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Show Once upon a time there was a gay and festive young rooster, whose owner kept him in a neat little coop in the rear of a certain boarding house. This rooster was a musical one, in fact he was a singer. In the early dawn of day, when the lodgers in the boardinghouse before alluded to were peacefully sleeping at the rate of forty knots an hour, this musical rooster would open his mouth and sing his doleful song of praise to the god of day. This conduct on the part of the aforesaid rooster was very annoying to the boarders in the boardinghouse before mentioned, and a secret session was held to plot against the life of the rooster mentioned above. When the council of war had concluded, one of the boarders said unto the dining room girl "Go thou unto the coop of this troublesome bird, whose surname is rooster and seek his life." "But," quoth the dining room maiden, "I fear that the owner of the bird may detect me, and then I fear the consequences." "Go," replied the boarder, and I will stand between thee and all harm." "What shall be my compensation for this deed?" adroitly remarked the dining room girl. "Whatever is right that will I pay," saith the boarder, and straightway he left the maiden. Then in the lone hour of night, when all was still, and the rooster was peacefully dozing upon his humble perch, waiting for the dawn to come when he should again peal forth his clarion notes upon the trembling air of morning, the maiden might have been seen emerging from the rear door of the boarding house in question, and straightway hied to the rooster's domicile. Stealthily she approached on feathery feet, and softly opened the front door of the bird's home. Reaching in her daintly arm, she grasped the rooster by the last chapter, with her left hand, and with her right hand encircled his neck very lovingly. There was a short gasp, and a few hoarse sounds went floating out upon the air of night to lose themselves amid the ethereal spheres. The maid returned softly to the house. The next morning there were no sounds from the rooster's throat to break the slumber of the sleepers. The boarders feasted on chicken pie at dinner time, and no man knoweth to this day what really became of the musical rooster. Dubuque Telegraph. |