The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-01-26

window sill, from which it hoped to a
tree outside, and was lost to view.
"A cruel boy beetle caught
And to the wall it pinned, oh,
The creature moaned and cried aloud
Though I'm stuck up am not proud
And the toad hopped out Of the win
down misquoted Eileen, while Brian
dispatched his victim and impsled it
among its kind upon a huge card.
There was another card filed with
butterflies, and boxes and drawers
holding queer tumble of birds eggs
and nests, with few crudely stuffed
bird skins, together with mice, and
moles, and muskrat, and it was the
latter than Brian pounced upon a mo-
ment later, with the exclamation OF
despair
'Mothsi They've ruined it, and the
moles, too. How did they get in?r
"It's more to the point to ask how
we'll get them out, cried Lida hastily.
"If there's nothing ruined but your
rubbish We may be thankful"
Brian himself was ready enough TO
sacrifice every infected object, but he
was vociferous in declaring that Aunt
Janet should not put brush or broom
inside the apartment.
''She stepped on my red lizard last
time, and threw the jar with my little
green snake in the ash barrel, and |
never found it out till it had been cart
ed away. You see, Eileen, all my pets
are not dead ones. Here is family of
bumblebees in this box; just hear 'em
hum"
'Brian1' shrieked his sisters, recoil-
ing, but Eileen peered through the
wire netting of the box, little shrink
ingly to be sure, but with a sympathy
that Brian was not accustomed to re-
ceiving.
"Are you going to chloroform them?"
"WelI, hardly. I'll just keep them
to study their ways for awhile, and
then let them go. / don't kill things
unless want them as specimens. II
is hole of place." he admitted, as
he looked ruefully about the room,
'but won't have you girls bothering
with my things.r
''Put it in order yourself, then, aud
let me help you" suggested Eileen.
'.It is pity you haven't a cabinet;
your feathers and furs would be 80
much safer if stored behind glass"
Brian flashed her grateful glance.
There's that old bookcase up in the
attic" he said eagerly. AZ thought Of
it once, but there is always such a row
raised over my doings. Say, it'll be q
frolic! I'll perch my birds on branches
as natural as life, and have my black
snake climbing up 10 steal an egg from
the nest. He was doing that very
thing with Mrs. Robin in the tree here,
when gave him the tap with my cane
that broke his back. / wouldn't take
a town lot for that tree. There's more
goes on in it than you could imagine. "
There was more to go on in it pres
emily than Brian himself imagined.
He had not explained that the black
snake was very recent acquisition
50 recent that the five-foot coli dispos-
ed in a wall-basket was not the stuffed
form that Eileen believed II, but the
dead body of the snake itself, which
Brian had killed just before leaving for
the ball-game that day. The girls had
no idea of this.
They all fell to work with will, the
next day, TO carry out the plan for inn
proving Brian's room. Even Sid lent
a hand in bringing the old bookcase
down. If the "kid'' would have all
that disagreeable litter around, it would
be better to focus it within definite
limits than 10 have it sown broadcast
over the premises. The girls were ready
enough to take their tone from Eileen.
And besides" said Lida, at will
be such a relief to make space in his
bureau drawers for his shirts and col
lars, so that he need not stow them
away under his bed or his washstand-
He nearly Drained me once with an
armful of books that he piled on top of
his closet door, standing it just enough
ajar to hold them there. We had fuss
ed so much over his heaping things on
the floor, he said, and that was the
only other place he had for them.
Another time, we found his laundry
bag hung on the bird-cage hook, out
side his window. 1t was an airier and
more appropriate place for it than the
closet, he maintains to this day."
Brian had given his word to play
none of his practical jokes on the girls
during the renovation, but they dis
trusted his approach and shied away
from him with consistency bred OF
long habit. In one of these unneces-
sary plunges Nella upset the bumblebee
box, displacing the slide, and in an
other moment the air was full of bees,
screams and rapid footsteps. Eileen
was mounted on step ladder and
could not run, though she found her
self besieged by two or three Of the
buzzing insects, one of which became
entangIed in her hair.
keep STILL" said Brian. "They
won't sting you if you don't fight back.
Oh-h-hI Ugh-h-h p'
Startled by the sound Of the queer
gurgle that ended his sentence, and
disappointed in her expectation that
he would come at once 10 her relief, Eli
leen cautiously turned her head to be-
hold a sight that made her forget Ter
own smaller danger.
Wreathed about Bryan's neck in 8
couple of tightening folds was a black
snake-the supposedly dead snake come
to life again-its long neck aud oval
head waving wildly to and fro as Brian
tried vainly to grasp and dislodge it.
Eileen cleared the step-ladder with one
bound.
''Oh, what shall ! do?n she cried
"How shall | help you?'
Just then she caught glimpse of Sid
reconnoitering the disturbance from the
far end of the hallway, and screamed