Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-08-19
Jaag .sWEaNzy's AUNT.

nocent-lookins boy she had seen for
months. She said she didn't see how
he could have lived in Detroit all bis
life and preserved such respectful and
innocent look. On the way up to
Crawford street he replied ''yes'm" and
and ''no'm," had little 10 say, and quite
won her heart before she had been set
down at the gate. s
John Sweeney's aunt came from
Indiana on visit, and she is a single
woman about fifty years old. She took
John on her lap that first evening, gave
him two cent piece, told him the
story of bad boy who was transform"
ed into lame hyena for being saucy to
his mother, and that boy just laid back
and pretended that he wouldn't encour.
age dog fight or club a cat for all the
Utah silver mines ever opened.
John Sweeneys aunt would have
gray hairs but for frequent applications
of hair dye. 1t didn't take the boy
long to discover this, and on the third
morning after her arrival he lett the
house quite early in the morning. The
aunt went up to her room, got out the
hair dye, and as she stood before the
glass she poured out q liberal quantity
and sopped it over her head. She
hadn't sopped a great while when she
jumped three feet high, uttered the
Sioux war cry, and for the next fifteen
minutes everybody aud everything in
that house had to take back seat.
After soaking her head in tub OF
water, and pouring on sweet oil, she
got her breath and declared that the
hair-dye had acted like hundred pins
jabbing into her scalp. Some Of her
hair fell out, end she had to go around
with a nightcap on her head. She said
it was curious that the dye should act
that way all at once, and the rest Of it
was thrown away. I'm.
john Sweeney's eyes filed with tears
as he stood on a chair and surveyed
her head, and he remarked that he
hoped that none Of the Sweeney family
would ever grow up to become basc-
hearted hair dye manufacturers.
The aant's head was getting better,
and she had been down to see the City
Hall, when another accident happened.
She dropped out Of it-dropped heels
over head on aceoont Of the back
coming of. Young John was sitting
close beside her, busily engaged in
reading Sunday school paper, and
though his mother said that some one
had loosened the screws in the back of
the chair she didn't for one moment
suspect him. The aunt was laid up for
three days with lame back, and even
after she was able to walk out she had
to 60 bent over like a veteran Of
Waterloo.
She was talking Of returning home
when young John, walking home from
school one evening, was seen to leap
clear from the ground and heard to
exclaim:
'I'll do it this very night
That evening his wearied aunt, re-
posing on the sofa, asked him to bring
her a glass of water. Floating on top
the water was pumpkins seed, rubbed
as smooth as glass, and securely tied
around the seed was silk thread
twenty feet long. She raised the glass
and down went the seed, and pretty
soon she coughed two or three times
and complaided of o tickling in her
throat. He reached out and gave the
string pull, and she sprang up with a
yell.
did something bite you?" he in~
quired with great solicitude.
I've got ha-ha-hair in my tn
throat-a-h-h!" she gasped coughing
vigorously. f
'May be you swallowed a hair snake!'
he suggested, giving the string another
pull. a.
81 did, did-a-h-h-a!" she
screamed. q feel it biting me"
docs it seem to move2Y he asked as
he jerked the string again.
"Y-yes--ah!" she yelled, clawing
around.
Her hand struck the string, and after
a little Investigation she found that it
was attached to something.
"Well, you've swallowed the
toy [ made for baby!" he said as he
hauled in on the string and lifted her
off the lounge. ISL.
She coughed-gasped-m motions
and rolled her eyes. and that boy kept
jerking the string while he sympathiz-
ed with her and demanded to know
if he could aid her. His mother was
down to the grocery, and when she
returned she found the aunt choking
and coughing in the big arm chair, and
John stood ten feet of holding the
string and telling her to cough. hard
while he pulled It was finally decided