78 CHITTENDEN AND DRUCE LAKES. 



Saying this, he seized rny arm and hurried me through 

 several tortuous small passages and by-streets until 

 at last he stopped at the entrance of a small, dismal- 

 looking shop, lighted by an oil lamp. Into this shop we 

 went and an old, shriveled-up specimen of humanity, 

 whom my conductor addressed as Sandy, dived his 

 hands into a tin resemblig a hot tomale can and pro- 

 duced two small double-crusted pies, which he handed 

 over to us in exchange for a fourpenny bit. 



"Wait until we got on the "bus," my friend said, 

 "and we'll eat them." 



A few moments after we had climbed to the top of 

 one of the many double-decked buses at the corner 

 of a badly-lighted thoroughfare thronged with people 

 anxious to get home for the night. The seat I occupied 

 overlooked the street and the pie in my hand certainly 

 smelled so tempting, if the gravy which was dripping 

 from it was any criterion, that I prepared to eat it. 

 The pastry was a soft, doughy pie evidently somewhat 

 underdone. As I raised it to my mouth and prepared to 

 take the first bite, a tall, well-dressed Scotchman stand- 

 ing directly underneath me looked up to hail our 

 driver, and at the same instant the hot juice from the 

 interior of the pie burst forth and scalded my fingers 

 so badly that involuntarily I let it drop. That eel pie 

 landed squarely on the tall gentleman's upturned 

 visage, bespattering him with the almost boiling eon- 

 tents. 



The surprised look he wore when the pie struck him 

 was followed by such an intermingled torrent of horri- 

 bly anguishing howls and Scotch profanity that the 

 whole neighborhood was aroused. Two policemen 

 hurried up, but before he could wipe his face suffi- 

 ciently clean and collect himself to explain, the driver 

 who was unconscious of my escapade whipped up his 

 horses and we were hurried away; for which it is 

 needless to say 1 was profoundly thankful. My friend, 

 after devouring his pie in silence and wiping his 

 whiskers, simply turned and coolly remarked: 



