The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-02
Written for The ArkaRsoc Traveller.
 UU-C0JaDlOU SENSE.
BY JENNIE PORTER ARNOLD.

"Don't talk to me about common sense," said Aunt Hannah energetic ally, pushing her spectacles back on her forehead and letting the ball of carpet-rags she was winding fall, for an instant, into her lap. "You ought CT call it uncommon sense, for it's the most n-common of all the senses the Lord ever blessed body with. Why, good land jest take the heft of folks, boy and large, jest ez as they run, an there ain't more'n half on 'em has got what you'd call good common sense. Most on lem ain't fools, least wise folks don't gener'ly call lem so, though twixt you an an the horse block, there's mighty little difference to my way of thinkin'. Now, there was the Higgins, useter live jest be- yoLd us, years ago-dare say ye don't remember 'em-here, scat, get out, ye witch" and Aunt Hannah made an abrupt dart at the kitten who was making Virginia puzzle out of the ball of carpet-rags which had fallen from the good woman's lap. "Well, ez I was about ter say," she resumed, winding up the tangled mass of rags, "them Higginses beat all l ever see for folks that weren't born idiots, from the old man down to the youngest boy there didn't seem sense enough ter come in when it rained. They were the most outlandish, stupidest set ye ever knew; She wonder was how they got along as well as they did. re- member one day I was goin' up ter the city an jest ez I was ergittin' inter the waggin 1 see Cha'ncy comin' along swingin' CT little tin pail; he was the oldest of the young uns, great, big, legged teller nigh on ter about six foot, though he want but sixteen, seemed as if he all run ter legs, an ther want nothin' left fer brains. We'll, as said, he come along erswingin' his tin pail an I thought his mother wanted some yeast. Ye see in them days there want nc yeast cakes kept st the stores, nor no yeast carts didn't come round ez they do now, we had ter git it when we went ter the city, so sez I, ez he come erlong up an' stood teeterin' fust on one foot an then on t'other, sez 1:
 "'Cha'ncy, does yer mother want some yeast?'
 "'No, marm,' says he, kinder draw in his words ez if they was half yard long. No, she wants some emp t'in's.'
 "sWell,' sez I, reachin' down an' takin' the tin pail an shakin' it, where's yer pennies?'
 "'She hain't got none,' sez he, 'she sed ez how she wanted ter lend yer CT couple ter git her some, am when she got some more she'd pay ye all ye owe her."
 70, Aunt Hannah, you always set of a story so," Lida said laughing.
 "But ain't tellin' nothin' but the truth, so help me John Rogers; and Cha'ncy was jest ez bright ez the rest on lem. There was Jed, the youngest one, he started one day ter go to the store with ray Hiram, he had CT bas- ket of aigs his mother wanted ter swap fer some groceries, an jest ez he got most there little streaked snake run across ther road, am what did that little nimshy do but jest bang his bas- ket CT aigs down kerslap onter the snake am break every one on 'em."
 "What, the snakes, Aunt Hannah?"
 "No, the aigs, of course. Then he held up his basket with the yelks all CT runnin' out, am sez he, jest ez tick led ez could be: q killed it, Hil I killed iti Jest seei I squshed it all ter pieces ;-when the snake was more'n . dozen rods of by that time. I'd her squshed his head if he'd been my young un.
 "Then there was Lib, CT great, strsppin' girl of fourteen, she useter be over here everlastingly. There couldn't be nothin' ergoiR on unless that girl was here with her mouth am eyes wide open, gorpin' around ter sec what she could find out. One day when she was hero Sister Mary come, and she declared she wouldn't unpack her trunk till Lib went home, if she stayed till doomsday. But Lib hung on till Mny's patience was about gone, an bimc-by, sex she: Lib, did your folks know that the Connecticut river was all burned up2'
 "tO, laws, nor sex Lib, her mouth openin' wider'n ever am her eyes look in like two peeled onions stuck in CT mud wall. For the land sakes,' sez