The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-02-20
THE GREAT AUK'SEGG

newspaper in tho corner Of the railway
carriage. 1t was a prolonged groan, fol
lowed by string of adjectlves, uttered in
quick succession, like tho reports from a
six chambered revolver fired against time.
shifted my seat a little farther from the
newspaper and let down the window, so
as to be within reach of tho communica-
ton cord should necessity arise. AS did
80 the paper fell on to-the fat, drab knees,
disclosing red, clean shayen face and a
pair Of savage gray eyes.
The man in the corner appeared to lave
experienced a warm time of it behind the
newspaper, for drops Of perspiration stood
like small glass beads on his high fore
head, and his face was distorted by pas
sion, which made him look anything but
desirable fellow passenger. l wished tine
train would reach n station. Even slight
accident TO stay its headlong speed would
have been welcome TO enable mo to put
few carriages between me and tho man in
the corner. But nothing of the kind hap
pened, only my fellow passenger, after
staring fiercely at me few seconds, blurt-
ed out:
Them sales Of great auks' eggs make
me wild 1 hate the worry name of EN-
They say the blooming bird is extinct, and
the sooner them eggs are the better shall
like It. :"
1 felt relieved that my fellow passenger
wasn't mailman or In fit, us l had
been at first led to suppose. He was only
laboring under "A little excitement ocoa-
stoned by reading an account of the recent
sale of couple of great auks' eggs
/ smiled and remarked that he was not
lover of great auks' eggs,
mo, dash emp returned the man saw
agcly. Il wish tho whole 20 which they
say arc knocking about tho world were
burned up and the ashes scattered to the
winds of hcavon"
felt interested and longed to hear fur
Their particulars, So taking out my cigar
case, handed 1t to him, at the same time
venturing to inquire II he had ever had
any dealings in great auks' eggs. 1
thought by his manner he had.
He paused a moment before answering,
while he bit off tho end Of the cigar.
well, yos-or more strictly speaking,
no, !" he said slowly. "But, there, it's
queer story" looked interested, and
after lighting up he began:
1T was ono night some years ago was
aocosted in the commercial road by shah
by follow, who asked me to buy queer
looking thing which he held in his arms.
1t looked something between football
and an Edam cheese, as hard as adamant,
and the color Of walnut peeler's hands.
The man said he had just arrived in Eng
land from abroad, where many years of
his life had been spent The ball had been
present from some black king. He did
tell me his name but forget 1t now. ]
know 1t took ten minutes to say 1t, and
you had to sneezo twice at the end to pro-
nounce 1t properly. The man didn't know
what the ball was, but the king had val
ued 1t highly, l told him 1t was no use to
me. but he begged so hard for enough to
get him a nights lodging that ! at last
gave him trhe for 1t and took the thing
home, thinking 1t would do to keep the door
open, If nothing else.
For n long time the queer old thing
was knocking about the house. 1t was
useless for holding open the door. The
only use it appeared to be wns for people
to fall over. l fell over 1t first and injured
the bridge Of my nose and knocked leg
off table. My mother in law followed me
over it few days after and was laid up
three weeks with black eye and shock to
the system. Then one of the kids let 1t on
the cats back, and though they say n cat 8
spine is made Of india rubber it couldn' t
stand that ball and snapped. At last the
baby made desperate effort to rid the
house Of that dashed thing by eating it up
and injured tho only two teeth 1t pos
sessod. My wife grew very indignant at
this and said the injury to Obadiah IS
teeth was tho last straw that mnde the
load too heavy to bear and she chucked
the ball into the back yard, where it lay
for months behind some boxes, forgotten
and uncarCd for.
at was couple of days before the Der
! L q -.
arrange about going aud how we were to
raise tho necessary funds, as We were at
very low water We were having n smoke
| together N the yard, while his little beg.
| gar Of a dog was scrnping about for rats,
which existed only IN his own imaRinn,
ton. In his search, among other things
he lRid haze wA that old bill, which he
sent rolling forward almost on to our toes
| why, HGh, what hAvo you got hereY
cried ice, bending down to examine it,
| " That's Just what want 10 know
said. It's ball of mystery altogether.
"Joo began scrapng the dirt off witt
his foot and examining carefully. Their
he began laughing for to kill himself. II
amt great aux Is egg, eh, Bobf' he said
mo, l says. i wish to goodness Il
was.
-" If 1t don't happen to lay claim to tina
proud title, why don't you make it"
What's the goody' l answered.
couldn't see what Joe was driving at.
why said Joe, 1 was thinking 4
was Just the article to suit that old fool
Billy Muster. Fake it up u bit and sell /
to him as a great auk's egg. Hold neys
know tho difference. At any rate /
wouldn't hurt him, and do us a deal o
good.
Il THOUGHT II n caDital joke, We sool