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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 25, 1916)
r= L ___. — _ j I was sleeping uneasily. First I dreamed that I was looking down from a great height and was dizzy. Then i was conscious of tossing about half awake in bed. Next I was wandering, but where I knew not. “Begone! What do you mean by coming here at this time?” The words and a sudden light flash ed iu my eyes awakened me. I was standing In my pajamas in the room of the sister of my chum. Allan Twom bly, whose guest I was. I had walked in my sleep before, but my somnambulistic adventures, from one of which I had barely escaped with my life, troubled me, and I was so sensitive about them that I kept them to myself. And here was the most unfortunate of all of them. Better that 1 had been awakened tilting over the peak of a roof high in the air than in this fash ion, which, unless understood, would cover me with disgrace. And, to make matters wmrse, instead of then and there giving the cause of my intrusion I slunk out of the room without a word. Returning to my chamber, I threw myself on my bod and moaned. This breach of hospitality, this apparently dishonorable act, must be revealed in the morning. I pictured myself dis missed from the house by Allan, bis friendly bearing toward me turned to anger. Ilis sister, Gwendolln, whose room I had entered in the middle of the night, I did not expect to meet. She would doubtless avoid me as she would a serpent. Give as an excuse that 1 was a som nambulist? Who would believe such a statement. Nor could I prove it. No one except myself knew that I had walked in my sleep. Once I had awak ened to find myself standing before a mirror crying. That was several years before this, when I was a boy. Again I had suddenly found myself at dawn sitting on a gutter, my legs dangling over, forty feet from the ground. 1 was near a dormer window and man aged to get back through it to my room. But neither of these exploits I had mentioned to any one. The only person I had cared to tell was my mother, and I feared that if she knew I was executing such acrobatic per formances it would worry her terribly. If there is one thing a young man is Ignorant of, it is a young woman. A good womnn is the last person in the world to charge a man with insulting her. If I had explained to Gwen why I entered her room she would have be lieved me. There was no danger of her telling how, hearing a sound, she had turned on an electric light and ex posed mo standing in the middle of the room. Had I been ten years older I would have kuown this, for there was no nobler girl living than Gwen Twom bly, and she would naturally have shrunk from punishing me and bring ing me and her brother into antago nism, to say nothing of the rest of the family. But as 1 lay tossing on my bed 1 pre sumed that the morning would bring disgrace for me. Should I leave be fore any of the family hud arisen or stand and take my medicine? Of the two courses I chose the Intter as more suited to my nature. Knowing that I was innocent of a guilty intention, I could bear the lashing in store for me, whereas if I slunk away like a cur I could never face any of the family again. When I went downstairs in the morning I knew not just wbe#e the blow would fall. The cheery “Good morning, old man!” of Allan stung me, for I knew that my episode of the night before had not yet been revealed to him. Then came a greeting from his father, his mother and the others. They had not yet been Informed that they were entertaining a villain un aweres. When we sat down at the table Gwen was not present. “Where's Gwen?" asked the father. “I think she has overslept.” replied her mother. Both the question nnd the reply were like sticking a knife between my ribs. It was evident that Gwen was going to let me get away without giving me a lashing, and if she intended to tell on me would not do so before I had gone. Thank heaven, this would spare me the scene I had anticipated. Be sides, tiiere was a hope that she would keep the secret, though it was not to be expected that I would dare enter the Twombly home again. Shortly before we rose from the breakfast table Gwen came in. “Good morning, papa. Good morn ing, mamma. Good morning, Mr. Wil liams. Good morning, Al.” Her good morning to Mr. Williams, who was and is myself, was as cheery and even more kindly than to any of the rest. Oh, that they could all be extin guislied that I might fall at her feet and worship her! One by one the others left the table, finally leaving me nnd Gwen alone. “Why have yon not slain me?” I asked. “Because you are perfectly innocent of wrong." “Why do you infer that?" “You started from sleep when 1 turned on the light." I told her how I had awakened be fore a mirror nnd later sitting on a gutter. Her look of terror at the lat ter revelation was a revelation to me. and when she saw that I had been made aware of her interest in me she blushed Length, about seventeen Inches. Facial disk not circular as in our oth er owls; plumage above, pale yellow; beneath, varying from silky white to pale bright tawny. Range: Resident in Mexico, in the southern United States, and north to New York, Ohio, Nebraska, and Cali fornia. Habits and eco-omic status: The barn owl, often called monkey-faced owl, is one of the most beneficial of the birds of prey, since It feeds almost exclusively on small mammals that injure farm produce, nursery, and or chard stock. It hunts principally in the open and consequently secures such mammals as pocket gophers, field mice, common rats, house mice, harvest mice, kangaroo rats, and cot ton rats. It occasionally captures a few birds and insects. At least a halt bushel of the remains of pocket go phers have been found in the nesting cavity of a pair of these birds. Re membering that a gopher has been known in a short time to girdle seven apricot trees worth $100 it is hard to overestimate the value of the service of a pair of barn owls. One thousand two hundred and forty-seven pellets of the barn owl collected from the Smithsonian towers contained 3,100 skulls, of which 3,004, or 97 per cent, were mammals; 92, or 3 per cent, of birds; and 4 were of frogs. The bulk consisted of 1,987 field mice, 6B6 house mice, and 210 common rats. The birds eaten were mainly sparrows and black birds. This valuable owl should be rigidly protected throughout the en tire range. Subscribe for The Monitor, A GOOD PLACE TO EAT Your Sunday Dinner i Dinner served from 12 m. to 6 p. m. At 25c and 35c. i HOME COOKING i > S. R. Jackson’s Lunch Room 2122 No. 24th St. Webster 7971 WOVEN BONE CORSETS MADE TO ORDER MRS. 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