The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-02-19

Maybe old Sinbad didn't learn to dig
graves at that place. Well, I guess.
The guys with him eat up what they
had, and croaked one by one as the
roses fall. 1t was a cold day when
there wasn't somebody to bury for
about two weeks. Sinbad helped
stow them all, and the last two or
three he had to bury all by himself.
He got to be frst-class, popular
grave-digger, neat, handy and re-
liable. He could give satisfaction to
all, and he held the belt for quick
work. He could dig the grace, plant
his man, and round off the mound in
nineteen minutes, and that was the
record in those parts.
Well, when he'd got the last man
buried, his own grub was pretty near
gone. He was living on two spoon
fuls of beef tea and one gingersnap a
day then, and his legs were beginning
to wobble. SO he dug his own grave
and got into it, in order to be there
when he went out. When he was
digging his grave he felt tough and he
was sore at himself. and he said:
"Well, this is the widest play I've
made yet. I seem to have a passion
for suicide, and l get the wrong ticket
every time the wheel turns. It's a
wonder l couldn't get ON to myself,
and stay at home and be a farmer Or
something. But I guess this is the
last flop out Of the box. I'm done up
sure this time, starched, blued and
ironed."
But while he was wiggling round in
his grave, fretting at the pebbles and
trying to find a soft spot, he gets it
into his nut to go and take last long
look at that fresh-water river that runs
into the mountain and while he's rub
bering at that, his ideas begin to smoke
up, and he says to himself, Maybe
this river that goes in her comes out
some place else"
Oh, my; oh, my; it's wonder he or
some of those flubdubs he buried didn't
think of that before. When that eight
een-carat notion bounces down on him
he grabs his head and holds it tight
so it won's explode Old Sinbad was
clever and game and q good fellow,
but he was a shade slow to catch on
sometimes. You had to fall house
on him or something to wake him up.
Well, be built raft and loaded it
with diamonds and rubies and cats
eyes, and ambergris and aloes-wood
and rich goods, and cut loose on that
river that was flowing backward, and
doated into the mountain. He ought
to have tied one of those coughing
whales to his hind axe, too. If he'd
ever got It home where he could feed
it on pitch, he'd have made a heap of
money out of 1t.
The river ran into q dark cave, and
Sinbad scooted along for several days
inside the mountain. He finished his
last can Of tea and his last snap, and
then he lay down on the barge and
went to sleep. When he woke up he
found himself in the open country on
the other side of the mountain; and
the raft was tied to he shore, and
lot of colored people We're rubberng
around it. They told him they had
spotted his raft bobbinG down the Wa
bash, and had hauled it inshore. They
were irrigating a bunch of corn-felds
and watermelon patches, and they
wanted to know how he came to be
picnicking on the wet. When they
heard his little tale, they held up their
hands and said his experience was
johnny Corker, and that he'd have to
go and spring it on their king. SO
they packed him on horse, and took
his goods and waltzed him up to the
kings place.
Well, the king was so struck on Sin
bad's adventures that he had the yarn
written in gold letters and filed in the
county recorders Office Sinbad I'M
rolled his parcels and showed the king
what q lot of fine cats-eyes and dia-
monds and stuff he had picked up On
the seacoast, and offered to give him
the whole thing. But the king said
that wasn't his style. He not only
wouldn't take anything, but he said
he do something for Sinbad himself
before he left there. Then he turned
Sinbad over to main guy, and told
him to give him n good time.
That was on the island of Sarahdub
or something like that, and Sinbad
stayed there for a month looking
aropr
and by Sinbad hit the king for
.,assport so he could go back to Bag |
dad and fine king was such q real |