Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1901-03-07
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
An Incident He Always Remembers
When He Has a Wakeful Night.


Looking one night" said the retired
burglar, from a dark hall into dimly
lighted room whose door was aJar l saw
in bed a woman and child asleep. I'm
10 judge of children's ages and never
was, but should say from what could
see of that child's face and of its form
under the bedclothes that it was years
old, maybe g. 1t was sleeping on the
side of the bed toward the front.
ASLEEP on the floor in front of the bed
on q snug little mattress was another
child of about the same age as the one
in bed or thereabout, brought In there
temporarily apparently for some reason
or other that / didn't try to figure out,
that being no part of my business, but
this one on the floor was so placed be-
cause there wasn't room for both children
in the bed.
"As | stood there looking at them the
child in the bed began to get restless,
and in a minute it rolled out or twisted
itself out somehow from under the bed
clothes-this was in summer, and the
covering over it wasn't heavy-and rolled
square up to the edge Of the bed. 1t lay
stiN there for Il minute and then rolled
back a little, and felt easier, but the
next minute it rolled forward again clean
to the edge and rolled over it little far
ther and hung there on the edge a min
ute-I believe if it had hung there a sec
ond longer I'd ha' run to stop it-and
then over it went.
"And | thought sure it was going to
fall slam on to the little one on the mat
tress on the floor and just knock the
breath out Of that one, but it didn't do
either; it fell on the mattress alongside
of that one and never woke that one up
and never woke up itself. Well, thought
that beat everything | ever saw in the
way of folks falling out of bed, but there
was more to come.
''The one that fell out kept right on
sleeping, and it was very still for a min
ute or so, and then it began to get rest
less again and rolled over on the mattress
and edged the child on the mattress clean
off on to the floor but even then that one
didn't wake up either. 1t kept right on
sleeping, too, on the floor, and the one
that had fallen out of bed and edged this
one off the mattress now stretched out on
the mattress perfectly easy and settled
into a quiet, gentle sleep.
But before this the mother had woke
up-I didn't know how she'd missed the
one in bed, but she had somehow-and
she turned up the light little and sur
veyed that scene ON the floor and under
stood it right away. And she didn't dis
turb the one that had fallen out; that was
now sleeping peacefully on the soft mat
tress, but she picked up the one that had
been rolled off on to the hard floor and
put that one in bed. So now the children
had just changed places, and in a minute
or two they were all settled down again,
peaceful and quiet as before.
81 never was troubled with insomnia
much myself, but whenever | do have
wakeful night i always think Of those
blessed children that could go to bed and
20 to sleep and roll out Of bed without eV-
er waking up."-New York Sun.
Royal Family Pays For Wedding.
The entire expenses of Queen Wilhel-
mina's wedding VIII be borne by the
royal family without any government
appropriation. They amount to sever
al hundred thousand guilders, includ-
ing the entire new outfit of all the roy
al retinue, several state dinners and
the important item of warming the
church where the ceremony took place.
There, as I'm all the churches of Hol-
land, no heating apparatus is supplied
for the regular services, and on the
wedding day the air inside was even
colder than the freezing air outside.
Queen Wilhelmina ordered several
stoves to be put In, which were kept
fred to their full capacity for a week.
Some mothers put their children,
girls as well as boys, in quiet country
or seaside places in little pyjamallke
garments made on the principle of the
bifurcated garments used for some chill
dren for nightgowns. Creeping suits
are made In this way for small chill
hrpn