Judge — January 7, 1911 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HEN Mr. William B. a Smithers arrived in the thriving town of Pudenford, to take a position as book- {\ keeper in the large Ay dry-goods house of WS Jenkins & Co., he acquired enough worldly wisdom to realize that the mass of people accept a stranger for what he gives himself out to be. Now, there were certain facts in connection with his early life in Peter's Cove that he thought quite unnecessary to state. He had the misfortune to be what he himself would describe as an extraordinarily sensitive person. The children with whom he had played expressed their idea by dubbing him ‘‘Runaway Willie.”” When he grew older, the boys at school spoke of him always as “the rab- bit.” After he became a resident of Pudenford, when he indulged in any reminiscence of his early career, it was usually to relate some valiant exploit of one of the boys. The mere fact that he substituted the pronoun I for Tom, Ben, or Joe was so slight a deviation from the truth that it really didn’t matter. In the society of a small town the ad- dition of any unattached male is wel- comed and it was not long before Mr. Smithers was involved in most of the social ents. At one of these, a house party in one of the suburbs, fate gave him his chance. FOLLOWING A Hero in Spite of Himself. By M. E. HERRICK. It had been his practice for some years to sleep always with a loaded pistol un- der his pillow. He had never had the courage to fire it off, but it gave hima sense of security against the terrors of the darkness. The second night of his visit, just as he was getting accustomed to the place pened, he gathered courage to sit up in bed and for some minutes listened in- tently. Everything was quiet and he tried to compose himself to sleep; but the feeling that there might be some- thing in the hall impelled him, in spite of his fears, to assure himself that all was safe. He took his pistol and cau- A POMOLOGICAL PHENOMENON. “ Say, teacher, I thought you said potatoes grew underground !"* and less apprehensive of some unseen danger, he awoke in the small hours, faneying that he heard a noise in the hall, Obeying his first impulse, he pulled the bed clothes over his face and lay rigid, afraid even to tremble lest he be discovered. As nothing further hap- ORDERS. Mrs. O° Hanlon—" Shure, Pathrick, an' don't yez feel no betther be this toime ?"” Mr. O° Hanlon—"' Narry a bit, Honorah . Oi feel wurse, if annything."” Mrs. O° Hanlon—"* Yez don't mane it, Pathrick! Shure, an’ th’ docthor towld me t’ put hot applicashuns on yer chest every fifteen minits; an’ Oi bov did it so long now, thot th’ paint is beginnin’ t’ blisther an’ come aff.’’ tiously placed his finger on the trigger. He had read in all the books of adven- ture that that was the proper thing to do. Then he slowly and carefully opened his door, his pistol pointed in front of him. People who are always looking for burglars are very much surprised if at length they find one, and-*when Mr. Smithers, on coming out of his room, beheld the unexpected vision of a masked man with a bull’s-eye lantern advancing from the head of the stairs, words fail to describe his state of mind. His trembling arm dropped, but in the act his finger convulsively pressed the trigger, the pistol went off, and the shot struck the burglar in the leg. In a mo- ment every door was opened and the lights were turned on. The family and guests appeared just in time to see Smithers with his smoking pistol, and the burglar as he made his escape through the lower hall and out the front “door, leaving behind him a trail of blood on the gray stair carpet. Smithers stood still, shaking all over, his teeth rattling together like a loose window in a north wind. When, how- ever, he began to realize that every one was praising him for his bravery and quick-wittedness, he pulled himself to- gether and played the part, until he be- gan to think himself really a very bold man. “Say, old fellow, said one of his comicbooks.com