The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-29

she always swallowed her food
oESEi whole In order to give the teeth
something TO work on, down
there. That economical she was. and Dy
this you may guess how she made use OF
Ike after ne had his peculiar sunstroke
Up to this time Ike had been thin as
rail and as cold and clammy as a snake.
He wore fiannels clear through the sum-
mer and cloudy day would give him
chill right in July or August. The harvest
field. under a broiling hot sun. was the
only place he could really enjoy himself
but at last he got an overdose OF H.
through a combination of whisky and sun
shine, and it nearly got him ready for the
little white graveyard on the hill
Most people. when they have a sunstroke,
are bothered with sun headaches and the
like for the rest OF their natural lives
but with Ike il was different. 1t seemed TO
sort OF strike in on him. and ill his system
Just chock full Of never-ending heat When
he got up and around he was about the
most uncomfortable company one could
have until fall, at least. Jerusha would
scarcely let him come in the house until
cold weather set in, but along in Novem-
Der she came to realize what a prize Ike
had become.
She couldn't cook on him, of course. His
heat was too low for that But she made
him stay right in the house, morning, noon
ard night when he wasn't working, and
he kept three rooms as warm as toast all
that winter. Ike was the most popular man
I'm Dozeville too. as soon as they found out
his warm and genial nature. No party was
complete without him on frosty nights. and
people who were saving of their fuel were
always .nviting him out to spend the even
ing Ike had never been so well appreciated
in his life. and he began to get fat and
jolly, and hotter, day by day.
Humanity is tickle, however. and happi-
ness is short lived AS winter passed and
spring wore on, his friends dropped away.
Their affections grew cooler as the wealth
er grew warmer. and by June everybody
In Dozeviile would get UP and walk away
as soon as he hove in sight. Mrs. Snow
drove him out of the house but just the
same, 1t worried her to think Of all that
heat going to waste. To be sure, on rainy
washdays. she made him sit in the attic
to dry the clothes. and when the old
speckled hen left her eggs and refused to
20 back on the nest she made Ike hatch
out the setting, but that wasn't much
help.
an incubator built right away. 1t was big
enough to hold Ike and twenty dozen eggs.
and 1t worked like a charm. though it was
queer to walk back IN the orchard and see
Ike sitting there with his head and arms
sticking out. smoking and reading all day
long, or doing In the sunlight that fl
tered through the leaves.
From July to the first Of November he
became the mother of nearly a thousand
chickens, and Jerusha began to be quite
attached to him again, seeing that her
chicken farm was beginning to pay pretty
well Poor fellow, that was all he craved
now Just affection, and he used to fairly
snifie when Jerusha came out and spoke
a few kind words to MIN on Matching days.
With the first frost Ike's popularity be-
gan to gladden. his heart again and he
picked ND flesh faster than ever. People
were able to have their windows open now,
when he came to their parties, and every
body was glad again to meet that deas.
warm-hearted Mr.. Snow. No wonder he
liked winter so we'll As far as mere COM
fort went he was all right all the year
round In the summer he was so hot any
how that the Thermometer made no diff
ference to him, and in the winter he went
around In his shirt sleeves as happy as a
lark. knowing that he was a welcome
guest anywhere.
1t was fairly pathetic to see the way Ike
warmed up, that season. to every friendly
word he got He seemed to have some
warning of what was to come. 1t makes
heap of difference. to a man of Ike's dis
position whether everybody seems to glad
to see him or not, and as spring came on
again he took TO brooding and dreading
the warm weather, as well he might, for,
with the first buds, Jerusha chucked him
back into the incubator. Ike had grown so
much stouter that she had TO have the
manhole enlarged where 1T fit around I'M
der his armpits, and there was only room
now for fifteen dozen of eggs. but as the
first Matching came out all right, and the
second, Jerussa forgave him and had a
new incubator made.
The warm weather had now set in and
the third lot of eggs was packed around
him. Ike patiently sat and Matched, with
all a mothers natural care. until the TWEEN
ty-frst day. Not a shell cracked. Jerusha
went back and looked at her calendar and
figured till she got a new wrinkle in her
brow, but she finally had to give up that
there was a mistake somewhere in the
date, and waited another day.
That day nor the next did chick put in
an appearance. and then she broke open an
egg.
1t was hard boiled.
She broke open another.
1t was hard boiled.
Right on through the lot she went, getting
madden and madden every minute. Every
one Of those 240 eggs were boiled as hard as
rock. Ike was too hot to act a human
incubator any more!
1t ruined their domestic happiness. Je-
rusha tried him in the summer kitchen to
heat the wash boiler. but, Just about the
time the water got hot Ike would go 10 sleep
and roll over on his side. She tried every
way on earth TO make him of some value,
but It was no use, and he became a despised
loafer about town. He took to sitting out in
front Of the postoffice or in front OF Hen
Worley's store doing all day long and, as
a consequence, he grew fatter and fatter
and hotter and hotter. The only consolation
he could get out of il was that he would be
more In demand than ever next winter, but
that did not Inend matters any just then
One day. while Ike sat mapping on the