The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-09-18
A FORTUNATE CREATURE.
How Il Good, Deaf Lady at Last Saw the
Whole of an Elephant.

How Good, Deaf Lady at Last Saw the
Whole of an Elephant.
"And did you really, Aunt Keziah,
never see an elephant?' questioned
Ned his eyes fuE of wonder and the
sincerest commiscration.
"No, honey, except his tail. You
know | 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 cheek
thoughtfully against his dirty little
hand, while Aunt Keziah rolled out the
biscuit dough.
"Well, | have my idea. You see,
my brother Sam was u sailor, and he
went off to foreign lands, where they
trade in elephants tusks, and I've
heard him tell many a winters night
when there was a keen frost in the air,
and the fire was blazing through the
old logs on the hearth, about the
iungles 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.
"Well, no, I 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-seyen, 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 large
family. Her husband was a SOBER in
dustrious man, but this year he had
been i'll long time, and had not re-
covered his strength, so his wife, who
took boarders near a 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 90, 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
maryels, suddenly felt a strange re-
luctance to leave the scrubby little
farm, with its mcager crops Still
there seemed to be a need Tor 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 4 very deaf
and timid, middle-aged woman in
straitcned circumstances, one of a 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 halt
the thrilling adventures in a strange
city, or the hair breadth railway escapes
that chased each other pcll-melIt through
Aunt Keziahs brain as she sat- bolt
upright in her seat, clinging tightly to
her little sachel, and half disposed tC
think the conductor well-disguiscd
pick-pockct,
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 grow older. she was secretly
shocked by Aunt Keziah's deafness anC
: extreme simplicity, and began to doub
! whether she had not brought another
, burden upon her tired shoulders unit
/ she saw her among the children, who
: were instantly won by Aunt Keziah'
, homely kindness.
+ Even Ned, whose weak point was
+ circus, and about whom his mothe
had been in perpetual anxiety, became
+ fond of her old-faShioned stories, ant
/ as soon as he heard she had never seel
{ a whole elephant, conceived an attach
a ment to her that was all the stronge
!, because based on the profoundest pity
Why don't you go to the circus
9 then, Aunt Eeziah?" he asked, still
1 meditating on her hard destiny.
"Why honey l would he ashamet
of myself to spend money on that, ant
n then it would be kinder light and frivo
\ lous in an old woman like me"
n Ned could not quite imagine Aun
n Keziah in company with the clown an
I the riders in tights. They seemed S
! incompatible that he abandoned tn
Idea, but did not forget that Aun