The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-06-07
A SINGULAR
BIRD
BY EDWARD BATY
Copyright by American Press Asso
citation, 1911.

ness Anyway, | have. seem your
husban he's run away with my wife"
'Yo' mean, Mr.. Todler, tibet your
wife run away with my husban'"
Its just as bad one way as t'other
I'm goin' to shut my baby boy up and
never let him see gall said Mr.. Tod.
Ter
Il was thinkin o dom the same
with my baby gal"
we mought do it up hyar in these
mountingS and bring EN- clean M
without the boy seem a gal or the
gal boy"
ITS powerful lonesome Nobody
ever comes up hyar unless it's rev
enuc men loolsin' To- stills"
"Waa, mornin, Miss Barker"
Mornin', Mr.. Todler.
The homes Of these two persons were
far up in the highlands of east Ten.
nessee. They We're successful in keep.
ing their children from seeing one CT
the opposite sex till they were sixteen
years old Then the boy demanded a
gun. His father gave him one on con
dition that he never hunt off the in
closure. But one day the youngster
followed a bird from tree to tree till
he got on to Mrs. Bankers premises.
There, sitting under tree knitting, he
saw Miss Barker They looked at each
other lii establishment
"Oh, mother" called the girl come
here! There's the funniest thing you
ever saw"
But Mrs, Barker was not within
hearing.
You mean" said young TodSer, that
you are the funniest thing in the
world. Queer, isn't it! You can talk
just like man, only your voice Is
different"
you must be some kind OF a wom-
an"
"You must be some Kind Of man
II know; mother often told me that
there was q thing like Won that must
keep away from. She says they pol
son women's lives. She's always been
afraid I'd meet ono OF them"
Pops told me the same thing about
what he calls she man. He said
one of them wrecked his life"
Well" said the girl, II don't see
anything SO terrible about YOU"
''Nor | about you"
She approached him, put her hand
on his shoulder, drew II way quickly,
put it on his neck, took off his hat and
combed his hair with her fingers He
touched her cheek
care you going to bite meI" she
asked
"Not l. Have you got any poison
about your"
poison! No. Why do you ash
that?"
Pop says these she men are vipers
That means snakes. Most snakes are
poisonous"
Your pop must be horrid"
She palted his cheek with the palm
of her hand He put his arm around
her waist With the other hand he
pulled her chin around near his face.
Instinct told him to touch his lips to
hers
isn't that nicc?" he said
"Knd o nice"
ADO you wish me to do 1t agnln;"
81 don't care
He did il again and again Then he
noticed her hair done IN in knot at
the beck Of her head. Pulling at il.
he at last got the hairpins out. and
the oil fell on her shoulder.
"Ey e'jm!' he exclaimed what In
thunder do YOU let your hair grow
like That ror?"
why do you cut yours OFF,"
Following a natural inclination, these
two young things chung 10 each other
the boy winding his arms about the
girl and the girl about the boy.
"Tm thinking" said the girl
"About what?"
"MY nom has warned me against
your kind, and your pop has warned
you against my kind If we tell them
anything about this they'll tie MS both
up the way they do the dogs"
1--WE needn't tell"
suppose we don't"
They concluded that they were too
near the she-man's mother for safety
so they stroIIed away to safe dis
lance and remained together several
hours. When they separated the he
woman kissed her, which shows plain
ly that lovers kisses at meeting and
parting arc a matter Of instinct
When the girl went into tho house
and met her mother she said not
word about the queer creature she
had met. And this shows that Il prime
law OF nature with the sex is to get
the better Of each other. which enables
them To get the better OF their hus
bands Her mother asked her where
she had been so long. and She said she
had been out IN the woods listening to
A frog croaking in the creek A queer
sound came from II she had never
heard before.
When the boy went home his father
asked him If he had had any luck. lie
replied that he had seen a bird of
paradise, but II was SO beautiful he
hadn't the heert to kill It, His father
from an Observation-Disclosures
about lis boy that he had seen a girl
He asked what the bird looked like
Pretty near az big as Ia big ton