SEVERE TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 259, 9 November 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

SEVERE TREATMENT.

The noise made by the burglar in the pantry, slight as It was, disturbed the light sleeper In the bedroom not far away, and the midnight marauder was surprised a moment later to find himself covered with a big revolver in the hands of a determined-looking man in a long, white robe.

"I hain't done nothln' but eat a few cold victuals, "mister," stammered the burglar.

"I see," sternly replied George Ferguson, "you have been eating the remains of a strawberry shortcake my wife made for dinner last night. Do you know what I'm going to do with you?"

"Turn me over to the police, I s'pose," gasped the helpless thief.

"Worse than- that," said Ferguson, with a ferocious grin. "I'm going to make you eat a quart of health food. It's a new kind my wife heard of and fixed up for us yesterday, and it's pretty dry eating, but you'll eat every particle of it, or I'll bore six holes through you. There it is, in that big bowl. Turn yourself loose on it!"

With grim determination the indignant householder stood over him till it was finished, after which he picked up the luckless scoundrel, who had fallen exhausted to the floor, and threw him out of the open pantry window.

"It may kill him," soliloquised Mr Ferguson somewhat remorsefully, as he crawled back Into bed, without disturbing the rest of the family, "but a man who breaks into another man's house takes his life In his hands, anyway."