Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-07-11
GIRLS AND BURGLARS.
Three Girls Relate Their Adven-
turos with Thieves.

Three Girls Relate Their AdVen-
lures with Thieves.
They sat up late last night, but they
had fairly good excuses for prowling
about in the dark corridors OF the
boarding house in the small hours. Ihe
red-hcaded girl, who is a stenographer.
had great many folios to click out on
her typewriter, and the colossus OF a
girl who is studying at Barnard col
lege was unable to go to sleep for the
clicking, and the jolly girl who is
drawing at Cooper Union sat with her
head on one side hour after hour try
ing to finish face that gave her no
end of trouble. In the end she threw
her crayon at it's nose and tiptoed
across the hall.
AS she softly pushed the door open
the Barnard girl, who was bending
sleepily over something Greek, sprang
with start from her chair. ''What
would you have done" asked the
Cooper Union girl. ''if I had really
been a burglar?"
The typewriter who roomed with
the Barnard girl turned up her machine
to make sure of the last letter. II
think" she answered, that as 1t is
always good policy to be hospitable,
should have said, as l do now, in my
rplitest manner: Won't you have a
chair?'"
"But, really" said the tall Barnard
girl. as she bent to pick up her scat
tered sheets of queer, Grabbed charac-
ters, 81 often think of it when l have
to go away downstairs Mt this hour OF
| night, when they've turned out the gas
on every landing, to find a book I've
| left in the front hall l start with four
or five matches, but there's always q
! draught that blows them out or they
won't light except on the box, and
| forget the box, and ! say to myself as
poke around on the cold marble slab
| of that hat stand: What should do if
| my fingers touched something's"
Feel of it, should suppose" re-
Piled the Cooper onion girl. ''to see if
! it weren't the book you were hunting
for"
but in sober earnest" persisted the
| timid colossus, what would you do II
YOU were all alone and you met n
] burglar?"
| "IIl tell you," said the typewriter.
acinp about in her chair, "vhat l did
| when | met mine"
you've really seen one?' The Cooper
| Union girl and the Barnard girl bent
| forward. The clock struck one. 1t
was delightfully."- weird hour for story
telling.
We'll, not to say a whole burglar,
| but saw his fingers. They We're very
long, and slender, and dirty"
Where was the rest of him?"
"Out on the garden path. You sec,
it was at home, out on Long Island,
two or three summers ago. l wrote
verses then. You mightn't believe it,
but ono set was really copied into Il
| New York newspaper. l did it mostly
| at night after the folks had gone to
bed and this night there wasn't any
body to go to bed, for mother and |
were spending month alone, and
| mother had been sent for to watch
with sick neighbor.
The verses were bout a knight and
some pond lilies. forget the exact
connection between them, but it was
| very pathetic and it made me cry l
| usually did cry over my verses, and
| that was why | stopped writing them
that and the trouble it was to find
rhymes.
| Il was very much Interested in the
knight But of Il sudden l stopped cry
ing and writing, for l had the most GU
rious sensation, as if somebody were
looking at me-
The Cooper Union girl and the Bar
nard girl said: ''Go on!"
| IL looked up ut n picture that was on
the wall. 1t had queer eyes and the
man it was painted from was dead, and
never liked it, especially late in the
evening, but it didn't seem to be star
ing in. my direction any harder than
usual. Then | noticed that both doors
] were shut, and then something pulled
nv head around toward the window"
Again the Cooper Union girl and the
| Barnard girl said: $50 on!'
There were outside blinds-grcen
blinds, you know; I had shut them
when I lighted the lamp and had left
the window open. 1t seemed to me
| that one blind moved. / winkcd the
last of the tears away and looked again.
One blind was certainly ajar, but II II
had moved at all it had stopped utov'
ing. bent my head over my paper
but l kept a sidewise lookout through
my lashes In minute or two the
| blind moved again; | was sure of II tnl:
time. My heart ,humped and ] forgot
all about the knight and the pond lilies
| In a minute / saw, as ! told, you, Tin
gers. hand had taken firm grasI
of the blind that it might not bang
and the long, hrownish fingers hat
slipped around on the inside"
The Barnard girl said, breathlessly
What did you do?"
II sat a minute in a.cold perspiration
Then I--rot IN md walked as srht q