"Go away from here, you little devils," he yelled. "Go in the house or I'll thrash you both." * * * * * The colonel went into the house and put on his hat. He resolved to get rid of the bottle if he had to walk a mile to do it. "Where are you going?" asked his wife in astonishment. "Dinner is almost ready. Why don't you pull off your coat and cool off, James, as you usually do?" She gazed at him with the deepest suspicion, and that irritated him. "Confound the dinner," he said, angrily. "I'm hungry--no, I mean I'm sick; I don't want any dinner--I'm going to take a walk." "Papa, please show us what the policeman gave you," said one of his little boys. "Policeman!" echoed the colonel's wife. "Oh, James, to think that you would act this way! I know you haven't been drinking, but what is the matter with you? Come in and lie down. Let me pull off your coat." She tried to pull off the colonel's Prince Albert, as she generally did, but he got furiously angry and danced away from her. "Take your hands off me, woman," he cried. "I've got a headache, and I'm going for a walk. I'll throw the blamed thing away if I have to go to the North Pole to do it." The colonel's wife shook her head as he went out the gate. "He's working too hard," she said. "Maybe a walk will do him good." The colonel went down several blocks watching for an opportunity to dispose of the flask. There were a good many people on the streets, and there seemed to be always somebody looking at him. Two or three of the colonel's friends met him, and stared at him curiously. His face was much flushed, his hat was on the back of his head and there was a wild glare in his eyes. Some of them passed without speaking, and the colonel laughed bitterly. He was getting desperate. Whenever he would get to a vacant lot, he would stop and gaze searchingly in every direction to see if the coast was clear, so that he could pull out the flask and drop it. People began to watch him from windows, and two or three little boys began to follow him. The colonel turned around and spoke sharply to them, and they replied: "Look at the old guy with a jag on lookin' for a place to lie down. W'y don't yer go to de calaboose and snooze it off, mister?" * * * * * The colonel finally dodged the boys, and his spirits rose as he saw before him a vacant square covered with weeds, in some places as high as his head. Here was a place where he could get rid of the bottle. The minister of his church lived on the opposite side of the vacant square, but the weeds were so high that the house was completely hidden. The colonel looked guiltily around and seeing no one, plunged into a path that led through the weeds. When he reached the center, where they were highest, he stopped and drew the whisky flask from his pocket. He looked at it a moment; smiled grimly, and said aloud: "Well, you've given me lots of trouble that nobody knows anything about but me."