The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-03-23
AN EXPERIMENT.
ey NJ. QUAD.


er and ambitious. Then one day he
attended a circus and was kicked by
a giraffe. The circus men gave him a
dollar as damages and sent him home.
A doctor examined him and said no
great harm had been done. but SiIas
took il into his head that he had re-
ceived severe internal injuries and
that any further labor would take him
to his grave.
One afternoon when Silas had wan
dered down TO the bridge over the
river, for the first time in four years,
some hilarious young men seized him
and threw him over the railing. He
did not resist. 1t would have been too
much like work. II was expected, Of
course, that soon after striking the
water the lazy man would set his legs
and arms in motion and help himself
ashore. He did nothing Of the sort.
He simply permitted himself to sink
slowly and easily to the bottom, and
he lay there until those who had flung
him in helped him out.
Again, one winters evening Silas
was seized at his own gate and car
ried a mile away and flung into a
snowdrift and told to lie there and
freeze or make his way homeward.
There was some slight doubt as to
which course he would adopt. but it
was soon settled. He snuggled down
In drift, and there he was found FIVE
hours later by the conscience stricken
men who had left him. He had been
frost bitten. but he had saved his rep
utatiOn.
A dry goods drummer visiting the
village heard Of the case and recon-
mended cure and offered to admins.
ter 1t himself. At midnight a figure
with horns and hoofs and tail, sup
posed to be a good imitation Of our old
friend down below, opened the unlock
ed door OF the White cottage, and ST.
las and his wife were awakened TO
find the intruder in their bedroom.
Mrs. White screamed out In terror.
Silas took long look and asked what
was wanted.
Il want your was the answer in an
awful voice.
"What fur"
II want you to come with me to the
bottomless pitr'
Then you'll have to carry me-" re-
piled the champion as he turned over
toward the wall.
1t was now realized that nothing
could be done with such a man. and
for years Silas was left to enjoy his
laziness in peace. 1t was the general
opinion that he would be too lazy to
draw his last breath when the time
came and that his accomplishing wife
would have TO do it for him. There
was to come change. however One
day after the wife had placed chair
for him under an apple tree and left
him to smoke and sleep she noticed a
thunderstorm creeping up in the west.
1t was her duty to watch things and
bring Silas in before the storm broke,
but she suddenly decided to make an
experiment She would leave him
where he was and see If he would
seek shelter rather than get wet. 1t
wasn't a bit like her to do this, and
she never could make out why the
thought came to her that day.
The black cloud grew larger, and the
thunder muttered and the lightning
flashed. Silas heard things and woke
up. He saw the coming storm, and he
saw his wife in the back door. He
waited for her. but she did not come.
Lightning did, however There were
twenty barns and houses and trees
around for 1t to strike but it ignored
all OF them and struck Silas White IL
seemed to scatter him over half an
acre Of ground. 1t tore Off his clothes
and pulled Off his boots. 1t burned Off
his whiskers and bleached his eve
brows. lie was gathered up as a man
dead as a doornail but at the end OF
two hours he suddenly sat up. Sllas
was a little bewidered but still In the
ring.
There were half a dozen men in the
house when the champion came to him
self. They were expecting to hear him
drawlingly ask what had happened
when he jumped off the bed and began
driving them out. In five minutes
he had cleared the house of mourners.
Then, in spite of the fearful protests
Of his wife, he seized the ak and cut
more firewood than he had in six
years before. When he dropped the
ak at last it was to pick up hammer
and nails and begin patching up the
hog holes in the fence. Before night
he had weeded the garden and put
new hinge Oh the gate.
People came to ask Silas how he felt
when struck by the thunderbolt, and
he answered at the top Of his voice
and rolled out the words so fast that
he could hardly be understood. He
couldn't bear to be still minute.
That thunderbolt had changed Silas
White from a champion lazy man to
champion hustler. He uprooted trees,
pulled down fences and dug holes in
the garden. Inside week he had four
fights about politics and called every
man in the village a liar They couldn't
stop him from working and talking.
He got to pulling down the shade trees
along the street and to making speeches