical joke
AGAIN.
Il never will"
'sOf any kind or description: You'll
never annoy a human being again, if you
can help it"
.Never-neyer! never will, 50 help
me God.r'
So Jerry united the cords, and in few
moments Sam was free. He was too stiff
to run, and for a while he could walk
with but difficulty. But Jerry gave him
his arm, and helped him to his own house,
and there let him remain until the crowd
had dispersed.
Towards noon Sam went home, and
for over a month he stuck closely to his
shop, never appearing in the street save
when absolute necessity required it. He
kept his promise faithfully, for to this
day he has not attempted to perpetrate
another of his practical jokes, And peo-
pie love him now, for he is one of the
j%olliest old men in the country, and his
presence is sure to dispel anything like
the sulks or blues. And among all his
stories there is not one over which he
laughs more merrily than over the n
wherein is contained an account Of that
practical joke which was so summarily
turned back upon himself.-Sylvanus
Cobb, Jr., in Yankee Blade.