In Haste

Thomas McWirter, of San Antonio, owned a goat. One evening Mr. McWirter was out in the yard feeding nis cow. He had taken off his coat and laid it on the fence. In the pocket of his coat, he supposed, was a morocco pocketbook containing government bonds to the value of $2,000. When he attended to the wants of the cow, and turned to get liis coat, he iound the garment lying in the mud. The ffoat had nulled it off the fenca and now stood balancing himself on the roof of the chicken-coop. As he came within the range of Mr. McWirter's visión, and of a rock that the old man threw at him, he was in the act of masticating what seemed to be the remnants of a red morocco pocketbook, Mr. McWirter concluded at once that it was his pocketbook, and that it contained his $2.000. As the awf ui and disastrous character of the misfortune dawned upon Mr. McWirter and he fully realized that his $2,000 were flled away in the digestive machinery of a $4 goat, he gave vent to hls f eelings in a yell that sounded like the wail of a pair oL bag-pipes leading a funeral procession. With dismav in everv feature and a three-tined h y fork in his band. he gave a bound and went at f uil speed for the goat. The goat decided not to wait for him, but ran down the streefc, the irascible oíd man, coatless and hatless, in f uil cry in his wake. Aa the two came tearing along, the goat bleating a desisive deflance and Mr. MeWirter waving the hayfork and calling on the passers by to "head off that $2,000 bond," pedestrians crawled upon the fence, and hackdrivers drove into alleys until the procession passed. Over shrubbery in front gardens, and out tnrough yard gates, the two kept on in their mad career, until at last the goat was corraled in a stable. A butchfir was sent for, and, under structions from Mr. McWirter, killed the goat, luside wa3 found an assortment of clothes pins, manilla paper and hay, but there was no trace of the United States bond3. McWirter tried to speak emphatically, but emotion choked his utterance. He directed the butcher to give the remains of the goat to the poor, and went home in a hack, to üaá the pocketbook and the bonds ia the popket of another