Disposed around the tree that occupied the centre were the skeletons of various animals, wired together, and in an upright position, fastened to blocks—rabbits, dogs, a cat, wood-chuck, rooster, and pig. The tree was formed with great ingenuity, by placing a real branch in a thick block of pine, carving the spur roots from the substance of the block, and covering with moss, dried leaves, and twigs, confined with glue, while Gertrude, seated on the moss, seemed actually alive.
Horace Williams was invited, being already in the secret, to help entertain Fred, and as an intimate friend of Dan.
Rich wanted a shingle to put under one leg of the table, the floor being uneven, and sent Horace after it, who forgot to lock the door at his return.
Mrs. Clemens, having occasion for Dan, and not finding him in the house or yard, sought him in the harness-room, where she knew he spent much of his leisure time.
Opening the door upon the startled group, the first object that arrested her attention was the long lost and bitterly lamented Gertrude, as she verily thought, alive, and in the act of springing upon a squirrel. Exclaiming, "Gertrude! my Gertrude! where have you been?" she clasped the effigy to her breast. Alas! there was no answering caress; there was no "speculation" in those eyes of stained glass, and the dried skin rattled in her fond embrace. It was a stuffed cat. "What does this mean?" she cried, permitting the imposture to drop on the floor, thoroughly overcome and faint with this sudden blasting of new-born hopes. She would have fallen to the floor; but Rich and Dan conveyed her to the house, where, after seeing her safely placed in the easy-chair, Rich took to flight, feeling that Dan could settle the affair far better than himself.
"Gertrude! My Gertrude!" Page 190.
It required all Dan's eloquence and power of argument to convince his mother that Gertrude was killed by mistake.
"But why did you not tell me at once, Daniel, that I might have had her properly interred, instead of making an exhibition of the remains?"