Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1895-04-25
GROWING YOUNGER
,%~>%H~~A~% %%&NH~~~~H~~~~ 4uHu~A~HH%N~~~~

81 have but one desire In the world
and 1t is for my darllng's sake! l wish
from the very bottom Of my heart that
l may grow younger every day"
Then he was Startled by deep and
hooking voice, which seemed to come
from n group of shrubs, saying:
"'Tls well! Your wish shall be graft
led!"
Then all was still
Mr.. Hallwool ought to have been hap
by after so mysterious an assurance
that his aspirations after youth would
be realized; but he wasn't. Time sped
on with amazing rapldity, and he found
himself getting younger with cores
bonding celebrity AS youth returned
to him, age was creeping upon his be-
loved wife, and it was not long ere
they were apparently on level as far
as years are concerned.
Then his experience became positive
ly frightful. When his son Harold
married ut the age Of thlrty-three he
himself seemed to be only seventeen!
A terrible feature that accompanied
this return of youth was that, although
his mind retained all that knowledge
and shrewdncss acquired by a long
active business life. he could not resist
the boyish impulses which continually
impelled him to do things which were
utterly repugnant to him. This was
painfully apparent at the wedding
feast, at which, in spite Of his wife's
watchfulness, he contrived to cram his
pockets with nuts and fruits of all
sorts.
Poor Mrs. Hallwool had at first been
delighted at her husbands returning
youthfulness, but she gradually be-
came prey to fearful fOrebodings.
These were fully justified as time sped
on, and as they sat together in their
beautiful home, she about sixty years
old and her spouse boy Of fifteen, he
often noticed that her eyes were filed
with tears. They would frequently talk
about the strange, nay, unnatural fate
which had befallen upon him, but Mr..
Hallwool never revealed to his wife
the mysterious event that occurred in
Central Park. When she became tear
full, he turned restless, and would final
ly leave the room. Shortly afterwards
she would find him in the study raven
ously eating fruit or sweetmeats, and
at the same time reading with breath
less interest "The Pirates of the Frozen
Deep" or some other blood-curdling ro-
nance for boys He felt heartily
ashamed of himself on these occasions,
but he could not resist the impulse to
act in the same way again on the NOR
row.
At length came the awful day, long
deferred, but inevitable, when he had
to give up the last outward signs Of
InanhoOd-his frock-coat and silk hat!
He had chung tenaciously to these en-
blems Of mans estate, but when he
fell victim to a youthful passion for
marbles, he yielded to his fate, and
permitted his gray-haired wife to put
him into the short jacket and knicker-
bockers Of boyhood, His soul revolted
at the change, and his better judgment
despised the very name of marbles, but
his all-absorbing love for "three-holes,"
"big-ring," and "ollies," swept all other
feelings before it-and he struggled
against his fate no more.
1t was sad day for his poor old wife
when she saw him playing marbles with
some other boys in back street.
"Oh! my poor husband" she sobbed,
"and has it come to this?"
Then she hurried him home. She
pleaded with him to resist the tempta-
tons offered by such youthful pas
times, but all in vain.
The "old boy" replied with tears in
his voice: "All you say, my dear wife,
is incOntrovertible, but it is just as
useless. I abhor marbles. l detest
peg-top. / loathe tip-cat. But l am
the victim of disconnected mind, and
as punishment l must play those
thrice-accursed gamesr
Then he left his weeping wife to so
and play "three holes" with his own
grandson in the back garden.
SO things went on from bad to worse,
for he developed a spirit of mischief
which would have done credit to a
monkey, and one day received such a
humping from bigger boy, on ac-
count of trick he had played, that a
J tingling sensation went through Mr..
Hallwoors frame. And he awoke with
a sob and u start, to find that he was
curled up in the big armchair, that
the fire was out, that he was stiff with
cold-and that the decanter at his elbow
was empty!
He glanced around with a sigh of in.
tense relief, to find that he had only
been the victim of a terrible dream
and, with q thankful heart, he softly
stole up to the bedroom. His wife
seemed fast asleep, and with the sub
dued light of the gas falling upon hel
fair face, her husband thought that She