The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-08-29

wear his oldest coat, and his most com fortable slippers. There is conserva- tory at the end of the lawn, and here the high fence ends. There is also little sub-back yard filled with tall trees which shut out the view from the road. Around this minor back yard- the fence is only four feet high.
 This minute description of my estate is necessary for understanding the ex- citing times l had during the days I stayed at home and attempted to do some writing in the quietness of my own back yard.
 found that the fence was a great temptation to every passer-by. The small boy, if he had stick in his hand, liked to run it along the boards or beat the stick against them as he passed along. This was annoying, and l sometimes shouted to him to stop his racket, but l merely received in return a number of personal remarks which, it is not too much to say, were dis tinctly insulting, considering the fact that the speaker was entirely unable to see the person to whom he was speaking.
 Therefore, as I am of the kind of person to whom experience teaches something, I ceased to expostulate verbally with the small boy with his stick, I stole quietly around into the sub-bacS yard and waited for him beside the low fence. He always came along quite unconscious of dan | I 1nI b,,t ha brick wall of the conservatory, and I | always succeeded in snatching his cap. He usually jumped to the middle of the road in his surprise before he realized that he had to negotiate for the re- turn of his cap. I made him give his name and address and apologize in the most abject fashion before l returned his headgear. He was usual | ly the butchers delivery boy or the lad from the grocery. l threatened to turn the police upon him, or what was worse, to go to his master and com plain; and I think that do not hatter myself when 1 say that during the time I stayed at home, l had distinctly moral effect on the lads of that neighborhood. A boy dare not ''sass" you when you have his cap in your hands, for he is, if l may put it that way, handicapped in the con troverSy.
 l I soon found, however, that there was more objectionable small boy than the one who rapped at the fence. This was the boy (generally there were two of them), who rang the electric bell at the back gate. He then ran around the corner and appeared to be amused at the blank look of the serv- ant as she gazed up and down the street trying to discover who had called her unnecessarily from her work.
 One afternoon heard the prolong ed ring of the bell and then the rapid | footsteps of two urchins as they ran along the walk outside of the fence, and so l thought the time had come to teach these youngsters a lesson. slipped silently down the lawn, under the trees, into the shadow of the greenhouse, and peered cautious ly over the fence, so that they might not see me. There the two young villains stood close to me and craning their necks to see who opened the garden door. heard the click of the latch as the garden entrance was opened, and then the two ragamufiins, with many giggles, backed closer to the fence so the serv- ant could not see them. They were so preoccupied in watching danger from one direction that they did not see the real calamity that lowered near them. Before they were aware of it my two hands dropped down on them, as it were from the skies, and 1 had firm clutch of each by the back of his col lar. Talk about the pleasures of hook ing salmon, it is nothing at all to the excitement of catching an energetic small boy and getting good firu hold of the collar of his coat. For the next two minutes had all could do. They squirmed and wriggled, and kicked at the fence, threw themselves down, and did every mortal thing they could think of in trying to escape, but l held on, and finally it dawned on them that they were nabbed. Then the elder said defantly:
 Say, mister, if you don't let me go I'll yell for policeman"
 "Yell," l answered; that's just what I want you to do, and when the police man comes I'll be very glad to hand you over to him"
 Now the boys, if they had only known it, were perfectly within their legal rights in calling policeman, and if policeman had been called don't know how l could have justi' fled my own action. l was com hitting an assault on them for an offense I had not seen them commit, and which, perhaps, was not punishable by the law if there had been witnesses. l was taking the law and the young rascals into my own hands, which is not thing to be permitted. However there was, as matter of course, nc policeman in sight, and l thought I would chance it. hauled the light CT of the two boys over the fence, while the other wriggled and strug' gled to escape. It was no easy task l h