Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-10-24

thc.s burst out right In her ear the
raging voice Of thunder of the drowned
man vociferating:
Blank, to blank, to blank 10 blank,
will you get up, YOU
She leaped out OF bed, forced by her
instinct OF obedience, her whipped wo-
mans impulse to obey. that moves her
stu after four years and will always
move her and will forever respond to
that voice. And she spoke:
Here am, patin. What is it?'
But Patin answered not.
Then. distracted she looked about
her, examining everywhere, in the
wardrobe. in the chimney, under the
bed. finding no one. Finally she fell on
q chair, desperate with misery, con-
WINGED that only the soul of Patin was
there near her-come back to torment
her.
Suddenly she thought of the garnet,
which one could get into from the out
side by means of Il ladder. For sure,
he was hidden there to surprise her.
Captured by savages somewhere, he
could not get away any sooner, and
now he was back, wickeder than ever.
There was no mistake about it. The
sound Of his voice was enough.
She asked, lifting her face toward
the ceiling. Are you up there, PatinY
Patin did not reply.
Then she went out, and In fear and
trembling, her very heart shaking, she
climbed the ladder, opened the trap
door, looked, saw nothing, went in,
searched and found no one.
Sitting down ON n truss of hay, she
commenced to cry, but while she was
sobbing, pierced by a poignant and
supernatural fear. she heard in the
room below her Patin talking. He
seemed less in rage, more easy, and
he was saying:
DIRTY weather! Hard wind. Dirty
weather! I've had no breakfast, - itp'
She sang out through the ceiling:
Here | am, Patin. I'm going to
make your soup. Don't be mad; I'm
coming."
~
There was no one there.
She felt herself as faint as if death
had touched her, and she was starting
TO fee for help to the neighbors when
the voice cried, right in her ear:
''I've had no breakfast, --"
And the parrot in his cage looked at
her with his little round eye, sly and
wicked.
She. too, looked at him, dismayed,
murmuring:
"Ah, it's you."
He began again. wagging his head;
skulk, Will"
What passed in her mind? She felt,
she realized, that it was he, sure
enough, the dead man, who walked
again, who came back hidden in the
feathers of this bird to torment her
once more, to swear, as before, all day
and bite her and shout at her to bring
the neighbors and make them laugh al
her. She rushed on the cage, opened it,
seized the bird which, defending him
self, tore her flesh with beak and
claws. But she held him with all her
strength with both hands and, throw
ing herself on the ground, rolled upon
him with the frenzy Of a mad woman,
crushing him, making Of him shred
of flesh, little soft green thing that no
longer moved, no longer spoke, hung
limp. Then, wrapping him up in a
towel as in shroud she ran out in
her chemise, barefooted, to the edge Of
the quay, which the sea was tapping in
little waves, and, shaking the CLOTH she
let fall into the water the little dead
thing that looked like a handful of
grass. Then she came back, threw her
self on her knees before the empty cage
and, upset completely by what she had
DONE besought pardon of the good Lord,
sobbing as if she had committed some
frlghtful crime.