Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-25

freakiness, the sneakineSs OF EN- had my
wide-awake imagination enthralled. 1t
was black dark in my sitting room, but
1 knew that the jumping seeds still were
jumping all over the tray-jumping and
fighting each other and pushing each
other out of the way-and all In the dark,
too; restless and squirmy and never at
peace, all in the dark! 1t was madden
it and tried to dispel the thought of the
suuirmishness in the dark, but l couldn't.
lay back again, listening If 1 could hear
the tinkling of the seeds on the tray.
l could hear nothing. But 1 knew-oh, l
knew.-that they were jumping about on
the tray. all right. and / began to. roll
around in bed like a squirmy seed my
self.
AFTER what seemed hours and hours
I finally managed to fall into a nervous,
fidgety doze, and 1 dreamt that the
jumping seeds were the size of the boul-
ders you see in the Grand Canyon of Arr
IONA. and that they were dancing around
the streets Of New York, knocking build
ings down and crushing women and chill
dren and raising trouble generally. and
l came out of that doZe with a horrible
start and had to beat the pillows to
pulp before l could snatch another doze.
During this troubled doze l dreamt that
udu lOILucu d COUpdIly " cAplOil lilc
use Of the jumping seeds to furnish mo-
tive power. The idea was to imprison
about 100000 of the seeds under an
immense covering of sheet iron, and then,
when the seeds began to squirm, why.
the sheet iron covering 'ud be lifted, and
the lifting 'ud furnish the power to drive
a series Of pistons, and thered be the
power, see? 1 came out of that all stand
ing, too, so to speak, and then switched
on the light again and sat up in bed to
hi rlx lsnt yi1 nf thnSo
jumping seeds somehow. I knew that.
But how? II I tossed them out Of the
window into the street. why, I knew very
we'll that I'd have the picture in my mind
and down on the asphalt pavement, and.
of course. that wouldn't do. 1 wanted
some way to make 'em be quiet. So l
cogitated. Then 1 hit upon way.
when I got up and went into my sit
ting room and turned on the light there
were the seeds still squirming around. as
1 knew they'd be. on the china tray. l
grabbed the tray and rushed into my
bathroom and dumped the dozen Mexican
jumping seeds into my shaving mug.
Then I turned on the cold water and
filled the shaving mug to the top and
tried to drown those Mexican jumping
seeds. And, as one or two of EN-, even
after being soused in the shaving mug,
manifested a defiant disposition to squirm
and sashay around in the water. why,
took my bath sponge and squeezed it into
a tight wad and pressed it into the shaw
ing mug. the jumping seeds underneath.
and gr-r-round em to the bottom of the
mug the soggy sponge on top!
~
"Then they were still. Then I went
back to bed. 1 slept poorly. and had
many bad dreams; but still I got in lit
tie sleep. But when I went to shave in
the morning. dumped the seeds out on
the washstand (supposing 'em. Of course.
to be drowned and dead. and durn my
pelt If they didn't begin to dance all over
again like a bunch of Ogalalla Sioux
jumping the reservation!
And they're dancing around my room
right now-I know it!-at this very min
ute. Dancing their DANCED heads off.
Dancing and jumping and squirming and
wriggling and hoochee-coochee-ing and
hula-hula- ling and dervishing and nudg-
ing and pushing and showing and pop
ping and darling and leaping and muscle
Wipeling and Salometin and Gertrude-Hof-
manning and Eva Tanguaying and"
The man with the purplish rings of
sleeplessness under his eyes broke of
with sort of a muffied gasp and ges-
ture of despair and mooched down the