Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1909-08-13
he Misady ventures.
Of T a11ish
ByH. Gerald Chaplin
Copyright. By J. 3. Lippincott Coz
b H. Gz.ld Ch.p;a

.I By II. Gerald Chapin
Copyright. By J. ,. Appincott Coz
As Parrish. our corpulent and alb
sent.minded bookkeeper. told it next
morning the story was not altogeth-
>er devoid Of humor.
''You all know" he began, ''how
had to stay late fixing up trial bal
ance. It must have been fully IL
O'Clock before ! left the ONCE. You
also remember what kind Of weather
It was-sleet, snow. and all that.
was pretty well tagged out, and it 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 dat they kept It
up, and. what with the cold and the
figures. knew it 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 I sneaked upstairs quiet,
thinking how nice and restful one
would feel. Mrs. Parrish Is a light
sleeper, 50 slipped into the bath
room. turned on the water, undressed,
and it didn't take me very long to
drop in. Great Scott, didn't It feel
fine! just lay back still ana quiet
and almost dozed OF right there and
then.
"'Come, come said to myself,
. this will never do and I started
|, to get only started. mind you, for
, then the awful part Of the evening
, began. Not an inch could I move
/, stuck fast. tried and tried to slew
my shoulders around or to get some
sort of a purchase on the edge Of the
! tub, but the sides were high and It
i was no go. Then I tried to push up
with my elbows. You know how i'm.
possible it is to get mustard plas.
, ter on your own back. Well. it was
just like that. did get little place
loose. but it felt as though the skin
had come OF with It,
"You can bet was scared, but thia
was nothing to what happened after
wards.
II told you I'd been thinking Of
figures andwondering how that things
E, hadn't Strengthened themselves out
and-well, I can't explain it, but
somehow, in looking around the bath
room for something to help pry my
self loose with. the place struck M
as considerably changed. Our medi
cine closet hadn't any mirror: Mrs
Parrish never hung the towels on F,
rack like that-why. those weren'
our towels; that was a C" marked
, on them. Good Heaven! I got al,
hot and cold at once. It wasn't ou,
bathroom. Then it came over me
like flash. Our fat was on the
fourth floor. We'd only lived there q
week. and our previous fat, where
wed been i've years, was on the third
In my awful observation-disclosures ID
probably gone up two fights and
without thinking, walked right in
The keys just happened to At. Same
as it was in Called Back you re-
.. member.
"Now. If was in a fix before, YOU
can imagine what it was now. ]
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 I found out later,
, and while. it was all right when !
stepped in, the hot water had soft
: ened it. s... .-..ats .. -,
Il 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-solidi11ed. 20 to
speak. Besides, it was cold-the ian.
1tor always let his fires get low at
night-so l lay there and shivered.
feeling more and more like corpse
In cold storage every minute.
Il suppose must have made some
noise. for the next thing on the pro
gram was when I heard q window
open with bang and some woman
letting of a volley of yells. 1 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 "Thieves!' 'Murder!'' and
every other thing that came into her
silly head. never did think much Of
that woman, anyway. She's the ner-
vous. cratic kind, and I guess it's
just as well 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 hep in a mans voice
was what l 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 lust
oovA ov,o null ana haA =. - ~