The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-17

~ RIRNo fBtEE:
their arrival at home would surely cause.
Even as he made the resolution his glance
fell upon a squirming basketful of fat
blue cells.
Three" said he to the substantial.
bare-armed woman who stood over them.
THE three biggest
The woman looked him all over She
stared at his crash suit his tan shoes and
the general cool spotlessness of his attire.
She pretended she had not heard what he
said
Excuse me, sir" she remarked, apollo
getically.
''~hree eels!" he said, so sharply that
she jumped. Three large, fat cells. Do
you think that 1 am a lunatic-if 1 am
there is no law TO prevent the selling of
cells TO lunatics; or do you think 1 can't
pay for them?"
Excuse me. sir" she faltered. ''I new
er doubted you could pay for them. That
wasn't 1t at all, sir" She omitted furth
er explanation. Three did you say, STRIP
Il said three" repeated the young man
stttt1y. He became conscious of an audi
ence. The woman drew three cells out of
the squirming mass, one at a time, and
laid them on a big square of yellow paper.
She folded the cells deity in, and made of
them nice package about the length of
his forearm.
MY" said the young man, Il don't
want to lug package like that around
town.
There's no lady on West street can tie
a neater," asserted the woman.
II know, I know" he said "but Ia
rather not. Mo, not even for the sake of
eating cells" His face was irradiated with
an idea. Cant you,' he asked, put a
piece Of paper around the neck of each
eel?"
: The woman stepped back, and eyed him
suspiciously. But the young man opened
the package and laid out the eels He
tied wide collar of paper hard and fast
below the head of each eel.
Now" he said, complacently 1--WE have
here an umbrella. It Is dark and gloomy
day and no discredit, therefore, attaches
to one who carries an umbrella that is
not tightly rolled. Let us then loosen it.
Let us then insert in It's folds these three
cells, keeping a firm grasp on their necks
as we do so.'-
''Howly Moses!' murmured the woman
Look at him."
'As we do So" continued the young
man, gripping the umbrella around the
ribs, now" he added, looking the gather
ed audience of fishmen, fshwomen, long
shoremen, and a policeman proudly In the
eyes, who should suspect us of trans
porting the delicious but economical eel?
Twenty-Five cents? Yes, madam"
He dropped the coin in her hands and
ran for car. He took a seat in the for
ward corner and held on to the umbrella
with relentless grip. He was proud of
his strategy.
He was still proud of 1t when he left
the car and climbed into Fifth avenue
stage. The stage was fairly well filed
with the usual collection of shop girls
and shoppers, varied by an occasional
man. In the company was white-haired
old reprobate. whose ruddy nose, ster-
corner all told the same deplorable tale.
The young eel buyer wondered just what
the other passengers would all do should
they discover at one and the same instant
what he carried in his umbrella.
There was a White-haired old minister
in the corner next to the cash box that
reminded him very much of the minister
up in Vermont. who was connected with
his earliest experiences at ceiling. He
fell to dreaming of the fresh, cool morn
ings when he would wake with the rum
BILE and the scream and the roar of the
Montreal express tearing through the val
ley at daylight, without stop or less
ening of speed; of the soft barefoot tread
with which he sneaked out of the house
and ran across the wet meadows to the
river road and the covered bridge. His
lines trailed down from the floor Of the
bridge, fifty feet or more, to the water,
and if one of them was hauled up stream
or off TO the shelving rocks on the far side
of the river he knew that he had an eel.
Right at the dark entrance of the bridge
he always found the minister waiting for
him. He wondered whether the minister
found it as hard to get up early as he did.
But he never dared ask. There were
times when the minister seemed almost
earthly enough TO submit to such a humil-
Eating question-such time, for instance,
as followed upon the discovery of the fact
that an eel had been hooked that was so
big it couldn't be drawn through the
knothole in the bridge where the line had
beet set.
The young man wondered whether cells
were as big now as they were then He
remembered that he had bought the big
gest cells the West street woman had.
He realized with sudden horror that in
his dreaming he had released his grip on
the umbrella which lay across his knees.
He lifted it, felt of it, and fled from the
stage. Once safe on the avenue sidewalk
he leaned against an electric lamp pole
and breathed as one exhausted. With
something like the fascination of horror,
he watched the Fifth avenue stage swing
ing its solemn way up the broad street.
He heard a faint, muffied scream, and
then a chorus of shrieks. He saw the
driver pull himself to his feet yankins
on the reins. Out of the door of the vehi-
Gle came a shrieking procession of women
and girls followed by the white-hared
minister and the wild-eyed old man with
a red nose And then a great crowd
swept down from the sources of the four
winds and surrounded the stage. He saw
policemen's gray helmets bobbing around
over the crowd. He say two of them
come to the edge of the crowd with one
pointed excitedly at the young man. He
prudently turned on his heel and hast
ened west to lose himself in the crowds
of Broadway. But he still says that eels
suggest to him the happest days of his
life.
"A crocodile which, in the course Of sew
eral weeks manages to devour some ff-