The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-25
HUCKLEBERRY BOWSER.
He Goes Forth to Pluck the Delicious
Fruit.

The Bowser family had finished din
ner and returned to the sitting room
when he suddenly remarked to Mrs.
Bowser:
Does that cook of ours know beans
when the bags united, or doesn't she?''
Maggie is a very good cook?" was
| the reply.
Yes. but it's the same old things
over and over again. She doesn't seem
to have any head to push along by
herself, or else you don't care for my
appetite"
ITO what particular thing do you re-
fer top
ITO the pie question, of course You
know L like a piece of pie after dinner.
For the last four weeks we have had
either lemon or apple pie. At lunch
today at my restaurant 1 had the most
delicious piece of huckleberry pie / ever
ate. I was so pleased with it that I
took pains to tell the proprietor. He
said that the pie was made from ber-
lies that had just come in"
Then he lied to you!" exclaimed
ripe till long after this, and you ought
to know it. They do not ripen in this
climate until July at the earliest. HIS
pies wede made of canned berries, and
If you think them so delicious you can
have them twice a day from now on. ~
Mrs. Bowser, 1 have been lunching
at the same restaurant for five years.
I know all about the proprietor. He is
called Truthful John. No one ever knew
him to lie. Why should he lie to me
about huckleberries?
II don't know and don't care, but he
certainly did lie. You can't find them
at the groceries nor with the peddlers-
Shall 1 telephone the grocer to SEND
over a cam"
mo, ma am, you needn't. L have a
better plan. In the first place, you lntl-
mate that my taste is so depraved that
l can't tell fresh huckleberries from
those canned a year ago. In the next,
you deliberately charge a benevolent
and truthful old man with lying like
a trooper. 1 cannot let the matter drop
here I shall proceed to confound you
with the sight of several quarts OF
fresh huekleberries gathered with my
see them-smell them-taste them, you
will perhaps be woman enough to ad-
nit your mistake"
I'VE have no huekleoerr1es IN the
back yard.
mo? How sarcastic you can be when !
you try!'
Then how are you going to show |
me?"
EASY as rolling off a log. 1 will get
I'D in the morning and HE me TO the |
country with tin pail on my arm, and !
before noon I will be back with five or
six quarts of huckleberries. 1 will fur
nish YOU with living proofs.
You will simply have your trip for |
nothing Mr. Bowser You lived on a |
farm all through your boyhood- Think. |
now: Did you ever gather ripe huckle-
berries at this time of year? Aren't you |
thinking of something else-early straw |
berries, for instance?"
Does boy take a pail and go down |
into swamp and pick strawberries off
of bushes?" he severely demanded
mo. of course not. but
There are no butts about it, I have
either got the taste of a jackass and
can't tell fresh huckleberries from can
ned, or there are plenty growing in the
country at this season. If prove my
case shall insist that you apologize to
me- and also write a note of apology to
Truthful John. AS I wish to read up
on Alexander the Great this evening we
will let the matter drop right here and