The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-01-03

cloomsburg was about the dreariest
Mace YOU could find this side of sun
down at the North Pole. If a man
smiled there they sent for the doctor.
and il he laughed they hauled him be-
fore a lunacy commission Old women
went clear over into the next county to
attend funerals, and little children
dragged themselves to school looking
for all the world like they had the collie.
OF course everybody was thin, and
snuffled and elected to go to Heaven
bv the most painful route on the celes-
tial map, but Hezekiah Doles had them
all beat about three laps to the mile
and still gaining. He was so thin he
slit the bed clothes when he lay down
edgeways and he was so gloomy the
neighbors had to light an extra lamp
when he came to the house.
Consequently it was terrible shock
to the community when Hezekiah
walked out of his back lot one evening
and strolled across to the flour MILL
chuckling, actually chuckling!
"Ha, ha, ha, haP' said HezelSiah,
breaking into a real laugh as he sat
down on the platform where Salathiel
Croak, the miller, and Nathaniel Moody
the blacksmith, were listening to the
song of the frogs in joyous Sadness
Hezekiah's laugh, in a normal commu-
nity would have been as gay as dirge,
struggling as it did through near fifty
wears of dyspeptic despair, but here in
Gloomsburg, as the late afternoon
shadows were dying away, 1t was al
most sacreligious.
ssWhy brother Eez-e-ki-ahl Are you
ill?' Salathiel asked in neighborly anx-
iety.
mo Street gasped Hezekiah. But
say, brothers Salathiel and Nathaniel
ha, ha, ha, ha-say, I've been driving a
well-A-a-h ha, ha, ha. hal
Eyes, brother Hezekiah," urged the
sorrowful Nathaniel, exchanging painful
glances with the miller.
"O-o-o-h. no, no, no, ho!' said Heze-
kiah, wiping his eyes
Eyes. brother Hezekiah," coaxed the
Respondent Salathiel.
..Well I've got it down a hundred and
thirty-seven feet-ah, all, ah, ali. Oh, oh,
oh, OIL Funniest thing you ever saw.
Drill slipped and fell down the whole
way, kerplunk! Oh-a-a-a-ah, ha, ha,
hal A-a-a-a-a-h ha, ha, ha! Ooh a-a-
-
peal of laughter such as never before
heard in Gloomsburg. Simeon Grave
weeds, the tailor, came over, almost
running, Just as Nathaniel made an
other disconsolate attempt to get at the
bottom of the sad occurance.
''And then what, brother Hezekiah? q
he asked.
why that's all!' Hezekiah roared,
and then doubled up with mirth.
Ii &c Cfv11nn m
whispered Salathel. 1.-THE poor man is
touched in his mind, but sister Sarah
can manage him."
So the tailor ran for Mrs. DoIes, while
Hezelxiah laughed at the way Sineons
bow legs spraddled over the ground.
Sarah came with her apron over her
head and her first act was to smell
Hezekiah's breath
No." the detected woman admitted,
"Hez hasn't been drinkin'. He's just got
the simplest
She yanked Hezekiah off the platform
with a mastery and practiced hand and
dragged him off home, laughing like a
ninny and put him to bed. Then she
let him laugh himself to sleep, while
she enjoyed the most delightful sorrow
she had known for years. And that is
saying a whole lot, for Sarah was nat
ural born sorrower.
The next morning, gloomy ana early,
Hezekiah got up as melancholy as ever,
and when he reflected over his awful
frivolity of the evening before he sat
right down and wept. Sarah had in
tended to wrestle with him little In
spirit, with the rolling pin handy in case
of emergencies, but she saw him melted
into tears she sat down and wept with
him. They had moist and happily mis-
cradle time of it for quarter of an
hour, and then Hezekiah went to work,
refreshed in spirit and ready to conquer
all temptations to be cheerful.
1t was not until about four o'clock thai
he went out to the well again. He
worked at it for about half an hour,
fighting all the time against an unac-
countable and growing desire to be
lighthearted, when all at once the i'm
pulse overcame him and he snickered
He let the drill slip out of his hand and
took a few kinks out of his voice, and
when Sarah hurried out into the back
lot she found him rolling over in the
grass and laughing so hard that the lit