The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1909-07-12
The Misadventures
Of arrish
n. II I'll rl

By H. CeraId chapIn


morning the story was not altogeth.
or devoid OF humor.
"You all know" he began. how
had to stay late fixing up trial bal.
| ance. 1t must have been fully ~
o'clock before left the office. You
also remember what kind OF weather
| it was--sleet, snow, and all that. /
was pretty we'll tagged out, and 1t did
| seem as though those everlasting col
umns Of figures would never quit
dancing up and down In my head. All
the way over to my fiat they kept 1t
up, and, what with the cold and the
figures. ! knew 1t was no use trying
to get any sleep just then. Now, the
best thing In the world when you feel
that way is bath-hot or cold ac-
cording to whether it's winter or sum
mer-and sneaked upstairs quiet,
thinking how nice and restful one
would feel. Mrs. Parrish is a light
sleeper, so i slipped into the bath
room, turned on the water, undressed.
and 1t didn't take NE very long to
drop in. Great Scott, didn't 1t feel
fine! just lay back still and quiet
and almost dozed off right there and
then.
Come, come I said to myself,
this will never do and l started
to get up-only started. mind you, for
then the awful part of the evening
began. Not an inch could l move
stuck fast. ! tried and tried to slew
my shoulders around or to get some
sort of purchase on the edge of the
tub, but the sides were high and 1t
was no go. Then tried to push up
with my elbows. You know how i'm
possible 1t is to get mustard plas.
ter off your own back. Well, 1t was
just like that. did get little place
loose, but 1t felt as though the skin
had come on with 1t.
"You can bet was scared, but this
was nothing to what happened after
wards.
y told you I'd been thinking OF
figures and wondering how that things
hadn't Strengthened themselves out.
and--well, ! can't explain it, but,
somehow, in looking around the bath
room for something to help pry my
self loose with, the place struck me
as considerably changed Our medi-
cine closet hadn't any mirror; Mrs
Parrish never hung the towels on
rack like that-why, those weren't
our towels; that was &c" marked
on them. Good Heaven ! got all
hot and cold at once. Ii wasn't our
bathroom. Then il came over me
like flash. Our fiat was on the
fourth floor We'd only lived there a
week, and our previous fiat, where
we'd been five years. was on the third
In my awful absentmindedness I'd
probably gone up two flights and,
without thinking. walked right In.
The keys just happened to fit Same
as it was in Called Back you re-
member
Nov. If was in fix before, you
can imagine what II was row
simply had to get out. The new
enamel seemed to get harder and hard
er all the time. They had put it on
the day before, so ! found out later,
and while it was all right when
stepped in, the hot water had soft
ened it,
i must have lost my head here for
it struck me as good scheme to pull
out the plug with my toes. OF course.
you can imagine the result When
all the hot water ran out the stun
got harder than ever solidiied, SO to
speak. Besides, It was cold--tbo jan
itor always let his fires get low at
nightso lay there and shivered,
feeling more and more like a corpse
In cold storage every minute.
II suppose must have made some
noise, for the next thing on the pro-
gram was when l heard window
open with bang and some woman
letting on volley Of yells. tried to
shout some sort of an explanation
but she wouldn't even come to the
door to hear my story, and kept on
| bowling sThieves, 'Murder!' and
every other thing that came into her
silly head. never did think much OF
that woman, anyway. She's the ner-
vous, erratic kind, and l guess it's
| just as we'll her husbands on the
road most Of the time. II she was my
wife I'd take to drink. Anyhow, they
tell me she raised the entire block.
Where is heg' In a mans voice
was what heard next. Here. you
come out Of there,
Then. 'Aw. yes, yer can tell all that
to the sergeant when tried to ex-
plain. Are you comm out OF there
or aren't yer. now
"Well, there isn't much more to
tell. He broke down the door, of
course Mrs. Clay let out another
yelp when she saw my doubled-up
figure in the tub. and McGrath just
gave one pull and had me clear. He
then helped me to dress. Why,
cant lean back in my chair now.
ut goes without saying that Mrs.
Clay refused to believe my story tshe
managed to recognize me in time 80
I wasn't carried Of to the station
Ihcy,xal and said she knew I was