at,"
and clapped my hands, and said: "Encore," dad stopped and said:
"Hennery, this is no leg show, this is a morgue," but to cheer him up I
told him his head must be wrong, and I pointed to about a hundred dried
corpses, a thousand years old, in a corner, with grinning skulls all
around, and told him that was the ballet, and told him to look at the
leading dancer, and asked him if she wasn't a beaut, from Butte, Mont.,
and that killed dad. He leaned against me, and said his eyes must have
gone back on him, because everything looked dead to him. I told him he
would get over it after awhile, and to stay where he was while I went
and spoke to one of the ballet that was beckoning to me, and I left him
there, dazed, and went around a corner and hid.

People were coming along with torches all the time, looking at the
catacombs and reading the inscriptions cut in the rock, and after awhile
I went back to where I left dad, and he was gone, but after awhile I
found him standing up with the stiffs. He was glad to see me, and wanted
to know if I thought he was' dead. I told him I was sure he was alive,
though he had a deathly look on his face.

[Illustration: He would break me up into bones, and throw me into a pile
246]

"Well, sir," says dad, "I thought it was all over with me, after you
left, for a man came along and moved me around, and took hold under my
arms and jumped me along here by these stiffs, and told me if I didn't
stay where I belonged he would break me up into bones, and throw me into
a pile, and I thought I would have to do as the Romans do and stay here,
and before the man left me he reached into my pocket and took my money,
and said I couldn't spend any money in there where I was going to stay
for a million years, and, by gosh, I was so petrified I couldn't stop
him from robbing me. Say, Hennery, they will rob you anywhere, even in
the grave, and if this Catacomb show is over, and the curtain has gone
down, I want to get out of here, and go to the Coliseum or the Roman
amphitheater, where the wild beasts eat people alive." And so we left
the Catacombs and went back to town, and dad began to show life again.
Say, you tell the folks at home that dad is gaining every day, and his
vacation is doing him good. He has promised to kill me for taking him to
the Catacomb show, but dad never harbors revenge for long, and I guess
your little nephew will pull through. I wish I had my skates, cause dad
wants to go to Russ