The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-05-05
NEW no THE D c
a. Neat swlndle win q Ten~Douar
Bim PFaeticed by a Fluent
Young Man.

yThe grocer sat on a high stool, his ell
bows ON the counter and his face bur
led IN his hands. The Brooklyn man
came in to get a quarters worth OF
eggs.
Hello" he said, what's the matter
now2"
"I'm thinking, said the grocer, that.
the man who said that all the fools
are not dead knew precisely what he
was talking about"
How could you think otherwise?'
remarked the Brooklyn man, with true
Brooklyn humor, with all the custom
ers you have?''
"Hold on" said the grocer, this is
no joke. Let me tell you about it. A
little while ago I was sitting here do
ing nothing in particular; when in
rushed a very pleasant looking young
man. He had a lot of bills in his hand,
and he wanted to know if / could let
him have a ten-dollar bill for small
bills. He said that he wanted to send
ten dollars away in a letter, and didn't
like to pu$ small bills in an envelope.
Well, I'm a pretty good-natured sort
of a man and 1 told him that / would
be very glad to oblige him. So, while
1 went into the drawer to get the bill,
he counted ont ten dollars so that /
could hear him, and then tished out an
envelope into which he placed the bill
that 1 gave him. Then he started out
of the store. He didn't seem in a great
hurry, and so, when, in counting over
the money that he had given me, /
found that there was only nine dollars
I didn't have any suspicious of in
territorial wrong-doing on his part, but
credited the matter to a very natural
mistake.
"Well, I called him back, and he was
very apologize; said it was a curious
mistake for him, and a few other things
that I don't remember. As a matter of
fact he talked so fast and so smooth
that half of what he said escaped me in
my admiration for his %oratorical pow
ers. While he was talking he was fish
ing around in his pockets for an odd
dollar. Apparently he couldn't find one,
for he finally said:
"'Well, I guess I'll have to give you
your bill back until I can get that other
dollar Then he looked at the envelope
in his hand and continued: Gee! that's
too bad. I've gone and sealed that en-
velope up and IFS addressed and
stamped and your ten-dollar bill is in
side. I'll tell you what we might do,
though he went on, after a moments
thought. You give me my nine small
bills, and I'll go out and get the other
bill. In the meantime you hold on to
this envelope and when I come back
I'll give you the entire ten dollars,
and we won't have to open up my let
ter at ALL
well, 1 swear I couldn't see any
harm in this arrangement, and 1 said
yes without a moments hesitation.
What makes me so darn mad now is
that l was excessively polite to the
duck. Why, l fairly bowed him out of
the store, and after he had gone l
carefully placed the envelope in my
cash drawer and locked it up. Then 1
waited for fully an hour for the young
man to come back, and when he failed
to show up I took the envelope out
and ripped it open, not with any idea
in my head that anything was wrong,
but simply because I was impatient
with the man for being so ~inconsider-
ate after / had done him {. favor. Well,
there was a nRatly-folded piece of pa
per in the envelope, and on it was writ
ten in a neat hand: I'll be back when
the robins nest again.
'Say, even then it was a full min
ute before the truth dawned on me.
When it did hit me it came like a ton
of brick, 'Oh, you gosh burned fool,
I murmured and sat down to think,
I was still thinking when you came in,
and I'll start in again when you go
OUT
"Up in ReubenVille, where I lived be-
fore I came to Brooklyn said the
Brooklyn man, "we used to call that
fim-fam."
"Oh, you did, en-" said the grocer,
well, I don't know what they call it
in Brooklyn, but it's a good game, and
when I get broke in the grocery bust
ness I'm going to try it on some guy
myself" and the grocer went back to
his thoughts, while his friend walked
Out.-N. Y. Sun.