The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-31

long, breathless pause, In which our wide
eyed group below huddled still closer.
pale and mute. Then-far off and faint
and quavering with a tenderness Of pa
thos that dews saie eyes of memory even
now-carne, like a pelated echo, the voice
all desolate: "Oh : she - has = gone
homer
What queer girl she was, and what
a fascinating influence she unconsciously
exerted over US? We never tired of her
presence but she, deprived Of ours by the
many household tasks that she herself
assumed, so rigidly maintained and deity
executed, seemed always just as happy
when alone as when in our boisterous,
fun-loving company. Such resources had
Mary Alice Smith-such a wonderfully
inventive fancy! She could talk to her
self-a fovorite amusement l might al
NEST say popular amusement, of hers,
since these monologues at times would in
volve numberless characters. chipping in
from manifold quarters Of a wholesale
discussion, and querying and exaggerat-
Ing, agreeing and controverting, till the
dishes she was washing would clash and
clang excitedly In the general badinage.
Loaded with pyramid OF cups and sau-
GERS, she would improvise a gallant line
of march from the kitchen table to the
pantry heading an imaginary procession,
your blood. Then she would trippingly
return, ripping her rosy myers up and
down the keys of an imaginary portable
piano, or stammering flat-soled across
the floor. chuffing and footing like To-
connective. And she would gravely pro-
pound to herself the most intricate rid
eles-ponder thoughtfuly and in silenge
over thS1l-hazard the most ridiculous
answers, and laugh derisively at her
off faa to-r,a
again and again, and assume the most
gleeful surprise upon at last giving tho
proper answer, and then she would laugh
jubilantly, and mockingly scout herself
with having given out "a fool-riddTe''
that she could guess with both eyes
shut"
Talk about riddles" she said abruptly
to us, one evening after supper. as we
fingered watching her clearing away the
tahle-"tslk about riddles, it-takcs-Da-
vid-Mason-J effries-to-tell-riddles Bet
you don't know
'Riddle-cum. riddle-cum right
Where was I last Saturday night?
The winds did blow-the boughs did
shake
I saw the hole fox did maker
Again we felt that indehnable thrill
i4dNtI EtHdIdtt lIblH the utter
ance, suggestive always Of some dark
mystery. and fascinating and holding the
childish fancy IN complete control.
Bet you don't know this-'un neither:
"A holler-hearted father,
And a hump-back mother
Three black orphants
All born togetherr
We were dumb.
''You can't guess nothin'! she said,
half pittyingly. wy. them's easy as fall
m off a chunk First-'uns a man named
Fox, and he kilt his wife and chopped
her head off, and they was man named
Wright lived In that Northumberland
he was a-goin' homeland II was Sat
urd'y highland he was a-comin' through
the big woods-and they was a storm
and Wright he clumb a tree to git out
the rain, and while he was up there here
come along a man with a dead woman
and a plckaxe, and a spade And he
drug the dead woman under the same
tree where Mr.. Wright was-so ever time
1t 'ud lightnin, wy, Wright he could
lock down and see him a-diggin' q grave
there to bury the woman in So Wright
he KEEP still tel he got her buried all
right, you know, and went back home:
and then he clumb down and lit out fer
town, and walked up the constabul-and
he got supeeny and went out to Fox's
place, and had him jerkeo UP fore -.
court and wanted to know where their
proof was that he kilt his Witt. wy.
Wright he jumps up and says that riddle
to the judge and all the neighbers that
were there. And SO when they got it all
studied out-wy, they TUX old Fox out
and hung MIN under the same tree where
he buried Mrs. Fox under. And that's