Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1920-11-18

full child, and his father permitted him
to carry safety matches. A safety
match is one that you cannot light ex-
cept on a certain little box. Brother
had such a box, with matches in It.
But even so, 1t was dangerous for him
to have it. Children should never have
matches.
But Brother lighted a match and at
once saw an old lantern hanging on q
nail. He lighted this lantern and then
looked around
1t was a queer place. Once upon a
time it had been a little church, but
now it was half full of hay. You see,
almost all the people who had lived
near there had moved out West, so
that there was nobody left to go to
church. A farmer had bought the little
church and was using 1t for barn.
The pulpit was there, with two little
flights Of stairs leading up to it from
either side. But the pews were all
covered up with hay.
The children took the lantern and
started to explore the place. Sud-
denly Sister gave a scream.
"Oh. what is that?"
Brother looked and he saw some
thing CLEAN, like a wild animals eye.
"Oh, it's a monster" said Sister.
''DO you think it's a tiger?" And Sis
ter chung very tight to Brothers arm,
and trembled all over. And Aristotle
began to grOwl.
FUhnu pvOfhov 13REo1 .AH,o I,AAov,, -
as high as he could, and they both
strained their eyes to see what the
cleaning spot was. Just then there
came a long, loud sound, like this,
''MOoOOOw 1t was COW.
Brother began to laugh. He ran
forward with the lantern, and there
was One-eyed Cow gazing reproach-
fully at the light as if to say, "If you
please, 1 should like to know why l
am walked up so early after supperP'
Still, the COW looked rather glad to
see them, and licked Brothers hand
with her rough tongue.
Now the children looked around till
they found the old stove. 1t was long,
low stove, and on top of it was tin
pail that had some bran in 1t. The
farmer had used the stove to heat
some food for the COW. There was no
hay near the stove, and the stOvepipe
was good, and there was a pile Of
short wood So Brother thought he
would make a fire.
He did so, and then he said, 1--WE
will stay here all night, Sister"
'That will be fun" said Sister.
"Only I'm very hungry"
''Well, we have a whole basketful
of things to eat. Grandma has two
more roast chickens. She said she
might need them. We will take one
Of those to Mrs. Moriarty in the morn
ing"
So the children opened the basket
and took out the things and spread
them-where do you think ?-On the
old platform beside the pulpit, after
Sister had brushed it off. And Brother
took out his jack knife and carved the
chicken. Brother never lost his jack
knife. He was a very unusual boy.
never knew another like him.
TAT this point in his story Uncle
Tan paused moment to light his pipe,
and Jane said, 81 think Brother Is
something like fairy boy, because hs
carries matches and never loses his
knife" "Well," said Uncle Tan, "Im
surprised that you've found it out so
soon. But he was almost a fairy boy,
and Sister was almost a fairy girl."1
Then the children ate supper. But
first Brother found some water to
drink, for there was pail of it in the
entry. They had 40 cup, but they
used the saucer that was over the
fOur-inch pat of butter.
They ate most of the chicken, and
some bread and butter, and celery.
and doughnuts, and two very large
pieces of mincepie, much larger than
Grandma would have given them. You
would think they could not have eaten
any more, but after they had had q
drink they opened the jelly tumbler
and finished off with bread and jelly.
Then they cleaned up the dishes.
But forgot to say that Aristotle was
one reason why they ate so much.
That is, Aristotle ate a good Ceal him
self. He had half the breast of the
chicken. Sister would have given him
the drumsticks instead, but Brother
said that little bones we're bad for
dogs. So the children ate the drum
sticks They liked them because they
tasted just a little like chicken jelly.
Aristotle ate two doughnuts, but no
celery. Then these lost children ard
their lost dog curled up in the hay
and went to sleep. In the morning
Aristotle barked and the children
awoke. An old man was standing
there, looking at them and laughing.
He took them home in his wagon,
and on the way back he carried an-
other basket to Mrs. Moriarty.
The children's grandparents were
much worried about them, but not so
much as you would think. For the
children had often got lost and had
always come home safely. They were
very unusual children. There is moth
ing worse for children, generally
Fhov RO cot Loot