The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1907-07-18

RESTLESS, ana AT Iasr, mIs not morning,
having managed to evade the eye Of
all concerned in his keeping, made of
unobtrusively. partly by swimming,
and, reaching the road, cantered into
town, his ears erect with anxiety. Bent
upon reaching the familiar Office, he
passed the grocery, from the doorway
Of which the pimply checked clerk had
thrown bad potato at him a month
before. The same clerk had just laid
down the Tocsin as Responsibility
went by, and, inspired to great deeds
in behalf Of justice and his native city,
he rushed to the door, lavishly seized
this time a perfectly good potato and
hurled it with a result which costa
sized him, for it took the mongrel fair
" aside the head, which 1t matched in
size.
The luckless Responsibilities purpose
to reach Joe's stairway had been en-
tirely definite. but upon this violence
he forgot 1t momentarily. 1t Is not
easy to keep things In mind when one
is violently smitten on mouth, nose,
cheek, eye and ear by a missile large
enough to strike them simultaneously.
Yelping and half blinded, he detected
to cross Main street. Judge Pike had
elected to cross in the opposite direc-
ton, and the two met In the middle
Of the street.
The encounter was miraculously 1T
ted to the judges need. Here was no
butterfly, but solid body, light with
al, a wet, muddy and dusty yellow dog
eminently kickable. The man was
heavily built about the legs, and the
vigos of what be did may have been
additionally inspired by his recogni-
ton of the mongrel as Joe Louden's.
The impact of his toe upon the little
runners side was mOmentOus, and the
latter rose into the air. The judge
hoped, as one hops who, unshod in
the night, discovers an unexpected
chair. Let us be reconciled to his pain
and not reproach the gods with it, for
two of his unintending adversary's ribs
were cracked.
The dog, thus again detected, retrac-
ed his tracks, shrieking distractedly
and, by one Of those ironical twists
which Karma reserves for the tails of
the fated. dived for blind safety into
the store commanded by the ecstatic
and inimical clerk. There were shouts;
the sleepy square beginning to wake
up; the bench loafers strolled to
the street; the aged men stirred and
rose from their chairs; faces appeared
in the open windows of Offices; sales
ladies and gentlemen came to the door
ways of the trading places, so that
when Responsibility emerged from the
grocery he had a notable audience for
the scene he enacted with brass din
ner bell tied to his TAIL
Another potato, flung by the pimpled,
uproarious, prodigal clerk, added to
the impetus of his flight A shower of
pebbles from the hands Of exhilarated
boys denied the soft asphalt about
him. The hideous clamor of the pur-
suing bell increased as he turned the
next corner, running distractedly. The
dead town had come to life. and it's
inhabitants gladly risked the danger
GUS heat in the interest of sport, where
by it was merry chase the little dog
led around the block. For thus some
destructive instinct drove him. He
could not stop with the unappeasable
terror changing at his heels and the
increasing crowd yelling in pursuit, but
he turned to the left at each corner
and thus came back to pass Joe's stair
way again, unable to pause there or
anywhere, unable to do anything ex-
cept to continue his hapless flight, poor
meteor.
Round the block he went once more,
and still no chance at that empty stair
way, where perhaps, he thought, there
might be succor and safety. Blood was
upon his side where Martin Pixies boot
had crashed, foam and blood hung
upon his jaws and lolling tongue. He
ran desperately, keeping to the mid.
die Of the street, and, not bowling, set
himself despairingly to outstrip the
terror. The mob, disdaining the sun
superbly, pursued as closely as it could,