The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-05-19
FIRE AT JUGGERS.
nv TOM p. MORGAN.

30 - kAAbAAAb OhkkEA " kGI III
bulge upon the fire fend at his next visit.
Every now and then, for months, tn,
chimney had a habit Of burning out, and al
the roof often caught fire these events wer,
the occasion of much excitement.
Jugger had grown tired of reducing him
self to the verge of emotional insanity il
searching Tor salt to pour down the chimney
trying to quiet his wife, who insisted upor
INDUCING IN Mysteries, and in seeking the
ladder that seemed to have concealed itseli
Just when it was most needed.
Usually, by the time he had charged all
over the house and lot, colliding with all the
furniture in the former and all the trees
shrubs, posts and clotheslines in the latter
the fire had burned out or been %extinquisbed
by the neighbors, and his wife had cried her
self into the first cousin of a fit. Then the
ladder would be found, serene and untrou.
bfed, in the place where it always reposed.
and the salt would grin at him from the bar.
rel in the pantry.
But now Jugger could retire to his couch,
happy in the thought that, with the salt at
hand and the ladder leaning against the
caves, he was ready for any emergency.
For nearly a week peace brooded over the
Jugger household. Then the chimney went
on the rampage again.
NH9 hNHA hlidAllBub Wutu AlTSs UIpQer
awoke her spouse by her energetic lab in
the ribs and the thrilling announcement that
she smelt smoke.
The fire could be heard roaring in the chin.
ney, and Jugger was sure that a conAagra.
ton would speedily ensue if he did not
hasten to the scene Of the danger accom-
panied by the salt, so he sprung out of bed.
took one quick step and fell forward on his
lace, almost executing a dado on the floor
with his nose.
I'LL of late, Jugger had never worn a robe
de-nult, but had passed down the years, so
to speak, night-shirtless and neglected. Mrs.
Jugger remedied this awful state of affairs
by presenting her husband, upon his last
birthday, not long ago, with a brand new
nlght-shirt, five feet and three inches long
forgetting that by all laws of precedent,
Jugger's head ought to stick out of the TOP
Of the garment.
Upon rising in the abrupt fashion before
mentioned, Jugger, forgetting the superfu-
Gus length Of the robe, stepped on the front
OF It and came down on his face, as stated,
with a force that nearly drove his nasal
protruberance back out OF sight in his coun-
t%enance.
Springing to his feet and pulling his nose
out to where it belonged, he grabbed the
pail Of salt and started toward the door.
Inns time, when the long robe tripped jug
ger 1t sent him headlong against the wall,
with a force that almost shortened up his
neck. When he finally escaped from the
house it was by holding up the extraneous
length of the garment.
Out of doors and around the house he
rushed, cracking his shins with the sharp
corners of the salt pail at every other jump.
As he came in sight of the flames, streaming
like a tlume of fire out of the chimney top,
his excitement caused him to drop the robe
Tor an instant. He recognized his mistake
when he found himself crawling out OF the
embraces Of Mrs. J~ugger's rare and exceed
ingly thorny Mexican eacti, which were
highly successful as ornaments, but made
a very poor couch.
Jugger really ought to have possessed a
third hand to assist him while he held onto
the ladder and his life and the salt and his
night-shirt. He was not like the diatory
gentleman Of chestnut lore, who, in addition
to his right and left hands, was provided
with a little behind hand. He would have
surmounted the steep roof with much more
ease and less loss of cuticle if each of his
hands and all of the feet he possessed, and
the half-doZen more that he needed, had
been armed with long, sharp claws, capable
OF being soeked deep into the shingles.
After Mr.. Jugger had succeeded in climb
ing up the steep roof at about the same rate
of speed as that of the arithmetical frog
that, in climbing out Of the well, assembled
two feet every day and fell back th1ee feet
every night, the neignbors were astounded
at the vision that appeared on the ridge
pole. They saw, by the light of the CHM
ney's torch, a figure that looked like a large
cat IN a long gown crawling along the apex
of the roof
just as Jueger raised the pail in order
to pour the salt down the chimney, his toe
holds slipped at one side. Instead of going
down the chimney the salt was poured down
the root, a white and gritty cascade. A mo-
ment later Jugger followed it. There was
a frantic clutcning and %clawing, and a wild
yell that nearly put out the tire, and the
human toboggan went sliding down over
the salty and splintery surface Of the shin
giles.
The frantic manner in which a drowning
man is supposed to clutch at straws would
not have been a circumstances to the en-
thusiastic and unreserved manner in which
Jugger endeavored to plant his claws upon
or into something that would stay his prog
ress.
lis SuuEls very uStleSs4 DOWN ne went
at a rate that made the salt ~sandpaper off
the s~plinters that would otherwise have pro-
truded from his person and given him
the appearance Of a human pineushion. Had
it not been for the presence and kind Of
fees Of the salt, Juggs ) condition would
have been a much more deplorab!e one, for,
while a man with s~plinters sticking out all
over him like pin-feathers may be very use
full as a human scratcher, he certainly can
not be considered as ornamental. An Adon-
is stuck full of splinters must pull down his
sign, and no man likes to think that his
chances of winning in a beauty competition
have gone where prohibition prohibits, and
heneeforth he can aspire to nothing better
than being an animated toothpick-holder.
just as Jugger went over the edge of the
roof the tail OF his robe caught on a sturdy
gutter-clamp. For a moment he hung like
a large, white bat. There was the sound
like that which ensues when the friendship
Of years is rent in twain from top to bot
tom. The sturdy clamp, having got its full
share OF the garment, Jugger dropped, with
a wall Of anguish, into the very heart of Mrs.
Jugger's other cactus bed. Then the fire
went out, leaving a scratched and splintery
wreck of humanity wrapped in the clinging
embrace of the cacti from Mexico.