The Normal Record. February 1902

              THE NORMAL RECORD.
suaded Arthur to stay with him that night,
so we four women were left alone at the
house. However, we did not feel afraid as
we had often been left alone before. The
boys wou'd not have been much protection
anyway for Dick was, I think, the most cowardly boy of his age that I knew, which fact
probably accounted for his wishing Arthur
to stay at the cabin.
We spent the evening playing authors,'
checkers, and other games. About nine
o'clock the boys bade us good night and
went down to the cabin. As we were all
rather tired we retired soon after and. in a
very short time, were soon in a deep slumber.
The next thing ] remember is being shaken
by Lucy who was sitting up in bed and entreating me to wake up. I am a very sound
sleeper and it was some seconds before I was
wholly aroused. When I was fairly awake,
and saw that both Mrs. Ferris and Mary
were in the room, I sprang to my feet and
wanted to know what was the trouble. They
told me that Mary had heard some one trying
to get in the front window and they thought
it must be a burglar. Just then we heard a
strange noise down stairs as if somebody
were ripping open a screen.
•'What in the world shall we do?" said
Lucy.
"Well, we will just have to go and see
what it is," said her mother.
So we started, but just as we got to the
stairs there came that sound again, rip! rip!
rip!   Back we went to the bedroom.
"We must do something," said Mrs. Ferris.
"Let us go down to the cabin and get the
boys. '
There seemed to be nothing else to do, so
fearfully, and as silently as possible we started down theback stairs which led to the kitchen. I had snatched a broom as we went
through the hall and when we got to the
kitchen Lucy picked up another, Mary took
the long poker and Mrs. Ferris seized a stick
from the wood-box.
Thus fully armed we started for the cabin.
To add to our terror, the two dogs, probably
aroused as we passed their kennel, started
after us and barked so loudly that the boys
were awake before we got to the cabin. They
were astonished to see us and as soon as we
could get our breath to tell them the trouble,
they started to get ready to go to the house.
Arthur took a rifle which was in the cabin,
while Dick took a stick. Poor little Dick was
shivering with fright and did not care much
about going to the house, but neither would
he stay at the cabin alone, so putting on a
brave front he went with the rest of us.
In a few moments we were at the house
again and creeping silently around to the
front. We all expected to see a burglar in
the act of climbing through the window, if he
were not already in the house, robbing us of
all our valuables. However when we came
in sight of the sitting room windows, there
was no sign of a burglar; the screens were
all whole, and nothing seemed to have been
disturbed. But we could hear a faint sound
inside the house, and creeping in the back
door we made our way to the front.
The peculiar noise become more distinct
and seemed to issue from the sitting room.
The door of this room was . closed and it was
some moments before anyone could get up
enough courage to open it. We all stood in
readiness with our rifle, poker, and sticks,
while Mrs. Ferris opened the door. There
was a loud scream, and out rushed the burglar, none other than a big black cat. At first
we could not see the cat very well and only
saw some dark object rush from the room.
Such a jumping and yelling as there was.
The cat continued to run up and down the
hall, and after we had gotten over our surprise, Arthur let it out the front door. We
looked into the room to make sure there was
nobody there, and then as there seemed to be
nothing  else  to do,  we burst into laughter.
The strange noise that we heard must have
been caufed by the cat scratching against
the door in her efforts to get out. We all
went back to bed, and now that the fright
was over, I fell into a slumber, which, however, was somewhat troubled by visious of
burglars, cats, broomsticks and pokers.
A jolly young chemistry tough,
While mixing a compound of stuff,
Drodped a match in the vial and after a while
They found his front teeth and one cuff.—Ex.