Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-11-23
AUNT KEZlAH.
How q Good, Deaf Lady Mt Last Saw the
Whole Of IN Elephant.

Whole OF IN Elephant.
"And did you really, Aunt Keziab,
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 | 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. have my idea You see.
my brother Sam was sailor, and he
went of to foreign lands where they
trade IN elephants tusks, and I've
heard him tell many q 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 ole
plants would come crashing through
them, tossing up their trunks like
mad"
"Did he ever shoot oneP" asked
Ned.
swell, no. l don't think he did.
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 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 90, 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 strange re-
luctance to leave the sciubby little
farm, with its meager crops. Still
there seemed to be a need for her in
Caroline's household, al 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 IL her young
imagination could have summoned
to the aid of her pen half
the thrilling adventures in q strange
city, or the hair-breadth railway escapes
that chased each other pell-mell through
Aunt Keziahs brain as she sat, bolt
upright in her seat, clinging tightly to
her little sachel. and half disposed to
think the conductor a 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
wbNther 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 a
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
whole elephant, conceived an attach
ment to her that was all the stronger
because based on the profoundest pity.
Why don't you 90 to the circus,
then, Aunt KeziahP" he asked, still
meditating on her hard destiny.
"Why, honey, would be ashamed
OF myself to spend money on that, and
then it would be kinder light and frivo-
lous in an 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 he abandoned the
idea, but did not forget that Aunt
Keziah. though not willing to indulge
herself, always had stray penny,
which she could spare as we'll as not, )"
for jamie and himself. The next time
the music began to strike up, Aunt
Keziah, who was busy sweeping, was
astonished by rush of the children
into her room.
"The circus Is coming, Aunt Keziah
i see 1t at the end of the squarer'
mot" called Jimmy from the hall