The Connecticut labor news., 1921-04-22
A Ball of Yarn
 It's Unwindm8 By ROBERT RUDD WHITING
THE SkEIN UNRAVELlNG.
The Brcath-BOuud THldge.


 the Mansion House, as he mopped his brow. Tt IS hot" admitted MT. Leary "Why if 1t was any hotter, them er flies would drown in their own perspiration.' v
 Il say 1t might be worse, 1t might be cold * Why, 1 remember when 1t was so everlastin' cold right here Ill Oxendale that there Warnt man, woman nor child i'll the whole derned village that Wer' able to find Wher' they lived fur more than six hours. An tWould hev been longer n that if 1t weren't fer Jedge PoOr's house bein' destroyed through fortunate piece of Carelessness on his part"
 And the Sage of Oxendale then un- folded:
 THE Y.ARN OF THE BRE,4TH-
 VILL.4GE
 "'Twus about nine o'clock in tn mornin' when 1 started down toward tn postotfice, an say, 1nebbe 1t warn't cold !! Why, ye could see yer breath so durn plain thet-wal, I'll tell ye jest how durn plain ye could see yer breath
 About half way down tn hill l seed Si Draper conin' outer his gate He was puftin' out big clouds of cold breath, too.
 'Mornin' Sir, says I.
 "Mornin yerself,' says Si. Hold yer breath a minute sos l kin see who ye be- Oh, its you, Eb, is it? 1 thought so from tn sound of yer voice. PheW but it's cold! ]!
 Say thet there 'phew ! of Sis gave rise to a cold-breath cloud thet fur ten minutes completely surrounded us.
 Jest as 1t Wus Clearin' away we saw another cloud conin' right fur us, an a-fOre we had time t dodge, we bumped plum inter old Jedge Poor an sent him spraWlin'.
 Il knew it were tn jedge from tn words he gave utterance to at tn time of tn bump.
 Wal, sir, Jedge Poor was so winded from his fall, an spluttered an panted so, thet a-fore we'd finished explainin' to him how it all happened, we wus all three a-shiverin i'll tn midst of an inn penetrable cold-breath fog.
 It wus so thick thet y couldn't see yer hand in front of yer face, even when ye held it there.
 We groped around quite a spell a fore we finally found each other. Then we grabbed hold of hands an decided t stick t'gether till things cleared up some,
 "'Now then, all t'gether,' commanded Si Hold yer breaths!
 We all held.
 "Bue jest as tn air began t thin out mite, tn jedge, whose face had been gettin' redder n redder, couldn't hold in no longer, an exploded with breath thet clouded us in denesr 'en ever.
 We tried 1t again an again, but 'twarn't no use. Tn jedge always ex- ploded jest at tn critical moment when we were beginnin' t see our way out, an every time he did, tn fog closed in thicker n before.
 So we quit thet plan an decided t try an get sOmeWheres. We grabbed hold of coat-tails an started in t feel our way as best we could.
 But arter we'd been crawlin along fur about Is minutes we found we'd been doin' nothin' but goin' round in circles an hadn't got noWheres. Whats more, we Wuz all pantin' so hard from tn eXertlOn an excitement thet our breath clouds thickened tn fog almost t suffi- cation.
 Say, you've never been lost in yer own breath right i'll yer native town, shiverin' almost t death, but feared t move fur fear of gettin' more lost have ye? Wal, then, ye can't comprehend tn awful despair an helplessness of it. Words can't express it.
 Eur few minutes we Jest stood there
 
 thing.
 linen, as if by one impulse, we all threw back our heads an shouted at tn top of our lungs:
 Help! Help! Help! Help!
 Gosh all hemlock! how we must we hollered! Leastwise every man, woman an child in Oxendale, 1876 souls in cludin' Ovid Phelps who ain't got any soul accordin' t tn parson, came rushin' outer their houses t see what wuz tn trouble with who.
 AS fast as they'd come, why, of course, they'd get lost in their breaths, too. TWarn't long a-fOre tn whole population Wuz runnin round like chick ems with their heads off, bulnpin' inter each other, an a-sWearin' out more fog at every bump. 'TWus awful.
 "Goodness only knows what would we happened if it hadn't been fur thet care lessness on tn part of Jedge Poor.
 ''Ge see when he kem out he left tn candle burnin' on tn cupboard right next t tn matches. When tn candle burned down, tn matches started up, an pretty soon tn whole durn house~w a-hre from top t bottom. Tt hadn't been burnin' mord'n an hour afOre tn air begun t thaw, an by tn time tn roof fell in, tn fog had lltllcQ dWdE so 5 we COulQ all see where we l1vcd
 "'l he whole town immediately stopped their cussin an broke out i'll one mighty cheer.
 "Course 'twus kinder hard on tn jedge, losin' his house thct way, but we all chippcd in an built him better one
 Not thet tn fire weren't all his own fault, mind yc, ut-wal, if his house hadn't burned down we'd a-probably spent all tn rest of thet winter gropin- around in cold-breath fog tryin' f find OW houses.
 "Why, that must have been the win ter that the druggists cows all gave cold cream suggested the landlord with an l ill-concea'e ed wink at the cigar drummer. Mr. Abbott glared at him hercely
 "'All joking aside, though, unused l Ezra Norton, it certainly was an un- | usually cold winter"
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