The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-06

/ well. it will turn out as all the rest
| of your notions do sighed Mrs. Bow
| ser as a wagon load of lumber drove
| up, and she realized that it was no use
| to keep up the argument.
Half an hour later Mr.. Bowser was at
work. Yes. he had seen pergolas sure
| enough, but this was to be a Bowser
| pergola He would set a new pace and
| give the world some new ideas He
| had hardly begun work than the neigh
| bors were asking each other:
rs it to be a morgue?"
| ''Is it an ice house?''
rs he going to keep dogs?''
| why don't his wife interfere?"
The pergola builder heard, but was
undisturbed. The curious would learn
| in time what he was doing. Mrs. Bow
ser lowered around the open kitchen
door, trying to get line on the new
structure, and she also heard what was
being said and finally asked:
How much cash will buy you OFF,
What do you mean?"
Il think mother would lend me 500
and I will get it for you if you will
| agree to give up your pergola scheme"
Woman. have you come out here to
| insult me?'' he sternly demanded.
"Of course not, but you see
"I see you hiking into the house TO
attend to your own business, while
attend t. minei''
Before noon the foundations of the
pergola were laid, and when Mr.. Bow
ser went into lunch he knew that he
mad struck something unique in the
building line. So did his neishbors
They didn't exactly roost on the fence
in their endeavors to see what was go
ing on, but there were many heads in
many open windows, and the comments
were numerous and pungent When Al
| last some woman suggested a. pergoIa
there was a chorus of:
| That's what it is to be. and hem
| hold c1reuses in it and be the clown
hin1SeIf!' -
At the lunch table Mrs Bowser made
another effort to turn Mr.. Bowser from
his carpenter work. - oiii
Mother might lend me two hundred
suggested Mrs Bowser, with her ewes on
her plate
You will still go ahead?'
Il will I'll finish that pergoIa If +,
takes me hundred yearsi I have never
let up on pergola yet. and never Will
1t was finished at o'clock in the after
noon, and Mr. Bowser laid down his fooIs
and squinted at it from IL different angles
From whatever angle it presented some
thing unique.
1t was square.
1t was Oblong.
1t was right-angle.
1t was a 1eft-angle.
1t was such a pergola as no other man
on earth had thought Of
During the dinner hour no mention was
made of Mr. Bowser's work. Mrs. Bowser
cred a monstrosity, and Mr.. Bowser.s
pride was at stake. After the meal he did
not go out and sit down and smoke 1t
was too cold. He took a little walk on
the street, and was thinking of how
mean Mrs. Bowser could make herself
when she tried hard, when boy came
running up to him to exclaim:
IF you are Mr.. Bowser your wife wants
you quick.s'
When the pergola-bufIder arrived at his
front door there was calm. quiet woman
awaiting him. and in response to his in
quiry she led him down the hall to look
out
What he saw was 300 cats. more or less
They filled the pergola and swarmed
over it,
They yowled and spat and clawed and
fought.
A pergola had been built for them, and
they were making themselves at home.
At midnight a figure stole forth from
the house and whacked and pounded and
scattered until the last feline was out
of the yard, and then softly-oh, so softly
1T proceeded to tear that pergola limb
from limb and dump the lumber in the
alley. Mr.. Bowser was through with the
Copyrighted, 1912, by Associated
Literary Press.)