The Arizona champion., 1891-03-21


 willow tree. There stood Sam, just as he had been left tfh night before, shak- ing and shivering with cold. The OK skin had been fixed so as to fit him nice ly, and he did really look like an OK 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 own head was where the original caput had been, while the horns arose majestically above the whole. Just above him ap- peared the broad fire board, and it bore the following announcement in charac- ters which could be read with ease, even at 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, ha! Vot joke!" cried one.
 "He came out here in that rig, to frighten poor women," said Tyler
 "Sam, how's beef"
 'I say, Sam, can't you give us a horn?'
 "What long taill'
 'Who ever seed a hox year boots afore?"
 These, and like exclamatiOns, issued from the crowd, and all the while poor Sam was begging for some one to come and take him down.
 ''In the name of mercyw 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 good deal of pains to make that dress fit so nicely, and I should think you'd want folks to see it."
 "By jingor' screamed little Adam Snip, going close to the victim, ''you have worse fit now than I ever had. Shan't ] send for the doctor:"
 At this the crowd laughed uproariously. They would have had pity for any one else in town, to have seen him in sucha situa- tion, but for Sam they had none, for they knew that foryears 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 9 o'clock nearly all the inhabitants of the village were out there, and by this time Sam began to cry. Even Jerry was touched now, and going up to the victim, he said:
 "Now, Sam, I'll let you down on one condition. Promise that you'll never at tempt to perpetrate practical joke again?"
 q never will"
 "Of any kind or description? You'll never annoy human being again, if you can help it?"
 "Never-neverl never will, so help me Godp
 So Jerry united the cords, and in few moments Sam was free. He was too stiff to run, and for 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 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 jolliest 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 one yyharain jS contained an accOunt of that practical joke which was so summarily turned back upon himself.-Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., in Yankee Blade.