The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1908-11-05

| cover it and press it," be unused
You might prefer to pay taxes"
| laughed.
He shook his head in a kind Of good
naturally Immature and | saw his eyes
roam around as in search of some
| secret button. AS we passed the
third door on the left of the hallway
he paused and whispered. That is it!
| That is Jill's room! She's in there
! thinking now, and she never comes
out till some bright idea comes out
with her" He stopped and applied
his eye to the keyhole, then suddenly
Strengthened up. Why, she's gone
out! | say, let's hunt together for
that cyclone-tax button"
| waved aside the astonishing prop
osition. You go first" laughed,
and I won't follow. Your wifes bust
ness may be yours, but it's no part
mine"
You're right" he assented Some,
thing unpleasant might happen and
then I'd be sorry for having got you
into trouble. Come, I'll show you the
Patent Applied For over the door, and
| guess you'll just have time to get
the next car back to the city"
AS | walked down the road in the
dusk meditating on the house that Jill
built and it's strange inmates. | sud
denly began to doubt the reality Of
Jill. Perhaps the little man was him
self the inventor of the patented house
and had fabricated Jill as an adver-
Using scheme, ar else as a KIND OF
silent partner Hn whom he might shift
any unpleasant responsibilities. Or,
perhaps, too CLOSE application to his
invention had unbalanced him and
given rise to this queer hallucination
Yet the man was as guleless as
boy of ten, with none of the cunning
of insanity, and, wondering if tt. pat
ented house might not prove a pretty
big thing after all, | paused and
looked back, little vain of my ex,
perience.
Had found myself suddenly on the
other side of the earth | could not
have been more astonished. The
house that Jill built was gone
A moment later I was running
breathlessly back down the road. Once
came to standstill and hesitated
mentally. Had there been any such
place as the house that Jill built?
Might not have merely imagined it,
Which of our experiences is SO vivid
as not under certain conditions to
seem a dream-a fantastic shadow
thrown upon some inner conscious
ness? But my feet seemed to scorn
the wild doubt in my brain and re-
sumed their race down the road.
Bringing up directly before the plot
built haa been standing only few
moments before, | found merely
stretch of uncared-for lawn.
| stared before me in deepening
wonder, then wheeled about morbidly
fearful lest the house, like some I'M
pleasant dead thing, was hiding at my
back. But the house that Jill built
was indeed gone, A kind of painful
humor seized me and laughed queer
~ He's pressed the taX-button, |
guess"
Suddenly | was conscious of voices
They seemed to come from nowhere,
indistinct at first, but as | listened at.
tentiveN they soon resolved into the
sound of a dispute,
you did" Il did not" You did.
How dare sou dispute me'
But, my love did not! was I'M
der the table when | butted my head
against the button"
What were you doing under the
table,"
My love, it would not avail me to
lie, and though it would could not do
so gracefully in your presence. ! was
hunting for the tax-cyclone button"
You found it,
Yes, my love!" There was note
of INUNDATED triumph in the familiar
voice. But had | known you were in
the house, | would not have entered
your room unbidden."
Stand asde!"
| had but a moment longer to won.
der from whence the voices came. |
then my brain seemed to reel as the |
center of the lawn before me stirred |
and out of the earth, lighted by a |
score of incandescent lights and with |
all its shades open, arose the house
hat Jill built
Stealing around to the side of the |
structure ! saw my late host standing
I'm the presence OF a magnii.
cent red-haired woman, fully six feet
In stature
"The next time sir, that you let this
house into the cyclone cellar, | shall
shut you in with it till plant another
lawn on the roof. Be warned In time,"
With fixed mental picture of the