The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-01-02
CHAPTER III.
sOPHRONIA HOMEBoDY.

mon and wQrry Jobe and drive Nebuchad-
nezzar crazy before his time. She had nc
brothers or sisters, and SO she behaved all
by herself She taught the clothes how
to stand alone, taught the irons their A.
b. C's, and told fairy stories to the FIRE.
You never knew what intimate friends
she might have had behind the door. To
you Il might appear as if only broom
stood there, but if you carefully touched
that apparent broom you would perh%.-
be informed, with tears, that you had "a.
tally injured beautiful young lady affiict-
ed with a dreadful spine, whose doctor said
that she must stand still for q month or
So, and not be touched on any account.
SOphy was full uf odd notions like that,
which she invented herself, and which
sometimes seemed to get badly mixed in
her mind with the real facts Of things
around her.
Aunt Sophronia. her fathers oldest sis
ter, after whom she was named, was fond
of her, and therefore could not bare to
blame her; but even Aunt Sophronia was
sometimes severely tried. One day, while
visiting at the house, the old lady asked
her what she had been doing the day be-
fore, and Sophy told her she had ridden up
Broadway on a coal-blacly s~.s with a
diamond in one eye, just as last as-as a
6re engine gcing to fire; and band Of
music, all on black horses, rode ahead, and
when the horses got tired they all got of
and walked. and they walked and they
walked till they came to the end, and there
was the sea-serpent all alone eating pine
apples.
MERCY on us, childr' cried the old lady
IN astonishnient, what will become Of you
if you tell such stories a. thatl" But
Sophy insisted it was true and offered to
prove it, so they went into the parlor
which represented Broadway, and there
we're the mahogany chairs with black hair
cloth seats-real horse hair, as SOphy said
triumphantly; they we're the horses, and
away down at the end was the foot-stool
With marvellous piece of worsted wvrk on
the top, wrought by Mrs. Joshua Home
body in her young sand that was the
sea serpent eating pine-Apph, Aunt So
phronia put on her spectacles, 'sook q good
look at it, and said: "Well, my dear, if
is isn't that don't know what it 10 for my
part. But you needn't tell your mother
say So" Then, entsring little more into
the spirit Of the thing, abe added: 81 don't
sse your band Of music"
"HoI" replied Sophy,, IN if abe had been
expecting that very objection, ''you can't
see music. OF course not!" With that
she tossed her curly head and looked 50
knowingly and 90 sure of her ground that
Aunt Sophronia prudently retreated and
began on another point.
''But your horses haven't got any dia-
mODds in their ewes
Miss Homebody was also ready for her
there.
''Show me their eyes, "quoth she, briefly,
and when that piece of logic WIZ declined,
Of course her next piece was a crusher.
IT you can't find their eyes how can you
tell what they haven't gOt in themi' The
old lady feebly suggested that no horse she
ever saw had q diamond i'll his eye.
did you ever look 10 seel" said the un-
merciful young person.
81 have, lots of times" And then, not
content with having got decided victory
on that line Of argument, she clinched it,
quite unnecessarily, BY sdding: "And be-
sides, even if-why, your kind Of horses il
another kind altogether"
l think that Aunt Sephronis herself was
little responsible for the odd fancies that
crowded Sophy's head, for she told heI
stories and gave her books, and sometimes
helped her along in her imaginary adven
lures by pretending to be whatever the
child wished. Only Sophy would neveI
say before hand, as most children would
do: Nov, you pretend to be Mrs. So
and So and Ill be another lady come tC
make a call" II would happen, probably
| in some such way as this: Aunt SOphro
MIA weuld call Sophy three or four timei
without getting an enswer, and at las
Sophy would reply gravely: Mrs. Gun
ningham, what are you making spch I
noise aboYtl Have you lost your little
grill"
"Yes, I've lost my little Sophy, and
want her to come aud be dressed for 1
walk. Pray may / ask your Damel" he
aunt would say.
my name 10 Lady Gray" she woulC
answer grsvely. II am astonished yol
don't remember me; was an old friend o
your dear fathers, and think l woult
like to take a walk with you if you car
find your little girl"
But l cannot undertake to describe am
more Of Sophy's ways and doings. He
mother used frequently get out of all pa
thence with her, for really she carried tn
thing 100 far.
It's all very well TO play this and that
but when you get so that you don't knov
your own name or the name Of your frien'
and really think the front stairs are Noun
Popocatapetl and the kitchen range is
volcano. it 10 too much for sensible peopl
to bear II Sophy had had other childrel
to play with, she would have been cured o
this habit, for she wouldn't have her owl
way in the make-believe world all the time
and 30 she wonld have come back oftene
to the real one. You can't turn chairs int
horses if another magician insists on max
ing camels Of them. The result is the
have TO take turns at being one thing an
the other, and nobody can forget that q
bottom they are chairs.
/ Or if Sophy had been sent TO kinder
Rastsn she would have had opportunity
exercise her busy fancy in other ways, an