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PDF---+ | | | Geo. B. BOWLEND, | | | | Draughtsman & Designer | | | | No. 160 Fulton Street, | | | | Room No. 11, New York. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by the punchinello publishing company, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.
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THE MYSTERY OF MR. E. DROOD:
An adaptation.
By Orpheus C. Kerr.
CHAPTER XVI.
AVUNCULAR DEVOTIO
Having literally fallen asleep from his chair to the rug, J. Bumstead, Esquire, was found to have reached such an extraordinary depth in slumber, that Mr. and Mrs. Smythe, his landlord and landlady, who were promptly called in by Mr. Dibble, had at first some fear that they should never be able to drag him out again. In pursuance, however, of a mode of treatment commended to their judgment, by frequent previous practice with the same patient, the good couple poured a pitcher of water over his fallen head; hauled him smartly up and down the room, first by a hand and then by a foot; singed his whiskers with a hot poker, held him head-downward for a time, and tried various other approved allopathic remedies. Seeing that he still slept profoundly, though appearing, by occasional movements of his arms, to entertain certain passing dreams of single combats, the quick womanly wit of Mrs. Smythe finally hit upon the homoeopathic expedient of softly shaking his familiar antique flask at his right ear. Scarcely had the soft, liquid sound therefrom resulting been addressed for a minute to the auricular orifice, when a singularly pleasing smile wreathed the countenance of the Ritualistic organist, his eyelids flew up like the spring-covers of two valuable hunting-case watches, and he suddenly arose to a sitting position upon the rug and began feeling around for the bed-clothes.
