Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-07-15
GRANDMA,S STORY.

WHEN 1 was little girl,"-began
Grandma Hollis.
WHAT" exclaimed Carl, stopping in
the middle of q summersault, and looking
at his grandmother with his face upside
down between his two feet.
81 was going to tell you a story about
when was little GIRL" she said.
Carl was on his feet by this time.
81 didn't know you ever was a little
girl !" he exclaimed, in tone of great as.
Ionishment.
"Wbat did you thinks" she asked,
laughing
"Why, I thought you were always
Grandma Hollis" he said.
"Well wasn't" she replied. al was
girl once, no bigger than your Cousin
JAMIE"
And did you wear your spetacles and
your cap them" asked Carl; "and was
your name GrandmaP"
"No, indeed" said Grandma "I looked
just like any other little girl, and my
name was Hetty Rice. l lived with my
father and mother, just as you do with
yours. had two older brothers, but no
sister.
"Our house was very different from
this one.
"There were no stoves then, but at one
end of the long kitchen there was great
fireplace. 1t was so long that great logs
would lie across the andirons and the
bright blaze lighted the whole room in
the evening. My brothers and | often
roasted our apples and chestnuts there.
"Over the fire hung large iron thing
called a crane. My mother used to hang
the teakettle on it, and swing it over the
blaze, to heat the water. She boiled meat
there too.
al liked to see her lift the kettles, and
hang them on the hooks, and then swing
them over the fire often asked her TO
let me do it, but she said, No; you wait
| till you are older and bigger
| Zone day, my mother went to visit q
sick neighbor. 1t was long way to the
sick woman's house, though She was our
nearest neighbor. So my mother left me
at home alone, and told me not to go neal
the fire.
"But after she had gone, / thought II
would be nice time to play with the
crane. could not find the teakettle OF
the great dinner-pot, for my mother had
put them away somewhere.
"While was hunting for them, hap
pened to see a basket filed with tow that
my mother used about her spinning.
thought that would do just as well as the
teakettle, and better for could play thai
the tow was pudding, and was going
to boil it
$50 / carried the basket to the fire
place, and, after good deal of trouble,
managed to get it hung on the crane
ThenI swung it over the fire.
but what do you thinkP
"1nstead of hanging there like the tea
kettle or the dinner-pot, the basket ant
the tow began to burn up 0, how they
did burn
"And l was frightened half out of my
wits, and wondered what my mother
would do when she came home and founC
1t out ,-s
"I was miserable enough the rest of tn,
afternoon, can tell you.
"By and-by my mother came in, ant
she kissed me, and then she began Il
smell the burnt tow.
What have you been doing, Hetty
said She
"Then l cried as hard as could, an,
told her all about it, She was very sorry
but she punished me, and / knew that
deserved it, l never disobeyed her b.
) playing with the crane again"
Carl thought that was pretty goo
story. He asked his grandmother eve
30 many questions about it, and forgot Il
{ turn another summersault that day.
When his papa came home from tea
. Carl climbed up In his lap, and told hiT
the story.
"My grandma was not always
} grandma" said he, "but she was a littl
girl. And her mother went visitinl
) and told her not to get into the fire, an
3 she did. And she played with the crane
"And she found her mothers toes 1
the basket, and she burnt 'em ali uI
; And pretty soon her mother came in, an
; began TO snuff up her nose, and sale
Why, grandma Hollis, what's a burr
mgr
7 "And Hetty cried, and her metht
whipped her"
4 They all laughed at CaTls story, bl
grandma laughed more than any one els