Evening star., 1913-03-09
AT the End Of the Rainbow.
TROUBLE ON HER MIND.
~ walt Mason.
~ walt HGason.

l You seem to have some trouble on
Iyour mind,' remarked Mrs. Wagstaff.
sympathetically.
Ibid you ever see me when L hadn't?"
inquired Mrs. Cumback. There are times
when 1 wish that I lived on a desert
island, like Robinson Crus0e or the Swiss
Family Robinson. 1 get SO disheartened.
The trouble between my husband and
Mr.. Crump is always breaking out In q
fresh place, and every time I hear the
doorbell ring I'm afraid the police have
come with the patrol wagon.
'The other day my husband and l
were standing by the kitchen window
looking out, when We saw Mr.. Crump
emerge from his barn. He was wiping
his mouth and seemed to have an
ecstatic expression on his face. Just
consider that loathsome individual said
my husband. He keeps a bottle of
stomach bitters in his barn, and every
once in a while, IL not oftener, he goes
out there and takes a dose. He's very
sly and secret about it.
The right kind of a man,. said my
husband, would keep his bottle of bitters
on the clock shelf, where the wife OF his
bosom could consult it when oppressed
by the heat and burden. OF the day.
have my faults, my DEAR. he went on
but 1 don't think selfshness is one Of
them. When I can afford bottle OF
hair restorer or other ihvigorating tonic
won't keep it In the barn. 1t will stand
on the piano, where my loved ones can
touch it up That man Crump must be
rebuked.'
the matter But Mr.. Cumback has q
stern sense of duty and Is always will
ing to make any personal sacrifices for
the general veal. That night he left
the house for ten or fifteen minutes and
came back looking cheerful and COM
Portable. as though a great load had been
lifted from his mind.
I'm the morning he got up early and
stationed himself by the kitchen win
dow, and presently. he called me there
and said. "Crump has just gone In for
his morning snifter of the life-gtving
bitters. Watch him when he comes
| out
well, I wish you could have seen that
man when he came out. Mrs: WagstaH.
declare he jumped ten feet high dozen
times, and every time he jumped he let
out yell that made all the windows In
the neighborhood rattle. Then he broke
a big icicle from the wOodshed and began
eating it, as IT, 1t were a carrot, ana all
the time he kept shaking his fist In the
direction Of our house
| when he was through eating ice he
came up to the fence near our mouse
and cried that he would have Mr.. cum
1 BACKS hearts DlOOQ 1OT the OulI dSC. A.o
accused Mr. Cumback Of having filled his
tonic bottle with chain lightning. MY
husband was quite cool and calm. He
opened the door and told Mr.. Crump
that nobody could sympathiZe with MIN
more than he did. But Mr. Crump snari-
| ed like a wildcat and threw a brick
| through our kitchen window and went
away.
| Later. when looked in the cupboard.
/ I noticed that our bottle of tabasco sauce
was gone, and It struck me all OF sud
den why my husband had left the house
/ the night before
There's a little wooden awning over
| our back door. or, rather. there was one.
It was held up by two wooden support
ers. The ice and snow had been accu-
mulating on 1t all winter, as the sun
never gets around there to melt 1t. The
next morning when my husband stepped
out Of the door he tripped on a rope that
I was stretched across the doorstep. He
was just beginning to swear In that nuent,
scholarly way Of his when there was a
great crash and a muffied groan.
| II ran to the door and found that the
/ awning had come down and Mr.. Cum
| back was buried under 1t. He was all
covered but his legs. and he was waving
them for help in the most pitiful way.
had to dig him out all alone, and tnat
fendish Crump stood by the fence laugh
| ing as though he had lost what little
| sense he originally had. There must
have been a ton of ice and snow on top
of Mr.. Cumback, and it was an aWfui
| lob getting him out, and then he had to
go to bed for two days.
| "Crump had sawed the awning sup
ports nearly through. and then fixed a
rope so that when 1t was touched the
| whole business would come down.
| s.If I have trouble on my mind, as you
say. there's plenty of reason Tor 1T.