HOW MR COBLEIGH TREATED THE BAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1297, 7 October 1876, Page 21

HOW MR COBLEIGH TREATED THE BAT.

Mr Cobleigh struck but once at that bat. Mr Cobleigh has an eye like an eagle. The family were just finishing tea when the bat came sailing into the room through an open window. The ladies — there were company — ' screamed and j wanted to run, but Mr Cobleigh's voice, so calm and confident, partly assured them. "Don't be alarmed, ladies," he spoke up, rising from the table and getting the towel. " Bats are harmless, although I'll admit they are rather repulsive," he continued, rolling the towel into the form of a switch, and drawing it by one hand through the other to give compactness to the folds. " Now I'll show you presently how I'll treat that bat. I bet I've killed a hundred of them. I know that when I was a boy I used to stand in the dooryard with other boys, and we'd knock at bats with laths. When I made a sweep at one he came down. There was no use of his trying to dodge. Yon remember, Susan," appealing to his wife, "how I mashed that bat at Uncle Amos', last summer ?" Mrs Cobleigh remembered it, and cheerfully admitted the circumstance. "Some people," observed Mr Oobleigli, snapping tho towel once or twice, and putting his oyes square on the bird as it dodged aroxind the edge of the ceiling, " some people go at a bat aa if it were a winged rhinoceros. Now caution is the prime thiug, and never strike until you are sure you've got a good chanco. You wait a moment, until he comes clown in reach, and I'll show you a trick or two worth knowing."

Mr Cobleigh ceased<speakingj and began to move about the room with the utmost caution, his eyes distended, and hia fingers nervously clutching the towel. The ladies divided their attention between him and his prey. , It /Was a seasoa 1 of breathless expectation. ' . .' •• t

Suddenly the bat descended. MrOobleigh quickly, swung back the towel excitedly yelled, "Here we are '!'" and.mada the blow. It was a tremendous sweep, and there was a terrible crash. Mr Oobleigh could scarcely believe his own senses. The bat passed out oi 1 the room leaving behind a pair of elegant, vases and a bouquet holder lying in pieces on the floor, a screaming chorus of female voices, and a very excited and astonished man. He had sufficient presence of mind to hurriedly whisper to his wife— ' " For Heaven's sake, Susan, don't nay a word until after the company go,"- and uttering this prayer/ he sarik helplessly into a chair. \ ' ! ■ " He thinks that it must have been a new kind of bat, although he is afraid that possibly it might not have been the right kind ©f towel. — Danbury News.