The Topeka state journal., 1902-11-01
BOWSER, NATURALIST.
He Makes Another Contribution to
the Cause of Science.

she SAID mat when she was a girl anu
lived on a farm they had a rooster that
often crowned at 10 o'clock at night. Mr..
Bowser promptly denied that any such
thing could have occurred. as nature
wound I'D every rooster like an alarm
clock, and none was set to go off before
3 o'clock in the morning.
But this one surely crowed at al
most any hour after dark" contended
Mrs. Bowser. land we finally had to
make potDie of him on that account
Then your people were guilty OF
cold blooded, malicious murder!' ne
exclaimed. Il defy the whole universe
to prove that any rooster ever crowed
before the first signs of daylight APP
peared. He was created for the pur-
pose of giving farmers warning that
the day was about to dawn, and the
idea of his growing before midnight is
simply absurd. You probably heard the
squeal of a pig or the clack of a goose
Mrs Rowser said no more, and three
days had passed. and she had forgotten
the incident. when a rooster was deliv-
cred at the house in a box. Mr. Bow
ser appeared half an hour later and ex-
planned the presence of the fowl by say
ing:
1--WE had little dispute the other
evening. You contended that a rooster
crowed any time he took a notion to-
protested that such was not the case
propose to prove that nature never
makes a fool of herself"
What is the odds to us whether a
rooster crows before or after midnight?'
she asked.
1T is a great deal to us. In the first
place, the study of natural history Is
an interesting one, and in the next
don't propose to be bluffed down from
my position. This rooster will be placed
in the back yard will prove to you
that ne won't crow before the clock
strikes 3 in the morning. If anything.
it will be half an hour later than that.
Mrs. Bowser refused to dignity the
matter by asserting or disputing, and
kept far away from the subject as
she could during the dinner hour The
box containing the fowl was placed oil
an old chair in the back yard, and Mr..
BoWSer sat down to MS evening paper
and cigar with self satisfied look on
his face. 1t had come half past o'clock
when a sudden sound lifted him off his
chair. From the back yard there was
cock-a- -doodle-doo that by no means
could be twisted into the cry of peo-
cock or the grunt of a pig. 1t was the
crow of rooster, and while Mrs. Bow
ser turned her head away and smiled
Mr.. Bowser stood up and growled out:
It's a nice time of night for a ped
dler to go around yelling out pota-
tOesi"
Are you sure it's a peddler?" asked
Mrs. Bowser
"Of course, and he ought to have his
neck broken It's mighty singular
/
''Cock-a -doodle-doo came the sound
again, and forty-nine people out of fifty
would have made affidavit that it was
the crow of a rooster. Mr.. Bowser turned
pale and held his breath. but he was
resolved to die game.
4 beg pardon, sir said the cook as
she came from the kitchen. but think
your rooster is either homesick or has
got collie. At any rate. he is making
! great fuss
1T IS rot the rooster at ALL" boldly
replied Mr. Bowster.
Then excuse me, sir. I thought it
was, and 1 thought you might want to
give him a dose of medicine or move
him into the house for company $
sake.' '.*e AY~ ts
Mrs. Bowser wanted to laugh. but
dared not. and the silence that fell up
on that room for the next three min
utes was something awful. At length
Mr.. Bowser broke it by saying:
In the rooster we behold natures
there were no clocks. He was meant
to take the place of them No farmer
needs a time0iece of any sort to tell
when daylight is approaching Always
and invariably at o'clock in the morn
ing the rooster"
''Coek-a- -doodle-doo!" came in clarion
notes from the back yard.
Our clock must be about seven hours
slow" quietly observed Mrs Bowser S
she looked uD.
What do you mean by that.
madam p
why, it isn't quite yet, and still
your rooster is growing
Il deny it. What you hear is either
the yawp of a street peddler or the howl
of dog. The sound is no more like the
Growing of a rooster than black is like
white"
Cock. -doodle-doo!" shrieked the
fowl
Poor street peddler, poor dog," sighed
Mrs. Bowser as she rose UP to make a
retreat upstairs.
stop. womanr' shouted Mr.. Bowser
You are inclined to be sarcastic at my
expense. but it won't work A few
evenings since you had the audacity to
assert that a rooster would crow at any
hour of the night that suited him. I
contended that such was not the case.
have gone to the trouble of bringing
home fowl to disDroye your assertion .
And he is growing before O'Clock in
the evening"
He is not. He hasn't crowed once. I
tell you that the sounds you have heard
emanate from
.Cock-a- -doodIe-doo!"
Mr.. Bowser's knees gave out and he
had to sit down, and Mrs. Bowser made
her escape. She had been gone two min
utes when he rose up with his teeth
fast clinched and his ears working and
made his way to the back yard. The
rooster greeted his appearance with a
long drawn 'doodle-doo,'' and man in
a third story window backed it up by
shouting:
Say, old man, if you don't wiring
that ROSTERS neck or shove a rag into
his mouth there's going to be trouble
here."
The rooster crowed again, and Mr..
Bowser had to admit to himself that he
was no 3 o'clock in the morning bird.
He wasn't ready TO admit it to any one
else, however He opened the door of
the box and gave the fowl a nudge that
knocked the breath out of it, and after
five minutes returned to the house He
had scarcely entered it when that same
cock-a- -doodle-doo sent it's echoes over
the neighborhood.
BY the great horn spoon but I'll
have his lifei" growled the naturalist
as he turned about and looked for hoe