The herald., 1894-04-15

erIet ono of pair Of dno pourchaiTS.
At 9 o'clock l got up and secured the
other pourchair. They were still at
tacked to tho poles, but that was rather
an advantage than an Inconvenience.
put the poles across under my head and
thus slightly increased the effective
length Of the cot.
"a little after rose again and So
cured a fur rug. 1t was tiger s skin,
with the head of the bcast on ono corner
Of it. There seemed TO bo some warmth
in that tigers aisih, for secured a little
sleep almost Immediately after spread
ing it over mo. had left the lamp
burning, for thought it might warm
the room a little. Well, sir, as say,
slept few minutes-just long enough
to dream that was one Of the early
Christian martyrs in the arena-and
then awoke to find this tigers head,
with its cleaning, CLASSY eyes staring me
in the face. Say, what do you think
did7 Iyolled 30 loud that the conclusion
put the light ont. My wife and her sister
thought there were burglars in the
house. What did they do about it?
don't know, but my opinion is that they
crawled into pile of carpets and rugs
in the middle of their room and hid
there till morning.
"As for me, the shock Of my fright
made mo shivor. And when got over
being frightened couldn't stop shiver-
ing. How cc1ld be cold with all those
things over me / couldn't understand,
but it was true. / arose and secured the
stair carpet. 1t went up and down me
five times, remember, but it didn't
raise my temperature one degree.
''Then made the important discov-
cry that it didn't make any difference
how much had over me 30 long as
had only one layer Of canvas under me.
And tho wind still whistled up through
tho bare boards. / decided to put the
tigers skin over the cot and lie down
on it. Then q new inspiration came to
me. Why not go down and sleep in the
kitchen? Good ideal l picked up the
cot, the pourchairs, tho fur rug and the
stair carpet and started for the kitchen.
At the head of the back stairs stepped
on tho fringe of one Of the pourchairs.
endeavored to step off it, but there
were five apertures in the fringe, and
each one Of them had secured one of my
toes. Therefore just calmly fell over
forward and slid down stairs, with the
cot as toboggan.
II reached tho kitehou in this easy
and unconventional manner and discov-
cred almost Immediately that the fire
had gone out. This is not what / had
/ H<x., 1xsk
perhaps shade warmer than my room,
but it was cooling rapidly, and kitch-
en- in the morning with no fire in it is
the coldest room in tho house, as every
married man knows.
There wasn't any fuel at hand, but
between you and Inc just had to have
some. There were two or three conven-
lent pieces of light woodwork which
belonged to my late landlord and not to
me. With these l kindled fire, and
then / broke up two of our kitchen
chairs and piled them in handy spot.
My cot placed close by the stove, SO
that could feed the fire without get
ting out Of bed. There lay and kept
her a-going with selections from my
furniture, till by and by / got really
warm and snug, and then l went to
sleep. The last things remember put
ting in were the pourchair poles.
THESE brass balls are the ornamental
knobs from the ends Of those poles.
They wouldn't burn, of course, and l
didn't dare to put, them in the stove for
fear my wife would find them and sus-
pect me. So simply unscrewed them
as ! lay there with the intention of
throwing them away at my leisure.
There ought to be one more"
Again he went through his pockets.
"I'm afraid she's found it. If she
hasn't, can make her believe that Wen
ner stole the poles and the kitchen chairs
and few other things which I burned
that night. She'll believe anything of
him now. But, say, wasn't it all her
faultp"
was forced to stifie my chivalrous
instincts and admit that it was.
= 'She sont the beds away, didn't she?
4 OF course, and all that happened was in
consequence of that one piece of blank
ETY. blsak foolishness. Well, what do
you thinkP Have you followed my
story? Have you got an idea of how
much walking around did in my robe
der nooit, as the French say, on that
interesting occasion? 1t was enough to
kill man. But she says-stayl Are
you a married mani''
81 am
"Then maybe you'll believe my story.
She says ] got this cold playing bill
lizards. Winters Is Magazine.