The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-03
Singular Tale Com
piled from the - -
Aim o st Veracious
Memoirs of Oliver
Il n u m m - - -

throng, but they could get no more out OF
them. HeZekiah did manage to shrek out
that II was too funny to tell, then he and
Sarah held on 10 the gatepOsts and laughed
some more. The neighbOrs. in a steadily
increasing crowd, stood around and looked
at them, wide-mOuthed and wide-eyed, and
silently incurred.
In the morning, though. Sarah and Heze-
kiah sat at the breakfast table and glared
at each other, devcured by inward remorse
at their impiOus and unseemly conduct or
the evening before, until Sarah could stand
II no longer. She jumped up and tied on
"Where?' asked Hezekiah with a groan.
~"Neighbors," swered Sarah with a
weary sigh.
With that she went out. and by the time
Hezekiah had finished his breakfast, she
trailed into the yard with Salathiel and
Nathaniel and Simeon and Peter and Elias.
Hezekiah Joined them and, in "a solemn pro-
cessiOn they all filed into the back lot 10 the
well, where Sarah turned and addressed
them:
ing | thought maybe Hez an me had both
gone daft. Sence then I've come to think
that maybe there Is really something funny
about this well. Nothin' funny ever hap
and so L thought we couldn't jedge whether
a thing was funny or not. l want We should
all make a fair test. If you all laugh it's
That's all there is to IL. HeZ. wind up!'
So Hez wound UP.
AS the creaking windlass started, the five
BiODIll 0tlSDDOIS lOOkeu DIT tdCH OlHcl -
panied glances. They were as sure as tax
day that no earthly object could come up
out of that well TO a them laugh. But
Sarah, watching their grim features closely,
detected a change of expression before the
drill was half way up. At any other time
she would have rushed to the house for the
smsrtweed bottle. thinking from the agon-
lied looks that they were all going to have
cramps. In the light of her own experience,
however. she knew they were going 10 smile.
And they did smilei
As the drill a Dparer and nearer the
surface they gathered closer and closer
around 1t, their smiles broadened and broad
ened, and. as the dripping drill finally pop
ped out of the hole. they burst into a stimuli
taneOus roar of laughter
Sarah and Hezekiah were vindicatedi That
drill really was funny
Hezekiah, by a supreme effort, held him
self in till he could fasten the winch and
leave the great iron joke swinging in the
air to convulse all beholders, then he Joined
hands with Sarah, and together they danced
observation-disclosures and laughed them
selves black in the face.
Salathiel Croak was sitting on the ground
against an apple tree with his hands TO his
sides, Nathaniel Moody was turning cart
wheels like a boy, Simeon Graveweeds was
working the top part of his body up and
down like a pump-handle and slapping his
knees, Peter Grump and Elias Bilious were
humping each other on the back, turn and
turn about. and all of them were laughing
like clowns at a simpleton party, when
Hezekiah took up a vote.
"Is it's it funny?" he asked between
paroxysms, STOPPING down and poking
Salathiel i'm the ribs.
"A~-h-h-h-h-h. ha, Ia, ha, ha, ~ha-yes!'
shr1eked Saiathiel.
us it's it funny?" he asked with a
gasp. as he stopped Nathaniel and stood
"~O-h-h-h-h-h. no, no, no, no. no. go away!
of course it isl" roared Nathaniel. "O-h-h-
h. n. no ,3 no, !, no 9,I no; h ia a- femdnded winning
his eyes as he grabbed Simeon's hat and
dashed il TO the ground.
Sure!' whooped Simeon, doubling up and
sitting dow TO pound the ground with his
hat.
Between outlaws Peter and Elias assured
him of the same thing and Hezekiah
pranced over to Sarah in ecstacy.
"Hooray. Sarah. it's FUNNY" he yelled.
and with that the two Doles sat on the
hog trough and let go with a clear con-
science.
The other neighbors began to stream into
the back lot. now. and within an hour they
ones came in. they regarded the drill
solemnly and sadly, but as they drew nearer
they smiled. and as they came clear up TO
Ii they all doubled up and roared. 1t was
a wonderful joke. that drill. and since
everybody was In the same boat. none of
them was afraid to laugh every time they
thought of IL. Nobody could explain just
why IL was so funny, but what was the use
Few people understand a joke. anyway and
so the Gloomsburg folks didn't stop 70
analyze II. They just laughed. they got in
1AAC AL8oLN " - ~ NNa1 - @41
to Doles's TO laugh every day. Some. of
them, in fact, got TO be regular laugh
topers. but lawi nobody cared, because even
the parson laughed, and he actually got to
preaching cheerful sermons after awhile.
There was a peculiar smell about that
well, but nobody minded that. 1t seemed
so much a part of the fun that a mere sniff
of il in the nostrils reminded folks of the
great joke. and they had to laugh then
and there. Hezekiah hadn't the heart 10
remove that convulsively funny drill, SO
he let it swing in the breeze, and rust, and
provoke merriment. But the smell kept
getting stronger and stronger. and by and
by you could smell it all over town, and
people were laughing most of the time.
OF course, being used to ii now, they didn't
laugh so hard, and ii didn't pain them
any mere, but they enjoyed it all the better
for that.
1t was not until about six months after
when Professor de Jerker came to town
on his annual visit, that Gloomsburg knew
the truth OF the matter. By that time
everybody was so fat and tovial that the
professor hardly knew the place, and Heze-
kiah and his wife were so fat they had
TO enlarge their doors.
The professor pulled teeth on the street
for nothing and indoors for a quarter. and
made false teeth for s. a set, or more If he
could get II. When he heard about the
funny well he gave a sniff and started fol-
il. He is laughing quite comfortably yet
over the results of that trip. When he go