The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-09-18
AUNT kEZlAH. Ir.es

AAN'Nt 'NC an NlC plletib'
Ned, his eyes full of wonder and the
sincerest commiseration.
'No, honey, except his tail. You
know l am kinder deaf in one ear, and
by the time find out a circus is going
by, and get to the front window, the
animals are generally turning the cor
ner.'
But you never could tell what an
elephant looked like from his tail, ;"
pursued Ned, leaning his check
thoEghtfully against his dirty little
hand, while Aunt keziah rolled out the
biscuit dough.
well, L have my idea You see,
my brother Sam was a sailor, and he
went of TO foreign lands, where they
trade IN elephants tusks, and I've
heard him tell many a winters night
when there was keen frost in the air,
and the fire was blazing through the
old logs on the hearth, about the
jungles out there. and how the ele-
plants would come crashing through
them. tossing up their trunks like
mad"
did he ever shoot one?' asked
Ned
"Weil, no, / don't think he did. l
guess Sam had an experience like me
he was alters on the edge of things"
with sigh
Aunt keziah came from Connecticut
She had lived on little farm all her
life until she was forty-seven, when a
letter Unexpectedly arrived from her
niece, Caroline Willis. whom she had
not seen since she was fourteen. She
had married, and had quite a large
family. Her husband was a sober, in
dustrious man, but this wear he had
been ill long time, and had not re-
covered his strength, so his wife, who
took boarders near railroad depot to
exc out the diminished income, found
her hands full, and wrote to ask her
aunt to come and make her home with
her in New York, and help her with
the children.
There was no reason why she should
not go, for Maria, her brothers wife,
was a strong, thrifty woman who
needed no assistance. But Aunt
Keziah, who had been dreaming all
her life of the great city and its
marvels, suddenly felt strange re-
luctance to leave the scrubby little
farm, with its meager crops. Still
there seemed to be q need for her in
Caroline's household, and she went.
To the eyes of her young travelling
companion on the next seat, who
wrote stories very successfully for the
magazines, she was only very deaf
and timid, middle-aged woman in
straitened circumstances, one of very
numerous and commonplace class.
But this same writer would
have been glad if her young
Imagination could have summoned
to the aid of her pen half
the thrilling adventures in strange
city, or the hair breadth railway escapes
that chased each other pell-mell through
Aunt Keziah's brain as she sat, bolt
upright in her seat, clinging tightly to
her little sachel, and half disposed to
think the conductor well-disguised
pick-pocket.
But nothing happened. She arrived
safely at the depot and was met by her
niece, who knew her instantly, people
change so little in country life except
to %row Older. She was secretly
shocked by Aunt Keziah's deafness and
extreme simplicity, and began to doubt
whether she had not brought another
burden upon her tired shoulders until
she saw her among the children. who
were instantly won by Aunt Keziah's
homely kindness
Even Ned, whose weak point was 6
circus, and about whom his mother
had been in perpetual anxiety, became
fond of her old-fashioned stories, anc
as soon RS he heard she had never seer
a whole elephant. conceived an attach
ment to her that was all the stronger
because based on the profoundcst pity
Why don't you go to the circus
then, Aunt Keziah?" he asked, still
meditating on her hard destiny.
"Why, honey, | would be ashamed
of myself to spend money on that, anC
then it would be kinder light and frivo
lous in an old woman like me-"
Ned could not quite imagine Aun
Keziah in company with the clown ant
the riders in tights. They seemed Sc
incompatible that he abandoned tn
idea, but did not forget that Aun
Keziah, though not willing to indulg
herself, always had stray penny
which she could spare as well as not,
for jamie and himself. The next tim
the music began to strike up, Aun
Keziah, who was busy sweeping, wa
astonished by rush of the children
into her room.
"The circus is coming, Aunt KeziaI
i see it at the end of the squaren'
moi? called Jimmy from the hal
window, "it's turned down auothe
street"
Put on your bonnet, Aunt Keziah,
urged Ned, land we will go down OF
the corner, and there we'll be sure b
see it.
But Aunt Keziah's bonnet could no