The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-11-03

with red cheeks. and great soulful eyes
like Americans. Yes. sir, everybody
In Athens seemed to be in love, and
dad thought the men looked effeminate,
on account OF their clothes, but every
mar Is an athlete and a fighter from
the word 60.
We'll, we went up on the hill to- the
Acropolis, an old marble ruin that
overlooks the town, and dad paced on
the ground, to see how much terri
tory 1t covered, and figured up how
much good marble there was in It.
that could be used for gravestones,
and when some Of the policemen asked
me what the old man was doing told
them he was a rich old party from
America that vas going to buy the
Acropolis and move II to the United
States and make 1t over into a morgue.
and that he didn't care for expense.
for he was the richest man In the
world.
We'll We looked things over, like
all tourists do, and we went to Mars
Hill. where Paul preached, and dad
read up IN Paul, and offered to bet
that Paul could give cards and spades
to any preacher, and then peat him
preaching, and the next night we went
to the place where Socrates and Plato
taught school, and some of the Greeks
had watched us pretty close, and just
after dark, as we were walking around,
a beautiful woman, like a Greek statue,
rose up before us, with a white robe on,
and she went up to dad and claimed his
protection, as she was being pursued
by robbers, and she cuddled up to dad,
At first we thought she was a ghost,
but when she touched dad, and chung
to him, he said she was warm all
right, and was no ghost, and he told
her not to worry, as she was under
the protection of the American flag,
and he would stand by her till hades
froze over, and he put his left arm
around her and drew his revolver.
| lah lClllCliDCl thS Stth 40 Ahoh5h ~
was last night, and how that Greek
woman chung to dad, and thanked him,
and she smiled a smile full of teeth
and red lips, and then she looked out
into the moonlight and screamed:
There they come" and she tainted
In dads arms, and then We were sur
rounded by about a dozen Greek ban
dts, dressed in white petticoats, and
with long crooked daggers, and one
fellow that seemed to be the chief
put a crooked knife to dads throat
and dad turned blue and said what
are you going to do, but they didn'
say anything, but took us to a cave
where the woman got over her faint
ing spell, and then they dressed dat
up In a white petticoat, and these Ions
socks such as ballet dancers wear, anC
we all got on to small mules and start
ed for the mountains, and rode al
night.
Say, dad was a picture. The Greeks
are small men, and they look all RICH
in petticoats, but dad was SO fat h
looked swelled up, and even the null
noticed it, and the girl, who was OF
the white mule, laughed at dad, ant
she could talk English, and she tol(
dad that the bandits only wanted hi
money, and they wouldn't hurt him
he gave up a million or so. 1t proVe'
that she was one Of the gang, AM
dad and | held a consultation, and W
decided to give her a letter to tn
American consul at Athens, %authorizinj
him to give her a carload OF none,
for ransom, and in the letter da'
wound up with a postscript telling tn
consul not to give a COMPOUNDED cen
but to arrest her and send troops t
rescue us. | asked dad what he wa
going to do If she didn't come bac
!, and the bandits decided to kill us, an
!, he said never you mind, your pap
will get out of this all right, and b
did.
1.-THE woman went away with a lei
f ter she could not read, but which sh
told dad how to write, and then th
bandits made dad do the cooking &c
r the bunch, and he put so much va
in the food that it made hem a
. thirsty, and they sent one of the bal
dts to a vineyard, where he got se'
!. eral pig skins full of wine and brand
and that night they sung songs, an
made dad sing Hot Time and the
!, made me dance, and dad kept sayin
. Let's have one more on me- and the
drank until the whole crowd WI
a stupefed, and dad acted as though
!, was drunken than any of them, b'
. N