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Show Tho Specter Client. An undertaker in Madrid, who lived over his sbop, one night gave a grand ball. At the height of the festivities n 1 gentleman in full evening dress joined i the company, lie danced with the hostess host-ess and her daughter; he danced with , the guests. lie seemed to enjoy himself j thoroughly. The undertaker thought ; he recognized tho face, but didn't like to be rude and ask the stranger's name. By and by all tbo guests departed and only tho unknown was left. "Shall I send for a cab for you?" Baid ' tho host at last. I "No, thank you; I'm staying in the house." i "Staying in tho house! Who axe you, ' sir?" "Why, don't you know me? I'm the corpse that was brought in this afternoon." after-noon." The undertaker in horror rushed to the mortuary chamber, where in Spain it is usual for the dead to be removed. Tho cotlin was empty. Ilis wife and daughter had been dancing with a corpse! But it turned out that the gentleman had only been in a trance and bad suddenly sud-denly recovered. Hearing the revelry above, and being possessed of a keen though ghastly sense of humor, he had got out of his coffin and joined tho festive fes-tive party. Ho was presentable, for in Spain tho dead are generally buried in full evening dresB. New York Herald. Cassowary Fishing. The habits of the cormorant and of our native fish hawk are generally known. Their methods of taking fish aro very much like those of birds of prey. But tho cassowary fishes according accord-ing to a method of its own. Mr. Powell witnessed its operations on a river in the island of New Britain: I 6av a cassowary come down to the water's edge, and stand for some minutes apparently watching tho water carefully. It then stepped into the river where it was about three feet deep, and, partially squatting down, spread its wings out, submerging them, the feathers being spread and rullled. The bird remained perfectly motionless, motion-less, and kept its eyes closed, aa if in sleep. It remained in this position for fully a quarter of an hour, when, suddenly sud-denly closing its wings and straightening its feathers, it stepped out on tho bank. Here it shook itself several times, whereupon where-upon a quantity of small fishes fell out of its wings, and from amidst its feathers, feath-ers, which the bird im mediately picked up nnd swallowed. The fishes had evidently mistaken the feathers for a kind of weed that grows in the water along the banks of the rivers in this island, and which very much resembles re-sembles the feathers of the cassowary. The smaller fishes hide in these weeds to avoid the larger ones that prey on them. Youth's Companion. |
