The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-09-04

said that he felt like primordial man
living In cave"
you should be proud Of your wife"
I assured him; and feel yourself
doubly secure while sheltered behind
the bright shield Of her practical
genius"
IT'S the Observation-Disclosures ar
rangement that worries me-" he ex-
planned. "She won't show me- how it
Is worked. and I've pressed every but
ton can find and got myself in a
world of trouble, but can't come
across that tax.cyclone button. won
der what would happen If should dis.
cover it and press it." he unused.
you might prefer to pay taxes" I
laughed.
! He shook his head in 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"
| l waved aside the astonishing prop
osition. you go first" laughed,
land won't follow. Your wife's 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
I guess you'll just have time to get
the next car back to the CITY,"
| AS I walked down the road in the
dusk meditating on the house that Jill
built and its strange inmates, l sud
denly began to doubt the reality of
jill. Perhaps the little man was him.
self the inventor of the patented house
|
Using scheme, or else as kind of
silent partner on 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 guileless as
boy of ten, with none of the cunning
of insanity, and, wondering if the pat
ented house might not prove a pretty
big thing after all, I paused and
looked back, a little vain of my ex.
perience
Had found myself suddenly on the
other side of the earth l could not
have been more astonished. The
house that Jill built was gone!
A moment later 1 was running
breathlessly back down the road. Once
l came to a standstill and hesitated
mentally. Had there been any such
place as the house that Jill built?
Might l 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 had been standing only a few
moments before, found merely a
stretch of uncared-for lawn.
l 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 I laughed queer
ly. 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
tentively they soon resolved into the
sound of dispute.
"You did," II did mott" You did!
How dare you dispute mel"
But, my love, did not! l was un.
der the table when 1 butted my head
against the button
What were you doing under the
tablet"
"My love, it would not avail me to
lie, and though it would 1 could not do
so gracefully in your presence. was
hunting for the tax-cyclone button"
"You found it,"
Eyes, my love!' There was q note
Of Inundated triumph in the familiar
voice. But had known you were in
the house, would not have entered
your room unbidden."
WCfand aSidaiO