Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1876 — Finding the Door Key. [ARTICLE]

Finding the Door Key.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Poaoaby, while busy in his office, was surprised by the entrance of Mr*. Posonby, who came in to say that she was going to take tea with Mrs. Bildcrback and would not be home until nine o’clock, but she would leave the key under the mat at the front door, so that he could let himself in when he went home, and he had better get his supper down town. Their son, Herbert, would accompany her. Now, it bo chanced that while Mrs. Posonby was thus explaining matters to her husband, her hopeful son was making desperate efforts, assisted by all the dogs he could whistle up from the entire neighborhood, to get at a rat he had seen run under the front porch. Master Posonby punched with a long pole and scrapt-d and dng with a hoc, and the nine dogs deployed at irregular intervals around the porch and along the verbena bed, scratched with mightand main, yelping hysterically as they scratched, and pausing from their labors now and then to fight over the question which had dug the deepest hole, to the immeasurable delight of Master Posonby. But ns the sun went down and the soft light of sunlight faded into the misty gloaming, he remembered that he had been told to lock up and join his maut her friends. He put the key under the door mat, and then, with his heart still set on capturing that rat, he brought around an old steel-trap, wicked as dynamite; and, having baited it liberally, set it and placed it on the porch for the benefit of the rat dismissed his allies, and stoned them in different directions lest they should go back to resume the siege and fall into his torpedo pit.

Mr. Posonby did not come home until quite late, not until his wife and son had returned and retired, tired of waiting for him. As the house was quite dark and quiet when he approached !t„he naturally supposed his spouse had been detained later than she expected. He felt under tbe door mat for the key, but as that useful little “ open sesame” was in the lock on the inside of the door, he couldn’t find it. He felt further under the mat, and then thinking he might have pushed it away, began to feel around the porch tor it, sweeping his hand out in circling swoops, accompanying these erratic movements with sundry exclamations and mutlerings. In one of those vigorous sweeps he thrust liis hand into something that tiffed him to his feet A terrible, cold, vicious something that shut down on his hand like a wild beast and just raised him up until duly his tip toes touched the porch floor. The wall that broke from liis pallid lips silenced all the dogs in the Sixth Ward, and woke up a private night watchman who was pacing his vigilant beat on top of a salt barrel just around the comer with his eyes shut. It wakened his son, who thrust his head out of the window and shouted “ fire” in the most stentorian tones that a youth of eleven years can command. It roused his wife from her peaceful slumbers, who thrust her head out ot another window and screamed “thieves,” with all the full piercing vigor of her womanly voice. It wakened his neighbors in both directions, who leaned out of their windows and shot at the suffering Mr. Posonby, who stood on the porch, dancing about irsap ecstasy of agony, howling at every jump. In a moment he became calm enough to investigate ; he removed the trap, explained, and was admitted to the house. • He explained to Mrs. Posonby, as she bandaged his wounded hand, that he thought sure it was “snakes,” and when that gcod lady ridiculed the idea, and said there were no snakes about there, he shook his head wearily, and looked at her out of the corners of his eyes with,a sweet, sad smile. —Burlington Hawk Eye.