It Rained Elephants.
A Kansas Cyclone Story.
Everybody in the smoking department of the sleeper had told a story excepb one quiet, inoffonsive sorb of a man in the corner, and the drummer eyed him with suspicion, as he finished what he considered to be the corker of the ontire combination. As the drummer concluded the quiet man poked his head cautiously out of his shell and coughed slightly as men do who have lain dormant awhile and rouse bhemselves bo utterance,
' I remember,' he said, withoub further preliminary, ' a queer circumsbance which happened bo me during a summer visib I made some years ago in Kansas. I am reminded of it by tho sbory our friend here'— nodding boward bhe drummer—' tolls of a shower of fish falling from the sky. I can readily believe his story'—bho drummer looked grateful—'and I hope he will boliovo mine. Ono afternoon we were sitting oub in front of my friend's house, some three or four of us, noticing the peculiar shape, colour and movements of the clouds, when all at onco, as true as Gospel, gentlemen, an elephant alive and kicking, dropped right down in fronbof us oub of the sky, and a moro astonisbed-looking brute I never
The drummer sat spellbound, and everybody else choked up speechless. The quiet man looked around on his auditors.
' Ib is as true aB preaching, genblemen/ho wonlj on, ' and though as a rule in Kansas ife doesn't rain elephants, ib did on thab occasion, and is accounted for by bho facb bhat a cyclone had struck a circus twentymilea to the west of us, and, furthermore, ib was raining lions, and tigers, and horses, and hyrcnas, and monkeys, and tent-pins for a week afberward, bhe biggC3b thingß, of course, coming down soonest.
' My doar sir,' gasped the drummer, as the quieb man was about to continue, ' don'b say another word. I travel for a liquour-houss, and if you want a barrel of cocktails give me your address and I'll send ib to you by cho firsb cyclone that passes our place.'
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 220, 16 September 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)
Word Count
346It Rained Elephants. Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 220, 16 September 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)
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