The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-07-14
THE PALLADIUM,
WEDNESDAY. JULY IA, 1875.


most innocent looking boy she had
seen for months. She said she
didn't see how he coull have lived
in Detroit all his life and preserved
such respectful and innocent look.
On the way up to Crawford street
he replied s.yes'm' and "no'm,"
had little to say, and quite won her
heart before she had been set down
at the gate.
John Sweeney's aunt came from
Indiana on q visit, and she is sin
gle 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 transformed into
lame hyena for being saucy to his
mother, and that boy just laid back
and pretended that he wouldn't
encourage q dog fight or club cat
for all the Utah silver mines ever
opened.
John Sweeney's aunt would have
gray hairs but for frequent applica
lions of hair dye. 1t didn't take
the boy long to discover this. and
on the third morning after her ara
rival he left 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 a liberal quantity
and sopped it over her head. She
hadn't sopped great while when
she jumped three feet high, uttered
The Sioux war cry, and for the next
fifteen minutes everybody and ev-
erything in that house had to take
q 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 a hundred pins jabbing into
her scalp Some of her hair fell
out, and she had to go around with
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.
John Sweeney's eyes filed with
tears as he stood on chair and
surveyed her head, and he remark
ed that he hoped that none of the
Sweeney family would ever grow.
up to become base hearted hair dye
manufacturers.
The aunt's head was getting bet
ter, and she had been down t. see
the City Hall, when another acct.
dent happened. She dropped into
the family rocking chair, and drop
PED out Of it dropped heels over
head on account of the back COM
ing off. Young John was sitting
close beside her, busily engaged in
reading a Sunday School paper,
and though his mother said that
some one had loosened the screws
in the back of the char, she didn't
for one moment suspect him. The
aunt was laid up for three days
with q lame back, and even after
she was able to walk out she had
to go 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:
s'I'll do it this very night.
That evening his wearied aunt,
reposing on the sofa, asked him to
bring her a glass of water. Float
ing on top the water was a pump
kin seed, rubbed as smooth as glass,
and securely tied around the seed
was silk thread twenty feet long.
She raised the glsss and down went
the seed, and pretty soon she
coughed two or three times and
complained of q tickling in her
throat. He reached out and gave
the string pull, and she sprang
up with yell.
s'Did something bite yous" he
inquired with great solicitude.
i've got a ha-ha-hair in my
th-throas-a-h-hp' she gasped,
coughing vigorously.
MAY be you swallowed hair
snake. he suggested, giving the
string another pull
Il did did--a-h-h-a!' she
screamed. Il feel it biting mel
docs it seem to mover" he ask
ed, as he jerked the string again.
~ yes-ahT' she yelled, clawing
around
Her hand struck the string, and
after little investigation she found
that it was attached to something.
"Well. now-you've swallowed
the toy I made Tor baby!' and he
hauled in on the string and lifted
her off the lounge.
She coughed = gasped = made
motions and rolled her eyes, and
that boy kept jerking the string
while he sympathised with her and
demanded to know how 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 off holding the
string. and telling her to cough
hard while he pulled It was finally
decided to cut the string close to
her mouth and let her swallow it,
but all that night she tossed around
and groaned and sighed for fear
she had swallowed lead nickle or
a horsefy instead of pumbkin
seed.
She took the cars for home, and
when John serenely kissed her
goodbye at the depot, and slipped
q well worn euchre deck into her
pocket, she wiped her eyes and said
that it seemed to her as if he