I pulled my
head out of that there hole, and rammed my foot
into it. It banged against that grating and loosened
it. It busted loose some plaster, which showered
down into the room underneath. Miss Lucy, she
screamed. And the doctor and Colonel Tom both
yelled out to oncet:
"Who's that?"
"It's me," I yells, banging that grating agin.
"Watch out below there!" And the third lick I
give her she broke loose and clattered down right
onto a centre table and spilled over some pho-
tographs and a vase full of flowers, and bounced off
onto the floor.
"Look out below," I yells, "I'm coming down!"
I let my legs through first, and swung them so I
would land to one side of the table, and held by my
hands, and dropped. But struck the table a side-
ways swipe and turned it over, and fell onto the
floor. The doctor, he grabbed me by the collar and
straightened me up, and give me a shake and stood
me onto my feet.
"What do you mean--" he begins. But I
breaks in.
"Now then," I says to Colonel Tom, "did you
leave that there child sucking that there bottle on
the doorstep of a blacksmith's house next to his shop
at the edge of a little country town about twenty
miles northeast of Galesburg wrapped up in that
there plaid shawl?"
"I did," says Colonel Tom.
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