The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-11
EDcning Story
Nicodernus the Bad.
by ROSE MEREDITH.

BY ROSE MEhEDlId.
81 WISH" said Lolita, coolly." that
you would kindly return my white
rooster"
An indignant face. very red. topped
with battered straw hat, came up on
the other side of the high hedge.
What white rooster" he inquired
Lolita waved a sunburned hand
toward the next-door chicken house.
Hes standing on the roof nowhere.
he has crowed!" as a thin reedy
squawk split the Sabbath stiffness
'Ah-true enough, the beast doesn't
belong here at all-how did it get in
side ?"
81 don't know" said Lolita patiently.
him up"
That's fine" returned Dick Paine.
cheerfuliy grinning at her; He's a
fearful pest, you know"
Hes a DEAR" retorted Lolita. who
had petted Nicodemus. the white cock
eral from the very day its heartless
mother had repudiated it.
Too dear to mel" gritted Mr.. Paine.
He's scratched up all our flower beds
after We sold our own chickens so
as to have some flowers" He had
lifted the protesting Nicodemus from
the empty chicken house and handed
the bird across the hedge to Lolita,
who rewarded him with a sweet, mali
cious smile.
you are growing very Grabbed and
nagging, Dicky. You are going to be
q most disagreeable old man."
Dicky glowered at his late fiancee
Possibly may not live to be an old
man." he said stiffly
Lolita smiled 81 will come and
Mr.. Paine"
THAT will be a privilege reserved
for my widow he tossed over his
shoulder as he stalked away across the
lawn.
His widow,
Lolita had not thought of that pos
sibility. To leave widow Dicky must
first maryland for him to marry
and bring wife home to the darling
house next door where they had
planned to live-it was an intolerable
thought! Nicodemus. the misera BILE
white cockerel. had been the cause of
all the trouble. He, the wanderfoot
of the chicken tribe, would never stay
inside the chicken runs. His wings
had both been clipped, but whenever
he chose he sailed triumphantly over
the ten-foot wire fence and lodged
under the hedge into Dickys yard.
He always went there as soon as
Dieky had planted any very choice
flowers or seeds or bulbs. Nicodemus
was there at the feast. No one had
ever seen him catch worm or a bug
or do anything useful-he was greedy
and bad hammered, and Lolita liked
him because everybody else loathed
him, and if any one had told her that
little white cockerel would wreck
her life's happiness she would not
have believed it.
But NicodeEnus the Bad had accom-
plished it!
Lolita thought of all these things
and gave the white cockerel a vicious
little ShakR -. EInUu he Il IL
the cockerel manage to fly so high :?
He must have had an eagle for an
ancestor she thought dolefully, or else
he had motor inside of him like an
aeroplane. She opened the door of
the chicken run, found an empty coop
and locked Nicodemus in durance vile.
There" she sighed You have
made trouble enough in the last four
weeks"
you mad at Nicodemus?" asked
her little brother Tom.
HE is so wild, Tommy" evaded
Lolita
''Give him to me- begged Tom.
He would be as much of a pest
as ever-but you can have him, dear,
only don't let him fly over into Mr..
Paine's garden. That's a dear"
"Mr. Paine? You mean Dicky ?"
Tom was round-eyed.
"Of course" said Lolita shortly as
she went into the house and Tom saw
that she had been crying. IT'S that
old Nicodemus bird" said the little
boy. Hes made a lot of trouble and
he oughter be sackerficed-like those
people cook told me about. 1 think
I'll talk to cook some more about it."
Cook, who had watched the love
idyl of Lolita Ames and Dick Paine.
only to see it shattered by a quarrel
| which began over Nicodemus, the bad
white cockerel, listened gravely to
Tommy's story. ''I'll help you out,
Master Tommy" she said, "only you