The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-14

stopped before the house Of an old sea cap
tain, lately dead, whose furniture was b
ing sold
Just at that moment they were putting
up q parrot, green parrot with blue
head, who looked at all the people with q
disturbed and Discontinued air.
'sThree francsr' cried the auctioneer; 20
bird that can talk like q lawyer, three
francsw
A friend of Nine. Patin nudged her.
"You ought to buy it, you that are rich, y
said She st would be company for you;
it's worth more than thirty francs, that
bird You can always sell it again easy
for twenty OF twenty-iveI"
''Four francs, ladies, four francs!" re
peated the man. He sings vespers and
breaches like a cure. He's phenomenon,
a miracle!''
Nine. Patin laid ten sous more, and they
gave her in little cage the bird with his
hooked beak, which she carried off.
She hung him up in her house, and as
she opened the wire door to give him some
water she got peck on the finger which
cut the skin and drew blood.
'Ah, he's uglyp' said She
Nevertheless she gave him some corn
and hemp seed, and left him preening his
feathers and watching out of the corner of
his eye his new house and his new mis-
tress.
he day was beginning to dawn next
morning when Mother Patin heard, I'M
mistakable and distinct, voice, strong,
sonorous, rolling, the voice OF Patin, cry
ing:
will ye get upp'
She was SO frightened that she hid her
head under the sheets, for every morning
aforetime, as soon as he opened his eyes,
her dead husband used to shout in her eer
these words, which she well remembered.
Shaking, rolling in ball, her back bent
before the blow she expected, she muttered.
her face hidden in the pillows:
"Oh. Lord, there he isl Oh, Lord, it's hei
He's come backi Oh, Lord!''
Minutes passed; no further sound broke
the silence OF the room. Finally, trem-
bling, she raised her head, sure that he was
there, waiting. about to strike.
She saw nothing save ray Of sunshine
coming through the window, and she
thought:
Hes hidden, for sure"
She waited long time, then, little re-
assured, thought:
Il guess must have dreamed; he don't
show himself"
She was closing her eyes again, when
there burst out, right in her ear, the rag
ing voice, the voice of thunder of the
drowned man, vociferating:
BLANK to blank TO blank, to blank, will
you get I'D, youp'-
She leaped out of bed, forced by her in
stinct of obedience, her whipped woman's
impulse to obey, that moves her still after
four years, and will always move her, and
will forever respond to that voice! And
she spoke:
''Here am, Patin-what is it?"
But Patin answered not.
Then, distracted, she looked about her,
examining everywhere, in the wardrobe,
in the chimney, under the bed, finding no
one. Finally she fell on chair, desperate
with misery, convinced that only the soul
of Patin was there, near her, come back to
torment her.
Suddenly she thought of the garnet,
which one could get into from the outside
by means OF ladder. For sure, he was
hidden there to surprise her. Captured by
savages somewhere he could not get away
any sooner. and now he was back, wickeder
than ever. There was no mistake about
it, the sound of his voice was enough.
She asked, lifting her face toward the
ceiling, Are you up there, Patin?"
Patin did not reply.
Then she went out and in fear and trem-
bling, her very heart shaking, she climbed
the ladder, opened the trap door, looked,
saw nothing, went in, searched, and found
no one.
Sitting down on a truss of hay she COM
TO cry; but while she was sobbing,
pierced by a poignant and supernatural
fear, she heard in the room below her
Patin talking. He seemed less in rage,
more easy, and he was saying:
Dirty weather. Hard wind Dirty
weather. I've had no breakfast, damn it!'
She sang ont through the ceiling:
Here | am. Patin, Pm going TO make
your soup. Don't be mad, Pm comingr
And she came down again, running.
There was no one there.
She felt herself as faint as if death had
touched her, and she was starting to flee
for help to the neighbors, when the voice
cried, right in her ear:
1--WE had no breakfast, dammew
And the parrot in his cage looked at her
with his little round eye, sly and wicked.
She, too. looked at him, dismayed, muir
'Ah! it's your
He began again, wagging his head:
wait, wait, wait. I'll teach you to !
'kulk, / will"
WHAT passed in her mind? She felt, she 1
h.
lead man. who walked again, who came /
back hidden in the feathers Of this bird to |
Orment her once more, to swear as be-
ore, all day, and bite her, and shout at her
% bring the neighbOrs and make them
augh at her.
She rushed on the cage, opened it, seized /
he bird, which, defending himself, tore
Ter flesh with beak and claws But she /
leld him with all her strength, with both
iands. and throwing herself on the ground |
oiled upon him with the frenzy of a mad /
woman, crushing him, making of him .
hired of flesh, a little soft green thing that
10 longer moved, no longer spoke, hung
imp; then wrapping him up i "A towel as
4 a shroud, she ran out in her cheniise,
,arefooted, TO the edge OF the quay, which
he sea was tapping in little waves, and,
baking the cloth, she let fall into the
water the little dead thing that looked
Ike handful of grass. Then she came
ack, threw herself on her knees before
he empty cage, and, upset completely by
What she had done, besought pardon of the
God Lord, sobbing a. if she mad commit
ed some frightful crime Translated from
he French of Guy dc Maupassant by Fred
ric Hart Wilson for Short Stories
English BIaeksmiths-
The daa+b. If rouur-y hlacksrithz zDs !