The Grinder Papers — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

ey eS ya Soe a A: .e Pe AT} ; _* 4 *¥ wma i” ~ . : [Py ‘ en vA, em A . aff ‘ ~ 2 . 4 ; . ' . if 4 Ae a s bi > 4 ~ * R , ' ' ' 7 eA : . . - : - . f . a > ; =. ee . aA ae - ‘ . . - - ‘ e4 4 . . THE GRINDER PAPERS, 83 straight as I could, and hardly breathed, though, for the life of me, I could not help leaving a place in the quilts to peek through. He was the boldest housebreaker I ever saw, I thought; for he took off his overcoat, and took a cigar from the pocket, and be- gan tosmoke. Then I knew it was all up with me, for smok- in’ always chokes me. Well, I was right; in five minutes I be- _ gan to cough. I hadn’t given two coughs; when he looked around. ‘‘Sing’ler,”” says he, and wentonsmokin’, In a minute more I barked agin, and says he: 3 ‘“By George, that's in my room,’ and he got up, and began to poke about. The minute he said ‘‘that’s in my room,” I began to guess what I had done. I'd gone in next door instead of tu Miss Pecksalter’s, and this here was the bachelor brother that was expected, as Miss Pecksalter told me, to leave all his property to the children. He was quite on in years, but very musical—I’d heard him singin’ often. Yes, that was him, and this was his room, and when I com- prehended it, I turned cold all over. I laid as flat as I could, but in a minute he spied me out. ‘There's somebody in the bed,” says he, . Then I was obligated to put my head out, and the only mis- ery there was in that awful dispensation was that I had on my best nightcap—Swiss muslin, with inserting in the border, and lace on the ends of the strings. | The minute he saw me he cried out: EOmicboo <S (E(0) Mm