Middletown transcript., 1902-09-06

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from under the other as he started TO sls
down; the attempt failed, and there was
lively scufie between the two boys,
THAT reminds me-" said Mr.. Burrows,
uausing to light his pipe, and beginning 20
smile at the recollection, "of something
funny that happened once"
Mr.. Burrows success as story
teller was pronounced; SO the boys drew
up their chairs to listen, and the hired
man pushed back from the supper table,
wiped his chin, and crossed his legs IN an
expectant attitude. !,
'It happened good while age" said
Nj. Burrows, beginning deliberately, and
putting strongly at his pipe to get ltgoing
good, ''but remember it well.
81 was young fellow at the time, and
was attending the academy at Saxton's
River. was stopping at the house OF a
man named Crocker, and doing chores
about the place to pay for my board.
sTn this family was son and daugh-
ter, a boy about seventeen and girl Of
fifteen. or thereabouts, and living IN the
family at the time was a cousin, boy Oh
about the same age, whose father and
mother had died, and who had come to
make his home with his uncle and aunt
"Well, this cousin, whose name was
Herman Atkins-Herme, they called
him, was the worst harum-scarum l ever
knew. He seemed to be just bubbllng
over with surplus life and vitality, and
was never still or serious for five minutes
at time.
"He Just couldn't leave other people
alone, and he was always getting hold OF
somebody, or giving them a poke or a
yank. and there was almost sure to be a
tussle whenever he appeared. I've seen
him pull chair out from under people,
same as you tried to just now, many a
time; and that's no laughing matter
either, because a PERSONS liable to get
hurt that way.
Sand perhaps three or four times day
you'd hear his cousin Louise Crocker
pleading with him to 60 away and leave
her alone; he was forever teasing her.
And occasionally he'd burst out OF the
kitchen on the jump, with the girl who
did the kitchen work after him, broom
or poker in hand; he'd been up to some
thing or other in the kitchen until the
girl was ready to use club on him.
"And he just ran to what they call
practical jokes, though can't see where
there is anything practical about them.
If there was anything of this kind took
place, Herme was sure to have hand in
it. Some of the things he did on Hal
lowe'en night would have landed him in
the lookup if they'd known who did it,
and the trouble was he didn't confine
himself to Halloween with hisjokes, but
was at it all the time.
''I remember one night they had quite
gathering at the Crocker house. 1t was
kind of literary or culture affair, 1
guess, anyway the best people in the town
were there, and after they'd had refresh
ments the minister and others read selec-
tions from famous authors, the principal
of the academy recited long poem, and
then a young fellow who sang in the
church choir, and who was very proud of
his tenor voice, sang song.
s'Herme's cousin Louise, who played
the piano well, played the accompani-
ment. The young fellow had been at
the house in the afternoon, and he and
Louise had praced the song together until
they had it down fine.
"But sometime in the latter part of the
afternoon Herme had managed to get at
the piano unobserved, and with pair of
pincers, had unscrewed three or four of
the piano strings, and let them down out
of tune.
"Well, after the principal had finished
his poem, Louise sat down at the piano,
and then the young tenor stepped up,
and striking confident attitude, with
a kind of superior look on his face, began
to sing.
'fHe started in low and tire mulous like
singing with a great deal of expression;
and for few seconds everything went
all right, then Louise hit one Of the bad
strings. It marred the effect. of course,
but they went right on, and then pretty
quick she hit couple of them at once; it
name bad discord, people looked kind
of surprised and turned their eyes towards
the piano, the young fellow looked an
noyed, and Louise's face began to get |
red.
"Then the discords kept coming one
after another, people began to stir un-
easily in their chairs and stare down at
The carpet, and the young tenor, looking
and disgusted, began to waver
and lose his grip on the song.
'Louise's face was scarlet by this time;
she thought she was making mistakes,
and her mother was mortified. Still they
kept at it, hoping matters would mend,
but just then the song quickened and
struck into kind of waltz time, guess
It was, and then you never heard such a
noise; the discord was something terrible.
''The young fellow dropped his hands
down at his sides in dispairing sort of
way, and stopped singing. Just then
light dawned on Louise: she jumped to
her feet, whirled round, and pointing her
inger at Herme, who was sitting over in
sne corner, exclaimed: 'Herme Atkins,
you did this and burst into tears and
eft the room. l.
"WelI, that was just sample of the
kind Of things that fellow was up to every
now and then. People can stand some
hing of this kind good-naturedly once in
/ while, and Herme was OVERRIDING the
hing entirely, and people were getting
% they wouldn't look at his pranks as
Iunny at all, and were getting out of
patience with him.
"Herme's cousin, Jim Croker, had
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