The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-01
AUNT COMFORT.


say, driver, where are you taking me
to-"
And Miss Comfort Dikeman, with her
head thrust out of the stagecoach win
dow. eyed the lonely ravine with a
glance of distrust.
She was a little. brown-faced old
lady, in a bombazine dress, just the
color of her false front; a quilted silk
hood. edged with fur; a scarlet WOODEN
scarf and an umbrella which might
have come out of the ark itself, so an
tinre and ponderously fashioned was it.
And her spectacles glimmered in the
twilight of the early winter evening
like miniature moons.
"Yes'm," the driver gruffly answered
from his elevated situation; this ere. s
the hollow"
ITS a dreadfully lonely spot" said
Miss Comfort.
"Wen, 1 never heard it called very
lively" said Joseph Jones. Come up,
Whitefoot-what We 'boutt"
Are there. any bears or byenas in
these woods?" hesitated Miss Dixie
man.
"Bless your heart, ma am, no! Hain't
been these 20 yearl Here's the road
that leads up to Squire Ponsonby's. if
that's where you're So1n.
And he drew rein opposite grass
grown road, which wound it's way into
the woods.
81 s'pose they'll be down here, some
on 'em, to meet you" said he, as he
helped Miss Comfort Dikeman to terra
frma. 'Td wait a spell. eff [ WASH
behind with the Peckville mails,
but
ooh. it isn't necessary at ALL said
Miss Dikeman, looking rather furiously
and taking up her carpetbag and bun
die 81 can soon walk there
ut is a little lonesome" she thought;
'but it will be so nice to surprise Ma
rian and the girls
! And she turned and began to trudSe
I'D the hill with new resolution.
TITS a long way" said Miss Comfort
dolefully, to herself; but just then a
| friendly red star glowed through the
network of boughs-the light from the
crimson curtained windows of the old
Ponsonby mansionl And Miss Comfort
Dikeman took courage and plodded
! bravely on.
ooh, mamma, I'm sure 1 heard some
one step on the piazza floor And dc
hear Rover barking! Mamma, do you
think it's burglar?"
Don't be a goose. child" said Mrs
| Ponsonby; but Effie could see hel
mothers startled glance toward the
window
Mamma, you're never going to oper
| the door, as a little knock came to the
panels without. Remember we are al
alone in the house. We may be robbed
or murdered Oh. dear, dear. Why
did papa go away and leave us al
| alone? Why didn't he at least wal
| until the boys were home from col
lege?" and Fife Ponsonby chung hys-
terically to her mothers arm.
Are they never coming to let ms
in?" Miss Comfort Dikenan thought
with chattering teeth and nose dyed il
cerulean blue. Tive a great mind t.
peep in at the windows and see what
they are all about
Ring the dinner bell, mamma CRIED
Fife. Patrick will be sure to hear
Papa said if anything happened We
were to ring the dinner bell out of the
back window. Oh, run, mamma-quick
pleased"
Teas ready" said Miss Comfort, al
ready. in her imagination, shifting tn,
Chinese fragrance. There goes thu
BELL
But when Mrs. Ponsonby came back
herself nervous and alarmed, she fount
Fife in a state of wild terror
Mamma, mammal it was a ghostr
she shrieked, with a bloody mark upol
its throat, and great livid eyes. L say
it myself at that very window"
"Effie, I'm astonished at your SAT-
Mrs. Ponsonby, trying to speak collect
edly. "a ghost, indeed Hush, contro
yourself, Fife, 1 insist Patrick vii
be here presently, and the
Hush, mamma" and Fife held u
her plump fingers. "Oh. thank ProVi
dence-here he comes now"
And Miss Comfort Dikeman, patient
~ waiting with carpet-bag and um
breila for some one to come and let he
in, was nearly terrified out of he
senses by heavy steps rushing acros
the veranda and a rough hand on he
bombazine cloak.
It's yourself, is it?" painted Patricl
"frightenin' the ladies out o their sivi
senses, when the mashter amt a
home. But I'll teach yez"
.Ruffian, unhand mer' tragicall
cried out Miss Comfort, in her dismay
but Patrick only pulled the harder
"Mikei Teddy!" he roared. its til
ould gypsy wife that robbed the hen
roosts night before last and took Bid
dy's wash off the bushes between day
light and dark. Sure. don't [ know tn
ugly mug of her? Come. boys. quicl
an We'll shut her up in the ould corr
crib till the masther comes home I
clap her into the Jail, the best plaC
for the loilxes of her
And before Miss Comfort could fin
breath to demonstrate against this III
heard-of outrage, Patrick, with the Yea
Gus aid of two half-grown farm boy
had dragged her across the 'verandi
r through dreary walk and into a tun
I ble-down building. where the twiligl
glimmered through inRuemerabls cree
ices and a disused pig trough afforde
the only seat.
9 .."An it's here yez are, as tight as
trlset," chuckled Pat, as he drew