St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1901-06-29
And then what did that boy do but
iloWly crawl out Of bed, 60 noiselessly
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slowly crawl out OF bed, 60 nolseIessly ]
Iup to The door Of the closet, and shut
lit!
| T was large, massive door, %
strong hinges, with stout bolt on
! the outside, which be fastened
/ then and there solemnly made up
my mind never to plague Fred with
lbeing coward again.
He hurried back to the bed and
1 took hold Of me, and then we both
ran to the other end of the hall to
mothers room. We locked the door
this time, jumped into bed and pulled
eyeryone Of the bedclofhes over our
heads. We heard the burglar MAX
ing considerable noise for some time,
and then all was quiet, except the
beating Of our hearts, which Fred
insists to this very day that he heard.
The closet was large and contained
| a window, through which the bur
glar could have escaped had it not
been 80 high from the ground
Fritz is barking right under that
window said Fred.
Yes. / wonder why he did not
bark when he was coming in? Doyou
suppose there's more than one Of
them?a ] asked.
Perhaps there's dozen, and Il
they should set the house on fire, then
what would We dos. he answered.
IF I only had the revolver, -
No, you wouldn't, put in Fred
You had il once, and never did a
thing with it, even when you had the
chance :
Forahe first time, Think / allowed
Fred to taunt me With being cow
ard.
We heard the clock downstairs
strike 12, when we were sure that il
was nearly daylight.
Have we got to stay here all night,
with a burglar Gagged upin our house p
said Fred, as lie stuck his head olli
from underthe clothes for d few min
utes.
Don't know what else We can dc,
/ replied, @unless we dress and go
over to Mr. Andrews house.
But there's probably whole lot
Of them waiting IN the yard to shoot
US down, Or do sonnet thing else to US,
If they only get the chance.
I was not at all aYerse to remaining
where I was, as I don't think there
was single thing thatI wanted ever
SO much-not even d new pair Of
skatesthat would have tempted me
to crawl out from under those bed
clothes for the brief space Of five min
utes.
Finally the night did wear away.
somehow but ne thought each min
ute was an hour. As soon as it was
fairly daylight, we dressed and hur-
ried over to Mr. Andrews never once
stopping to even look at the door Of
the room ii which our visitor was
confined.
We told our story, and I am sorry
to say that we made it d trifle larger
than it should have been.
At first, Mr.. Andrews would not
believe ns; but at length be took his
hired man and started for the house.
We followed, not caring to be the
first ones there They took nothing |
to defend themselves with. despite |
our protests that we were sure the
robber was ARMED
We were anxious to keep up our
good record, and 50 boldly stood BY |
while they opened the door to the
closet.
The door flew open, and there stood /
Fritz. our dogl
Alas for our braveryl It did not
amount to much now, since most any
,ody could get up courage enough To
hut q dog up IN d closet
Mr. Andrews was at first surprised,
md then, when he fully realized what
Fehad done, BE laughed until BE could
augh no more
{ Well, never mind, boys, he said,
syou really thought that bic was d
burglar, and it took as much courage
q do what you did as though he had
,een one z
( think we could have stood It yerY
veil il Mr. Andrews hired man had
lot told everybody that be met about
t. The boys at school made eour lives
Utterly Nretched.
Il was soon forgotten, however, BY
II except Fred and me; and I don /
hink that We viii soon forget the
light that we kept poor Fritz shut
h d closet. under the deiusion that
re were doing something courageous.
Golden DAYS.
Arsenic ii the Hair.