Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1900-08-09
The Crippled Mouse.
And How 1t Was Released From the
Trap.


1t was dingy little house and stood
perhaps one hundred feet from the
highway. A weed covered pathway
led to it, and midway was well.
The great surgeon had caught sight of
the well box and was coming up the
path. He was a connoisseur in water
drinking and keenlY alive to the pos
sibilities of discoveries along this line
of investigation. He drew up the an
cient bucket and dipped his pocket
cup into it. The water was excellent.
The surgeon sampled it with smile
of qualification. Then he drank four
cups in rapid succession. As he fin
ished the last he looked toward the
house. He meant to remember il,
That water was too good to lose
track of.
1t was just an uncouth, one-story
building, sadly in need Of paint, with
a door and window in front and sin
gle chimney from which lazy line of
blush smoke wavered. For a mo-
ment the surgeon saw no sign Of life,
and then his eye caught sight Of
face that appeared moment at the
window. 1t was a white little face
the face of child. It disappeared
and came again-iust a quick vision
of baby features and fluffy blonde hair
and then was gone.
"a shy little girl" thought the sur
geon, so he waved his hand toward
the house. A slender hand huttered
above the sill as he turned away.
The great surgeon had come down
to Williamson at the earnest solicita-
ton of the capitalist whose summer
palace crowned the piny ridge above
the little town. The capitalist was
sick man. For the present he needed
constant attention of the most skilled
character The great surgeon was
deeply interested in his case. Besides,
he ielt that he needed change him
self, and he knew there wasn't bet
ter place to recoup than that famous
resinous region. So he was for an in
definite time guest as well as physi-
clan at the palace on the ridge.
The surgeon was great walker.
There was, to his way of thinking, no
gymnastics to compare with this nat
ural exercise of the legs The horses
placed so freely at his disposal had
no attraction for him. His delight
was to wander away across the ridges
and along unfrequented roads, breath
ing in the aromatic air, and shutting
his feet in the pine needles, and then
to come Looping back at brisk pace
with his body glowing and mighty
appetite.
He had enjoyed the road over the
hill by the lonely home, and he had
enjoyed the water from the well, and
the next afternoon he went that way
again. The dingy little house seemed
even more unattractive than it had
appeared the day before. The sur
geon looked toward it as he drank.
Again the little face appeared at the
window. This time it did not vanish.
On the contrary, the little head nod
ded as the fluffy curls shook. The sur
geon nodded back and went few
PAGES nearer and smiled and nodded
again. Then the little face beamed
all over, and the big blue eyes shut
and closed rapidly, finally resolving
themselves into two staring circles,
while the little mouth became a per-
feet o. Then the tense lines relaxed,
a smile rippled across the child's face
and the thin hands closed into bony
fists that shook themselves at the sur
geon in mock defiance.
The surgeon hadn't made faces "
for many years, but now he let his
unaccustomed features twist them
selves into grotesque shapes that filed
the child audience with waves Of de-
light. He had come so close to the
dingy house that his head was just on
a level with the lower panes in the
window.
Hello" be said to the face within.
A thin little hand motioned down
ward as a mufiled voice said some
thing he could not understand. But
he obeyed the motion and looked be-
meath the sill, and there was an open
ing few inches long and perhaps two
inches wide, and through this slit four
clawlike fingers protruded.
~ see you," said thin voice
through the opening; 81 see you steal
in our water