The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-06-02
COFFINS IN HIS BARN.
One Man Who Found Ont the Dis.
agreeable Features Of Accepting
an Undertaken as q Tenant.

agreeable Features Of Accepting
an Undertakes as. a Tenant.
The barn stands about 40 feet back
of the house, and was built in the DAYS
| when the family had carriages, and
large ones at that. Now there are no
carriages of any kind in it. The posi-
bilities of the barn as source Of in
come has occurred to the young wom-
an of the house many times. Then she
concluded to rent it,.
Il told her to do 1t and keep the
money for herself her husband told
the jolly men who were playing whist
in the smoking. car, land she was nat
urally anxious to get as much rent as
possible for it, never rented barn
before; neither had she. So we had no
idea how much it was worth. One night;
when I came home, my wife told me
she had rentedAthe barn.. She had no
idea to what use it was going to be
put, except that somebody wanted to
use it to store things in. She knew the
man who rented it from having seen
him nearly every day, and she was GER
tain thatsit was all right. All these
things she told me, but they were not
important from her point of view. The
climax of her Story was that the man
had offered her $50, and she had never
expected so much. The man was to
move in next day and would send
check that night.
"After awhile the check came. II
looked at the name and saw that it was
that of the undertaken down near the
railroad station. I wondered what he
wanted with the barn, but thought
nothing more about the matter. 1t was
only when 1 went downstairs the next
morning that I appreciated the full sig.
nificance of my wife's bargain
Stretched across the lawn were about
20 pine collins. The men were unload
ing them from the wagon and then
carrying them across the lawn to the
barn. You know how the road leads by
our dining-room there. When all
through breakfast I faced a slowly
moving procession of pine coffin. My
wife looked utterly crushed. Nothing
was said after we had first seen the cof
fins. But we exchanged very eloquent
glances.
"'It can't be like this very much
longer she said, after awhile. They
are moving them in, you know, and that
will have to come to an end in few
moments. Then, you know, they will
never be seen again.
II suggested that it scarcely seemed
likely the collins were to be locked up
in the barn forever, and 1 suggested
chat it was probable that we would see
them carried in and out every morning.
But as she was on the verge of tears,
l did not continue the discussion of the
subject then. At dinner that night
everything had been agreeably settled.
There was to be no more collins carried
in, and it was not likely that they
would be called for very often.
1.-THE only thing that we have to do
she said, is to keep away from the barn,
and just make up our minds not to think
about EN-
''But it proved to be little difficult
to do that. We went to bed at the usual
time, and I had just begun to get to
sleep when the bell rang furiously. ]
knew that the servant was not awake.
so l went to the window and poked my
head out. Two men were standing at
the door. 1 asked them what they
wanted.
"There's man been killed down on
the railroad track one of them said.
"'What's that to me?' asked. why
have you come here at nearly midnight
to tell me that a mans dead down on the
railroad track?'
"'We want coffin,' one of the men
said, and we forgot to get key this
morning.
my wife, who was up now, heard the
conversation. l threw down the kew.
determined the next morning to movs
out those collins if had to do it myself.
At breakfast looked out of the win.
dow, and down the road from the barn
came man bearing one of, the white
collins on his shoulder.
"'One of ems passing by now; lean
tell from the expression of your face,'
my wife cried, and ran out of the room.
Il went down to the undertaker's as
fast as my legs could carry me. l said
that the collins must be removed i'm
mediately, and offered to give back the
money then, and made myself so en-
phatic that certainly must have been
Objectionable. At all events the under
taker-my wife's tenant-got as ex-
cited as did, and refused to move out
the collins until the end of the month.
He said he was the coroner of the town
and wanted to have those collins stored
in that neighborhood because there
were so many accidents about there.
L knew that he had the best of the ar
gument, and when left we had come
to an agreement as to the plan of cam
paign. He promised if gave him a key
to take none of the collins out of the
barn except at night. I was glad to
have him defer that much, and now
he comes or sends his men only late at
night. But it is little bit discomfort
ing to be awakened at night by noise
in the barn. and know that there has
been an accident somewhere and cof-
fin is being carried under the windows.
There's only one week more of it, and,
as it doesn't happen more than twice
a week, it is not as bad as it might
have been-if the lease had been made
for year, for instance, and there had
been an epidemic of cholera. My wife
says that the next time she rents the
barn she will ask more questions IN.
Y. Sun.
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