Page:Paine--J Archibauld McKaney collector of whiskers.djvu/192

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J. Archibald McKackney



double tragedy, could not abide the sight of whiskers.

"It's a long walk from Walpole, Mass., to Lemuel Wilkins Island in the Indian Ocean," solemnly concluded the monarch, "but those fatal whiskers of Captain Jedediah Stokes, bein' dead yet speaketh. And they are strong enough to shake the throne of King Wilkins I, and I'm not ashamed to confess it, sir."

May 25.—To-day I interviewed Miss Hulda Barnstable, and had my worst forebodings and surmises confirmed. I found her in the palm-thatched pavilion, in front of which she has placed a sign:


"DISTRICT SCHOOL No. I.
Cocoanut Township."


A class of brown cherubs was trying to sing "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" as I entered with a good deal of timidity. Their teacher, who was becomingly attired in a freshly laundered duck skirt and white shirt waist, requested me to wait in silence until the "first recess." Meekly obedient, I stole out-

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