Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-12-14

tongs" and nice smoked sausages?
There must be something nice to eat
up there. Aha! That was it!
i Bonaparte was so interested in car
rying out this chain Of inductive rea-
sohing thatNhe quite forgot to have his
boots blacked.
He watched the boy shuttle OFF with
the salt pot under his arm. Then he
stood in his doorway and raised his
eyes to the quiet blue sky and audibly
propounded this riddle to himself:
"What is the connection between the
naked back Of a certain boy with a
greatcoat on and a salt pot under his
arm and theJfip of a horsewhip? An
swer: No connection at present, but
4 there will be soon"
Bonaparte was so pleased with this
sally of his ygit that he chuckled lit
tie and went to lie down on his bed.
There was bread baking that after
noon, and there was a fire lighted in
the brick oven behind the house, and
Tant' Sannie had left the great wood
en- elbowed chair in which she passed
her life and waddled out to look at it.
Not far OFF was Waldo, who, having
thrown pail Of food into the pigsty,
now leaned over the sod wall looking
at the pigs. Half Of the sty was dry,
but the lower half was pool of mud,
/ on the edge of which the mother SOW
/ lay with closed eyes. her ten little ones
sucking. The father pig, knee deep in
1 the mud, stood running his snout into
a rotten pumpkin and wriggling his
curled tail.
stared why they were pleasant to look
at. Taken singly, they were not beau
tiful; taken together, they were. Was
1t not because there was certain har-
mony about them? The old SOW vas
suited to the little pigs and the little
] pigs to their mother, the old boar to
the rotten pumpkin and all to the mud.
They suggested the thought of nothing
that should be added, of nothing that
should be taken away. And, he won
dered on vaguely, was not that the
secret of all beauty, that you who look
on So he stood dreaming and leaned
farther and farther over the sod wall
and looked Mt the pigs.
All this time Bonaparte Blenkins was
sloping down from the house in an
aimless sort Of way, but he kept one
eye fixed on the pigsty, and each gyrIl-
ton brought him nearer to it. Waldo
stood like q thing asleep when Bona
parte came close up to him.
In old days, when a small boy play
ing in an Irish street gutter, he Bona-
parte) had been Familiarity known
among his comrades under the title Of
A Tripping Ben, this from the rare ease
and dexterity with which, by merely
Projecting his foot, she could precipttate
any unfortunate companion on to the
crown Of his head. Years had elapsed,
and Tripping Ben had become Bona
parte, but the old gift was in him still.
He came close to the pigsty. All the
defunct memories Of his boyhood re-
turned on him in flood as with an
adroit movement he inserted his leg
between Waldo and the wall and sent
him over the pigsty.
The little pigs were startled at the
strange intruder and ran behind their
mother who shifted at him. Tant'
sannie smote her hands together and
laughed, but Bonaparte was far from
Joining her Lost in reyerie, he gazed
at the distant horizon.
The sudden reversal of head ana feet
had thrown out the volume that Waldo
carried in his breast. Benaparte pick
ed 1t up and began to inspect 1t as the
boy climbed slowly over the wall. He
would have walked off sullenly, but he
1 wanted his book and waited till 1t
should be given him.
"Ha" said Bonaparte, raising his
eyes from the leaves Of the book which
he was examining. 81 hope your coat
has not been injured. 1t is of an ele-
CANT cut. An heirloom, / presume,
from your paternal grandfather? 1t
looks nice now"
20 Lord, o Lord" cried Tant San
ME. laughing aad holding her sides,
how the child looks as though he
thought the mud would never wash
off! Q Lord, shall die! You, jBona-
parte. are the funniest man / ever
saw"
Bonaparte Blenliins was now careful
~ inspecting the volume he had picked
up. Among the subjects ON which the
darkness Of his understanding had
been enlightened during his youth po-
litical economy had not been one. He
was not. therefore. very clear as to
what the nature Of the book might be,
and. as the name. of the writer, ]. S.
Mill. might, for anything he knew to
the contrary, have belonged to ven
cradle member Of the British and For
eign Bible society. it by no means
threw light upon the question. He was
4 not in any way sure that political econ
omy had nothing to do with the cheap
est way Of procuring clothing for the
army and navy, which would be GER
tainly both a political and an economi-
cal subject.
i But Bonaparte soon came to con-
cluslon as to the nature of the book
and its contents by the application of
a simple rule now largely acted upon.
but which, becoming universal. would
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