The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1907-06-19

see Lawson and probably got $4,000
for it."
The bulb was wrapped up in tissue
paper. Mrs. Bowser looked at it and
saw that it had four or five green
sprouts ready to do more growing. but
that it didn't differ from the ordinary
tulip bulb.
II ought to have had that $25 to get
me a dress WITH" she finally said as
- returned the bulb.
ITO get a dress with! Great heav-
ms. YOU compare 4 dress to q tulip
with seventeen different colors, to a
tulip that will make Jul name famous
in q month, to q tulip that may bring
US in tens Of thousands of dollars with
in q few weeks! Stop and think of the
supreme sel6shness Of it. By John,
I wouldn't have believed that such
human nature existed! In your envy
and jealousy and selfshness you would
have the thing a failure, but it won't
be-. have the bed prepared, and I
will now set out the tulip. It will
grow. It will flourish. It will throw
out it's seventeen different colors. You
can 60 on"
Mrs. Bowser entered the house, and
the bulb was placed in the middle OF
the bed. It was an hour to dinner.
and during the interval MI. Bowser
sat down on the steps to watch and
guard.
A dog came along and jumped the
fence and would have pulled the bulb
from the ground by one Of the shoots
had not the watcher yelled at him.
A hoodlrm came along and looked
over the gate and asked Mr.. Bowscr If
he was going into turnip growing. The
cold stare he received made his scalp
tingle.
A tramp came along and recognized
the bulb ass sugar beet and wanted
to discuss the rise and fall Of the vege-
table, but he was ordered to move on
in such tones that he was reminded Of
lunatics and mad dogs.
Watched tho Plant.
During the dinner hour Mrs. Bowser
asked no questions, and the tulip was
not referred to-. Acting under instruc-
tons from Mr.. Bowser, the cook took
frequent peeps from the basement win
dows to see that no n entered the
yard. AS he rose from the table he
said to Mrs. Bowser:
MADAM, I shall pass the evening on
the front steps. If you are planning
to throw hot water on my tulip or 9th
erwise destroy it. you will meet with
disappointment"
"But why should I wish to destroy
your tulip? she protested.
"Why have you made twelve differ
ent attempts to assassinate me since
we were marriedT'
It was an hour or more before dark
ness came. Mr.: Bowser kept his eye
on that tulip and thought Of wealth
and fame and pictured a rush Of re-
porters to secure his photograph. When
darkness settled down, Mrs. Bowser
came to the door and asked him Il he
was going to sit up all night, but In
reply he gave her q glare that made
her shiver.
He was there when the bells struck
8. So was his tulip.
He was there at 8, and the tulip was
nesting down in its earthly bed and
preparing to grow.
At 10 O'Clock Mrs. Bowser came to
the door again and found him nodding.
The boy on the opposite side of the
street who was just getting ready to
hurl a potato stayed his hand, and
after standing for q moment she re-
entered the house and went to bed.
End Of the Experiment.
Eleven o'clock came. Mr.. Bowser
vas asleep and dreaming when a
shadowy form stole up the street. 1t
stopped ut his gate and peered be-
tween the pickets. It made sure that
the man on the steps slumbered, and
then it leaped the fence and advanced
upon the flower bed. The seventeen
colored tulip was there and defense
less. That shadowy form was a dog.
and he was after bones. With a CUR
gle in his throat he made a sudden
spring, tore ut the dirt for a second,
and as Mr.. Bowser awoke with a yell
the canine seized the bulb In his mouth
and leaped back into the street. The
yell brought Mrs. Bowser to the win
dow. She looked down to see MI.
Bowser roll down the steps and make
of after the fleeing dog. There was
no n else on the street. There were
dickers from the electric lights; there
were ghostly shadows dancing here
and there. The spirits Of departed dogs
and tulips frolicked up and down. And
as she looked the forms Of Mr.. Bowser
and the pursued vanished in the dark
ness down the street, and the just and
the unjust who had been momentarily
disturbed turned over in their beds and
slurnbered again. NJ. QUAD.
Taking Mothers Place.