Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-09-21


stepped out and passed the time of day
with him. He answered rather in a
brief and distracted way, but finally
asked my name. told him what it was
and he took my hand. He said he had
been frequently taken for me- was
glad of it. | did not care if he had been
taken for me, only why did those au-.
thorities who took him for me let him
go again?
Finally he said he knew some of my
folks. | said that might be. My folks
never did seem to learn anything by ex-
perience. Some of them, said, were so
kind hearted that they couldn't be IN
kind even to a bunko man. He laughed
sad laugh, like one who breakfasts
with the president of the United States
on the 1st day of April and cuts into a
Canton flannel cake.
But at last he interested me in him
self. Hewas here for his health, he said.
He had air cells in his lungs, think, or
something of that kind. He also had
letter from my brother. 1t was letter
of introduction from my brother. ASH
read it could almost see how he suf-
iCiVd eo AiC NiOlS IL. lOpdO4l ILLS HAL
had supported him when he ran for Of
fee last fall, and now he had paid the
debt by giving him letter of introduce
ton to me.
Taking him by the hand, said: Sir.
you are my guest A letter from my
brother will be honored at all times,
never mind what happen to be doing
at the time. The letter seems TO be gem
nine, and my brother has failed to put
in the cipher which means to do YOU
up So | judge that he means for Inc
to throw myself You are now my
guest. Come with me and will show
you where they are going to build the
new bridge across Craig-y-Nos creek"
He rose and we went away together.
As we passed the store invited him in
and we got some seegars. At our store
here we have a nice, smooth seegar, with
MANILA wrapper, which is free smoker,
and if kept well tipped up so that the
filler will not sift ont affords much
pleasure to the user. We lighted these
Seegars, which are called the Belle of
Talbot, Indiana, and as we pulled them
along the road we seemed somehow to
that | knew where we could get some
calamus root if he liked il and some
mushrooms-at least they looked like
mushrooms. He said he was passion
ately fond of calamus root but still more
so of mushrooms. So we gathered some
of each and had the latter for dinner.
None of the rest of the family would
eat any of these mushrooms. for ! never
gathered any before, and to be a good
mushroom gatherer one should have
killed off IA camping party or two for the
experience. But my guest ate heartily
of them. He ate them all. My wife
winkei hopefully at me- as my doppe!-
gaRger ate the last one and carelessly
ran a slice Of bread around over the
platter and breathed long, delicious
sigh.
After dinner | said, Come on; we
will go up on the top Of Mount Busbee
From there we can see almost to Ashe-
vile" Really, my object was to get
him OF the Place before he died. / hate
to have a guest die in the house, and if
/ can help it Will see that it never &C.
ours, especially when he has letter of
Introduction from some one know
We climbed the hill through the swell
tering heat, and he seemed to hold
up under II quite well. All at once,
ike clap of thunder from clear
sky, came the terrible thought, ''Oh,
heavens! oh, heavens! After all, per-
haps they were really mushrooms"
The thought maddened Inc so that as
| pushed my way through the under
brush ahead of my guest l pulled back
hickory sapling and let it fly back with
such force as to knock him across the
gothic oat farm of General West, of this
place. But my guest did not mind it at
all, for he came up later with a glad
smile and humming bit of an old love
song.
That evening he took from his valise
puzzle ard gave it to my children. They
tried to do ii, but could not We We're
smoking couple of store cigars and the
butler was burning rag. Finally the
children brought the puzzle to me. 1t
looked simple, and as am a great hand
to work out difficult things, like mathe-
NAUTICAL sums and social problems. told
my colored ananuensis to keep my cigar
going for few moments and ! would
show the children how to do it.