The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-15

| deacon Holloway himself, known TO be the
sharpest man in the county. couldn't look
him in the eye and find out whether he
| was telling lie or not.
Then there was the matter OF clothes. A.
the summer wore on 81 got to leaving on
| more and more Of his buds until finally he
came down town one day with nothing on
but his big straw hat. The town marshal
walked right up to the hat and threatened
81 with arrest II he didn't go home and
put on his clothes. but ST just laughed at
| him.
You go right to the town hall. Lafe,"
/ he twitted, land read your law books. II
| you find anything in EN- that will let you
arrest a man for showing nothing OF him.
self but straw hat, I'll go over to the
lookup and stay month";
'Tn do no such dumb thing," said
LATE. getting his dander up. ''rll arrest
We right now. by gum. and throw ye in the
calaboose! Then I'll look through the law
books and see If can hold We or noti''
I He made a grab but 81 was too spry for
him. Quicker than scat III threw his hat
on the ground and jumped to one side. He
| just stood there and snickered while Lafe
bobbed around after him, and inside OF ten
minutes he had Lafe near ready for the
loony house. 81 would laugh out loud, and
then jump while Life made a rush for the
spot where the noise came from. Then 81
would tap LATE on the shoulder and step
| away while LATE made human top OF
himself and his club. Then 81 got his
| straw hat and held IL out at arms length.
about as high as his head, and danced q
hornpipe In his bare feet when LATE fell
down in making lunge for the place where
ffS tl,roo 10 he A 4 las SET ar<
per on LATE. and that was the last straw.
| Lafe climbed a tree and vowed he would
get ST If it took year of Sundays.
| Pepper by this time had licked every dog
/ in town and had come to be es bold as
brass. Hen worley would slap a piece of
steak on the scales with thud that would
be n snap and that piece of steak would
jump down OF the counter and streak
across the road to ST Hawker's house. IL
looked curious. too. to see a beefsteak run
| away all by itself.
"Drat that invisible dcgr Hen would
| say as he hustled to the door. Then he'd
heave dornick after the steak and IL he
hit Pepper. there would be a howl and the
meat would fall to the ground and lie still
| till Hen got IL again.
| You'd see the chickens in the Widow
Smithers's back yard flying around like
mad and squawlzing like Bedlam, with the
| feathers tearing loose in every direction.
and you would know that Pepper was just
| taking little after-dinner exercise.
| Take it all in all. they were tearing
! bad team. especially for Lafe Sproggles.
| 81 took to going down town without even
his hat and he spent most of his time In
Lafe's neighborhood. watching for chances
| to play pranks on him. LATE couldn't even
| light a cigar but what ST was right there
| to blow out the match before he could get
| the fire.
| Along at first it only Lafe that hated
| 81 so tremendous hard, but by and by 81
| took to eavesdropping and the whole town
| got down on him. You see il was so easy
| for 81, without any clothes on. TO slip right
up where people were talking and take IN
every word. In this way he heard so many
mean things about himself that IL sort OF
set him against folks I'm general, and that
| kept his conscience from pricking him like
| il might and ought to have done. His wife
/ got to be the most popular woman I'm town
| through knowing so much about the affairs
| of her neighbors and IL wasn't long until
| the two had the whole community by the
| ears for, in the course of time.
bound to happen sooner or later everybody
| got to hear some OF the things that were
| being said about themselves and that made
the shoe pinch. BY putting two and two
| together they easily made out that ST was
| at the bottom OF IL all and the upshot OF
that was that the whole town was boiling
hot against him and ready to ride him on
| a rail.
The problem was to catch him first. and
| that something OF job. for 81 got
4
Ter all the time. He took TO making things
| up about people so as TO have the town 6
regular hornets nest morning. noon and
| night. Free-for-all fights got TO be so
common on the streets that nobody that
| was in the least way busy stopped to pay
any attention to them except farmers in
| for spree and they often took hand in IL
| just to keep their fighting arms In trim.
Along about that time Mustapha Hadji
| and n little one-horse circus came TO town.
Mustapha was with the circus but not OF Ii.
| He was little, yellow, beady-eyed.
| weazened-up old man, who sat I'm a little
| tent and told the past, present and future
| for so cents. LATE Sproggles was passing
by the tent when Hen Morley came out
| looking -dazed and Mustapha motioned Lafe
to come In LATE didn't want his past. pres
| ent and future told for 50 cents. but there
was something about Mustapha that made
| Lafe go into the tent. whether he wanted
| to or not When he found himself seated
| opposite the little old man he thought he
| might as well make the best use of him
possible, so he said:
| Fire away. old Musty. and tell me all
| you know; but IL you'll just tell me how 20
| make 81 Hawker visible I'll pay you
| double
| Mustapha smiled a queer little smile and
| wanted to know who 81 Hawker was and
| why he had gone away.
That's jest it, dod rot it, exclaimed
LATE. THE cuss is here, all right, but you
| can't see him. He's invislblei"
Mustapha woke up right away AS long
as 1t was only an ordinary fortune-telling
| case he wasn't much interested. but this
was some different. He asked LATE a lot
| OF questions and got the whole story and
| then all at once he screwed up his little
| beady eyes and bent them on LATE.
give me all the money you have about
YOU" he said, soft and easy like.
Lafe had roll OF bills as big a stove
| pipe that he meant To buy cattle with. but