Hooked.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 260, 22 September 1874, Page 7

Hooked.

We hare a gravel roof on our house, and the other day some workmen were up there fixing it. They had a block and tackle rigged on the edge of the roof, with a rope reaching to the ground, for the purpose of hoisting the tar and gravel. Our girl was out washing in the yard at the time, and somehow, the hook on the end of the rope caught in her loopskirt as she walked past it; The man on the roof was discussing the Darwinian theory, or the tax on rum, or something else at that moment, and seeing the rope shake, he considered it was .the signal to pull up ; so, without looking over the edge, he began to wind the crank with velocity. A moment later the next door neighbours heard fearful screams, and as they rushed to the windows they perceived an athletic exile of Erin swiftly ascending to the blue, ethereal heavens.. The man at the crank fairly ached to look over and see what the noise Was about, but he couldn’t stop, he thought, until he got the bucket up to the top. But he put on more vehemence, and in a moment he was amazed to see a human head, adorned with red hair, looming above the gutter spout. His first impulse Avas to let go the crank and run. But overcoming the earlier shock of fright, he held on to the crank with one hand, while with the other he seized a handful of the warm hair, and hauled the owner on the roof. We live in one of a row of houses which are all joined together, and they do say the impetuosity with which that girl of ours charged upon that man who mussed her Mir, and chased him over the roofs clear up to the corner. Where he saved himself by crawling down a chimney-flue, Avas at once impressive and exhilarating. She stood over that chimney expressing her views concerning the man’s present character and future prospects until she was exhausted, when she walked home to our roof, descended, and went to bed. And Avheu the man emerged, and brushed the soot off him, he confided to his friend, while distributing the gravel, that he would rather dive at once into the bowels of a burning volcano than to meet that hired girl again in a place where there was no chance to run.—American paper.