The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-11-14

patch, but the village mail was late,
and 1t was an hour before he reached
his own gate again. The house was
in darkness. There was no singing.
The cat sat on the steps of the kitchen
door and meowed dismally.
Deacon Dolby was not alarmed.
There was the well pump, and there
was the dlpper on its nail. and he
pumped himself drink Of water, pet
ted the cat for moment and then en-
tered the dark house and lighted a
lamp. He did not call upstairs or
down cellar. He did not look under
the table or the bed. He had brought
from the postoiiice a circular on bee
raising, and he sat down at the table
and pulled Off his shoes and began
reading.
When three minutes had passed
there was long drawn groan. In
two minutes more there was another.
Then came moan like a November
gale sweeping over a farm under a
$1,000 mortgage
The deacon heard, but he was not
disturbed He was reading that hon
eybees We're divided into two classes,
the workers and the drones, and that
the workers We're soft marks for the
drones, the same as In human life.
Enter Mrs. Dolby with noosed rope
around her neck. butcher knife in
one hand and cup of paris green I'm
the other. She had been hiding in the
family bedroom. The deacon knew Of
her presence, but it was his cue to
keep on reading He read that the
drone bees could get a hump on them
selves as well as the workers, but
they saw no use Of 1t as long as they
had good thing Of it.
samuel Dolby!"
1t was voice almost from the
grave. 1t curled up his toes, but he
did not betray the fact
Mrs. Dolby's Grievance.
"Mrs. Flint was here to borrow my
six pound flatiron while you were
gone, and she told me all-all-allp
The deacon sighed. but did not
speak. He realized that he was In for
1t again, but he would die with his
teeth hard shut. He read that there
was queen bee to every hive. but no
king bee, and he no longer wondered
that bees sometimes acted In a brain
less way.
More than a month ago." the ghost
ly voice continued, "you went over to
Farmer Johnson's to buy pig. You
were gone four hours. You came back
without the pig. l noticed that your
knees wabbled and your speech was
thick, but ] laid it to the hot weather.
You went to bed, and l tied wet
towel on your head"
All that was true, and the deacon
hadn't word to say. He could al
most feel his knees wabbling again.
And he read that bees sometimes flew
as far as three miles to gather honey.
but was 1t the hot weather. Sam
uel Dolby? Did you come nigh hav-
Ing sunstroke? No! Mrs. Flint told
me all about It. Mrs. Johnson told
her, and she told me- She thought 1t
her duty to. Ii was hard cider that
'N''NN J'h' ohilutl-h boou tWo iuai 10
OF hard cider which you drank at the
barn. And when you had guzzled 1t
down you and Mr.. Johnson put your
arms around each other and danced
around and sang at the top Of your
voices:
For he's jolly good feller.
And the same I can't deny"
Not a word from the deacon. II
was all true. That smooth and oily
old cider had put springs under his
heels for sure. AS near as he could
recall he had danced with seven or
eight jolly good fellows. All they had
sung with great enthusiasm. .bHgd ~
MRS, Flint said that 1t was my duty
10 i've on for the sake of the cat, but
! cannot and VIII not The disgrace
u LOO dean No I.rale worM haye act.
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