The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-05-18

course the carpet had been taken mp. 20
when the wind came round to the ncrth
IL came straight mp DC my feet. ! hadn't
o very gOtA assortment OF bedding.
Most of our staff had been sent over to
Wenner's warehouse. / had a sheet
folded lengtbwise, in the form of one or
those sleeping bags which explorers use.
Then / had an old blanket and for a COW
erlet one of a pair of fine p~ourcfair
At . o'clock / got up and secured the
other pourchair. They were still at
tached to the poles. but that was rather
an advantage than an inconvenience. I
put the poles across ulnler my head and
thus slightly increased the effective
length Of the cot.
"A little after Q | rose again and Sc
cured fur rug. It was a tigers skin,
with the head of the beast on onescorner
OF 1t. There seemed to be some warmth
in that tigers skin, for / secured a little
sleep almost Immediately after spread
ing IL over me. | had left the lamp
burning, for ! thought it might warm
the room . little. Well, sir, as / say, I
slept a 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 It's cleaning. CLASSY eyes staring me
In the face. Say, what do you think I
did? Iyelled SO 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 IL? i
don't know, but my opinion lie that they
crawled into a 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 me shiver. And when / got over
being frightened ! couldn't stop shiver-
ing. How i could be cold with all those
things over me I couldn't understand,
but 1t was true. / arose and secured the
stair carpet. 1t went up and down me
i've times, / remember, but it didn't
raise my temperature q degree.
Then / made the important discov-
cry that 1t didn't make any difference
how much ] had over me so long as !
had only n layer of canvas under nle.
And the wind still whistled up through
the bare boards. ] decided to put the
tigers skin over the cot and lie down
omit. Then q new inspiration came to
mel Why not go down and sleep in the
kstchenf Good ideal / picked up the
col, the. pourchairs, the fur rug and the
stair carpet and started for the kitchen.
At the head Of the back stairs I stepped
on the fringe of one of the pourchairs.
/ endeavored to step of it, but there
were i've apertures in the fringe, and
each one OF them had secured one of my
toes. Therefore I just calmly fell over
forward and slid down stairs, with the
cot as q tohoggan.
II reached the kitchen in this easy
and unconventional manner and discov-
cred almost Immediately that the fire
had gone out. This is not what I had
fallen down stairs for. The kitchen was
perhaps q shade warmer than my room,
bat it was cooling rapidly, and a kitch-
en- In the morning with no fire in it lie
the coolest oom in the house, as every
married man knows.
There wasn't any fuel at hand, but
between you and me / 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 / kindled a fire, and
then | broke mp two of a kitchen
chairs and piled them in a handy spot.
My cot I 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 I 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 /
didn't dare to put them. in the stove for
fsar my wife would find them and sus-
poet me. So ] simply unscrewed them
rs 1 lay there with the intention OF
throwing them away at my leisure.
There ought TO be one more"
Again he went through his pockets.
Elm afraid she's found it. IL she
hasn't, I can make her believe that Wen
ner stole the poles and the kitchen chairs
h1u y lew OLu6r innings WHICH i burned
that night. She'll believe anything of
him now. But, say, wasn't IL all her
fault3''
] was forced to stife my chiyalrous
instincts and admit that 1t was.
She sent the beds away, didn't shef
OF course, and all that happened was In
consequence OF that one piece Oh blank
ETY. blank fooliehness. Well, what do
you think? Have you followed my
story9 Have you got an idea Of how
much walking around / did In my robe
der nooit, : as the French say, on that
interesting occasion? It was enough TO
hll . man. But she says-stayi Are
you 3 married man?n
II am"
Then maybe youth believe my story.
Che says / got this cold playing bill
lizards. Winters Magazine.
Bacon For seng Birds.
We have received the following plea
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