ago the people of Cimmeria got rather tired of the condition of
their streets. They were badly paved. They were full of good intentions,
but the citizens thought they ought to have something more lasting, so
they voted to appropriate an enormous sum for asphalting. They didn't
realize how sloppy asphalt would become in that climate, but after the
asphalt was put down they found out, and a Beelzebub of a time of
it they had. Pegasus sprained his off hind leg by slipping on it,
Bucephalus got into it with all four feet and had to be lifted out with
a derrick, and every other fine horse we had was more or less injured,
and the damage suits against the city were enormous. To remedy this, the
asphalting was taken up and a Nicholson wood pavement was put down. This
was worse than the other. It used to catch fire every other night, and,
finally, to protect their houses, the people rose up en masse and ripped
it all to pieces.

"This necessitated a third new pavement, of Belgian blocks, to pay for
which the already overburdened city of Cimmeria had to issue bonds to
an enormous amount, all of which necessitated an increase of taxes.
Naturally, one of the first taxes to be imposed was a dog-tax, and it
was that which led to this lawsuit, which, I regret to say, the city has
lost, although Judge Blackstone's decision was eminently fair."

"Wouldn't the State pay?" I asked.

"Yes--on Cerberus as one dog," said Boswell. "The city claimed, however,
that Cerberus was more than that, and endeavored to collect on three
dogs--one license for each head. This the State declined to pay, and
out of this grew further complications of a distressing nature. The city
sent its dog-catchers up to abscond with the dog, intending to cut off
two of its heads, and return the balance as being as much of the beast
as the State was entitled to maintain on a single license. It was an
unfortunate move, for when Cerberus himself took the situation in, which
he did at a glance, he nabbed the dog-catcher by the coat-tails with one
pair of jaws, grabbed hold of his collar with another, and shook him as
he would a rat, meanwhile chewing up other portions of the unfortunate
official with his third set of teeth. The functionary was then carried
home on a stretcher, and subsequently sued the city for damages, which
he recovered.

"Another man was sent out to lure the ferocious beast to the pound with
a lasso, but it worked no better than the previous attempt.