Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-05-08

cut in iwo his wife for long time waited
in DIRE I'd for his return, for if there had
been collision it might have happened
that the cOllidirg vessel picked him up
and carried him to foreign parts.
Later little by little, she grew used to
the idea that she was a widow, still trem-
bling each time that a neighbor woman, a
beggar, or a travelling peddler came in on
her unexpectedly.
One afternoon about four years after
the disappearance of her husband, she
stopped before the house of an old sea cap
tain, lately dead whose furniture was be-
ing sold.
just at that moment they were putting
up a parrot, green parrot with a blue
head, who looked at all the people with
disturbed and disseminated air
"Three francsw cried the auctioneer; "a
bird that can talk like a lawyer, three
francs"
a friend of Nine. Patin nudged her.
"You ought to buy it, you that are rich, :"
said she. sit would be company for you;
it's worth more than thirty francs, that
bird. You can always sell it again easy
for twenty or twenty-fiver'
-Four francs, ladies, four francsr' re-
peated the man. Gle sings vespers and
IL III.
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 uglyr' 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.
The day was beginning to dawn next
morning when Mother Patin heard, un-
mistakable and distinct, IA voice, strong,
sonorous, rolling, the voice of Patin. cry
ing:
"Will We get up!''
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 ear
these words, which she we'll remembered.
Shaking, rolling in "A ball, Der back bent
before the blow she expected. she muttered.
her face hidden in the pillows:
"Oh, Lord, there he is! Oh, Lord, it's hel
He's come back! 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 a ray of sunshine
coming through the window, and she
thought:
Hes hidden, for sure"
She waited II 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 up, your
She leaped out of bed, forced by her in
stinct of obedience, her whipped woman
impulse to obey, that moves her still after
four years, and will always move her, 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 a chair, desperate
with misery, convinced that only the soul
of latin wa, there, near her, come back to
turncut her
Suddenly She thought of the garnet,
which one could get into from the outside
~ mean, Of ladder. For sure, lie was
hidden here TO surprise her. Captured by
saVa-es somewhere he could not get away
any sooner, and BOW he was back, wick eder
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?"
Pa N 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 truss of hay she COM
menced TO cry; but while she was sobbing,
pierced by poignant and supernatural
fetfr, 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 out through the ceiling:
Here | am, Patin! Pm going to make
your soup. Don't be mad, I'm comingl"
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, dammer
And the parrot in his cage looked at her
with his little round eye, sly and wicked
She, too, looked at him, dismayed, muir
muring:
"Ah! it's your
He began again, wagging his head:
Wait, wait, wait, I'll teach you to
skulk, willr'
What passed in her mind? She felt, she
realized, that it was he, sure enough, the
| dead man, who walked again, who came
back hidden in the feat hers of this bird to
torment her once more to swear as be-
fore, all day, and bite her. and shout at her
to bring the neighbors and make them
laugh at her.
She rushed on the cage, opened it, seized
the bird, which, defending himself, tore
her flesh with beak and claws. But she