St. Paul daily globe., 1893-05-05
what the doctors called rheumatism of

what the doctors called rheumatism of
the heart and in two days was corpse.
SIN those days we used to sit up with
the dead. and | aud Bill Lewis toak the
first turn the first night The corpse
was in an old-fashioned ice box, but, IN
accordance with uncle's wish, no ice
was in the box. Bill and got to the
house about O'clock. and after talking
awhile the Thomps0ns went to bed and
we went into the front room, where the
corpse was.
II guess we were in there over an
hour when Bill went out 10 the well to
get drink of water. He had hardly
left the house before the lid of the ice
box was lifted up and thrown on the
floor. and the corpse sat up in the box
with muslin cloth over its face and
yelled in fearful manner.
''It got out of tile box and came over
to where | stood, and said: Get away
from here as quick as you can or you'll
be in another world before dawn l
ran from the house as fast as | could,
and never stopped till | got home. Bill
Lewis saw me running and lost no time
i'll joining me. After we were at my
house little while. we concluded to go
back and investigate the affair. Before
we started, Bill said: Why, Joe, your
hair is all white,' and looked in glass
and saw that it was. We went back to
ThompSon's and found the door wide
open, just as | had left it. In the front
room we found no indication of what
had seen. The ice box lid was in its
place, and the corpse was lying there as
quiet as it was dead.
Solution-Df the Mystery.
81 never could understand what took
place that night until about two years
ago, when Joe Thompson'S boy Horace
came back from the West. He came to
my house one night shortly after his ar
rival, and during the evening said:
Uncle joe (he always called me uncle,
| want to tell you something, but don't
want you to be cross. Do you remem-
Der the time pops Uncle Gerald died at
our house and you and Bill Lewis sat
up with the corpse, and how the
corpse got alive and drove you from the
rOOm? Well, I'm going to own up and
tell yon all ABOUT it.
Just before you and Lewis got
there that night Sleaked into the front
room, lifted the old man out of the ice
box, showed him under the old-fashioned
sofa, and then craWled in the box, and
fixed the lid over the top after had
fastened the sheet around me. l got
awful tired of waiting, and was never
SO glad as when Lewis said he was go
ing out to the pump to get drink of
water After you left I peeped out of
the door and saw Lewis logging it after
you. Then l went back, rolled the old
man from under the sofa, and put him
back in the ice box. Oh, but | bad a
job getting him back into the box.
After fixing him as comfortably as l
could | went to bed and laughed till
nearly morning over the success OF my
little trick
IF he had told me that ten years
sooner l believe would have given him
a good thrashing. It's just like him for
all the world, and if he doesn't come to
bad end it won't be because he don't
deserve it. Why. he thinks no more of
a corpse than coroner or an undertaken
does.'
Tie train arrived before any of the
others could tell what they had seen or
experienced, and in few minutes all
were being carried toward the city.