The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-28

idea You must know youraelf what =
dangerous thing a gun is in the hands
OF an inexperienced person.
What! What I Civ UP the idea!
~ the seven great horn spoons, Mrs.
BoWser. but you seem to be trying to
provoke me to murder Do you know
II think 7 have met you before"
men you know that when I set
out to hunt rabbits not all the sar-
casm and lying and deceit and fault
nnding IN the world can change my de-
termination. I set out tomorrow morn
ing TO hunt the hopping hare. I shall
ma him-scores of him. I will bring
MIN home and convert him into pies
thousands of pies. I will sit down and
FEAST on those pies all the rest of the
winter, and if you dare to touch one
single mouthful of them I'll divorce you
within Is minutes!"
Mrs. BoWSer had no more to say.
She had simply meant to. discourage
him instead of bringing on a row, and
she secretly wished she had been more
polite Mr.. Bowser walked up and
down with heaving chest for a time,
n then returned to his gun and cart
ridges. He had no experience with
shotguns, n he had never killed a
rabbit, but he did not regard that as a
handicap. When the silence had lasted
a quarter of an hour Mrs. Bowser broke
It by asking if the Japs had taken Port
Arthur yet.
81 have nothing to do with the Japs
A4A0As ocI9 Ia Ia ACRAL-
Why should there be more rabbits
this year than last2"
1.-THE rabbit question has been
dropped"
"But 1 wish you wouldn't be angry
with me. OF course I'm only a wo-
man, and don't know about such
things, but when you spoke of going
hunting it did seem to me that
that
1T seemed to you what, MADAME
THAT a mana person-who had
never fired a gun
"Madami"
II mean a person who-who-" 40-1
"Stop right there, or I will not an
for results!'
Poor Mrs. Bowser was putting her
foot into it deeper p deeper, and she
shut her lips for good. Only a few
words passed from that hour to betime,
and when she awoke IN the morning
Mr.. Bowser was all dressed. He had
dreamed of rabbits all night. He. had
seen them by the thousand. They had
come in drOves and begged him to turn
them into abb pie, and he had oaded
a freight car with their frozen bodies.
There was little conversation owe
breakfast, and as soon as it was dis
patched he shouldered his gun and
started off. Mrs. Bowser and the cat
watched him from the front steps, but
he never took a backward look as long
as he was in sight.
rs that a goon he a m his Shout
~ -A ~
utes later.
yes"
'2Then you may get your mournin' bon
net ready and begin to feel how it feels
to be a widdyi"
A street car line took Mr.. Bowser out
among the armer Only one unpleas-
incident happened en- route. A small
boy and his father were on the car, and
after looking at Mr.. BoWser for a long
time the small boy queried:
Father, is that a nimrod?"
TT may be a 4nimrod, my son, or it
be a burned fool-it'S hard to tell"
the car line the hunter turned into the
fields, and his heart was instantly re-
joiced. There were tracks in the snow
thousands of trackS-and it seemed to
had been playing in that locality. Find
ing a rabbit track and finding the rab-
bit who madefasft are two different
things, however, aS-Mr. BOWSer soon
came to know.
He peered into hollow stumps and be-
them-he looked I'D into treetops
and down into hollows-he trailed the
hare to right and left, and held
his gun ready to shoot, but he walked
miles, and hours went by and the main
ingredient for that rabbit pie was still
lacking.
Now and then he encountered a farm
err and asked him where the lair of the
elusive hare could be found, but no
two answered him alike. Some told
him to keep right on IOT uVe miles AUI-
Their and Their turn to the left and go
on for four miles, and some said that
there was no idiot asylum within a dis
of Is. miles.
At 4 O'Clock in the afternoon, as Mrs.
was planning a good dinner for
her absent Nimrod. a farmer-looking
rang the doorbell and she admit
him.
rs this Mrs. Bowser?" he asked.
tIt Isl"
rs your short and stout
and ~ba1dheaded?"
'Yes!v
And did he go out into the country
to shoot rabbits?
HE did"
seWelI, mum, I've got something to
you. He came along to my place
for the hopping hare, as he
it, and he iazed away at a chip
munk on the fence and killed two tur-
keys and wounded a calf, and a o
table is holding him in the barn until
shall pay SIS damages. He didn't
have but SIS with him, and I'm here to
if you want to pay h balance and
let him come"
Mrs. Bowser sent the ransom and
Five hours later, as she sat
the sitting-room, the front door soft
~ opened and closed, and ghostly
footsteps assembled the stairs. A ghost
ly man sat down hard IN a chair in
the family bedroom, inc a ghostly
of relief came floating down to
ears. She could have gone up to