St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-10-23
AUNT kEZlAh.
How . Good, Deaf Lady ut Last saw the
Whole Of IN Elephant.

How . Good. De.s Lady At Last saw the
whole OF IN Elephant.
"And did you really, Aunt Keziah,
never see an elephant?' questioned
Ned. his eyes full of wonder and the
sincerest commiseration.
mo. honey. except his tail. You
know am kinder deaf in one ear, and
by the time l find out 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, I 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 i'm the air,
and the fire was blazing through the
old logs on the hearth. about the
| jungles out there. and how the ele-
Phants would come crashing through
them, tossing up their trunks like
mad"
ibid he ever shoot one?" asked
| Ned.
.Well. no, don't think he did. I
guess Sam had an experience like me
l-he was alters on the edge of things"
with sigh.
Aunt kcziah 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 q large
family. Her husband was . sober, in
dustrious man, but this year 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 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 q strange re-
luctance to leave the scrubby little
farm, with its meager crops. Still
there seemed to be 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 q very deaf
and timid, middle-aged woman in
straitened 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 half
the thrilling adventures in a 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, clinginy 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 grow 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 q
circus, and about whom his mother
had been in perpetual anxiety, became
fond of her old-fashioned stories, and
as soon as he heard she had never seen
q whole elephant, conceived an attach
ment to her that was all the stronger
because based on the profoundest pity.
then, Aunt Keziaho" he asked, still
meditating on her hard destiny.
"Why. honey, l would be ashamed
of myself to spend money on that. and
then it would be kinder light and frivo-
lous in m old woman like me-"
Ned could not quite imagine Aunt |
KeZiah in company with the clown and |
the riders in tights. They seemed so |
incompatible that be abandoned the
idea, but did not forget that Aunt |
Keziah, though not willing to indulge |
herself, always had q stray penny,
which she could spare IS well as not"
for jamie and himself The next time |
tue music began to strike up, Aunt |
Keziah. who was ousy sweeping, was |
astonished by rush of the children |
into her room.
The circus is coming, Aunt Kssish |
i see it ut the end of the squa1er'
MOI called Jimmy from the hall |
window, '.it's turned down another |
street"
ssp,,< AN vnup ho~no< K>~snk ~