The Minister's Charge. William Dean Howells

sober; and then I've followed him round here, wobblin' and corkscrewin' all over the sidewalk; and then I've seen him stiffen up in the office again, and go through his bath like a little man, and get into bed as drunk as a fish; and may be wake up in the night with the man with the poker after him, and make things hum. Well, sir, one night there was a drunk in here that thought the man with the poker was after him, and he just up and jumped out of this window behind you—three stories from the ground.”

      Lemuel could not help lifting himself in bed to look at it. “Did it kill him?” he asked. “Kill him? No! You can't kill a drunk. One night there was a drunk got loose, here, and he run downstairs into the wood-yard, and he got hold of an axe down there, and it took five men to get that axe away from that drunk. He was goin' for the snakes.”

      “The snakes,” repeated Lemuel. “Are there snakes in the wood-yard?”

      The other gave a laugh so loud that the attendant called out, “Less noise over there!”

      “I'll tell you about the snakes in the morning,” said the mate; and he turned his face away from Lemuel.

      The stories of the drunks had made Lemuel a little anxious; but he thought that attendant would keep a sharp lookout, so that there would not really be much danger. He was very drowsy from his bath, in spite of the hunger that tormented him, but he tried to keep awake and think what he should do after breakfast.