Mr Coville's Complicated Misfortunes.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 212, 2 December 1873, Page 7

Mr Coville's Complicated Misfortunes.

(From the Daiibury News.) There are men who dispute what they do not understand. Mr Colville is such a man. When he heard a carpenter say that there were so many shingles oir the roof of his house because the roof contained so many square feet, Coville doubted the figures, and when the carpenter went away he determined to test the matter by going on the roof and counting them. He went up there. He squeezed through the scuttle—Coville weighs 2311113.—and then sat down on the roof and worked his way carefully and deliberately toward the gutter. When he got part way down, he heard a sound between him and the shingles, and became.aware that there was. an interference some way in his further locomotion. He tried to turn over and crawl back, but the obstruction held him. Then he tried to {novo along a little, in hopes that the trouble would prove but temporary, but an increased sound convinced him that either a nail or a silver had hold of his cloth, and that'if he woidd save any he must use caution. His folks were in the house, but he could not make them hear, and besides he did* not want to attract.the attention of the neighbours. So he sat there until after dark and thought;' . v , ..;,'<"!. It would have been an excellent opportunity to have counted the shingles, but he noelected to uae it. lll:i mind appeared to run

into other channels. He sat there an hour after dark, seeing no one he could notify of his position. Then he saw two boys approach the gate from the house, and reaching there, stop. It was light enough for him to see that one of the tvyo was his son, and although he objected t6 haW'the other boy know of his misfortune, he had grown tired of holding on, ; tq the roof, and, ; coneluded he cou|d bribe the strange boy into silence. ',. \ •. , With this arrangement mapped- lie 'took out his knife and threw it so that it would strike near the boys and attract their atteiition»- •'lt-struck nearer than he- anticipated. In fact it struck so close as to hit the strange boy on the head and nearly brain him. As soon, as he recovered . his equilibrium he turned on Coville's boy, who, he was confident, had attempted to kill him, and introduced some astonishment and bruises in his face. Then he threw him down and kicked him in the side and banged him,on the head, and threw him over into the gutter' and pounded his legs, and then hauled him back to the walk again and knocked his head against the gate. And all the while the elder Coville sat on the roof and cried " Police," but couldn't get away. And then Mrs Coville dashed out with a broom, and contributed a few novel features to the affair at the gate, and one of the boarders dashed out with a double-bar-relled gun, and hearing the cries from the roof looked up there, and espying a figure which was undoubtedly a burglar, drove a handful of shot into his leg. With a howl of agony Coville made a plunge to dodge the missiles, freed himself from the nail, lost his hold on the roof, and went sailing down the roof with awful velocity, both legs spread out, his hair on end, and his hands making a desperate but fruitless effort to save himself. He tried to swear, but was so frighted that he lost his power of speech, and when he passed over the edge of the roof, with twenty feet of tin-gutter hitched to him, the boarder gave him the contents of the second.barrel, and then drove into the house, to load up again. The unfortunate Coville struck into a cherry-tree, and thence bounded to the ground, Avhere he was recognised, picked up by the assembled neighbours, and carried into the house. A new doctor is making good day wages picking the shot out of his legs. The boarder, has gone into the country to spend the summer, and the junior Coville, haying sequestered a piece of brick in his handkerchief, is laying low for that other boy. He says that before the calm of another Sabbath rests on New England there will be another boy in D.-„nbiuy who can't wear a cap.