"Perhaps you could if you tried."
"So I do."
"It seems to me, Rachel, you take more pains to look at the clouds
than the sun."
"Yes," chimed in Jack; "I've noticed whenever Aunt Rachel takes up
the newspaper, she always looks first at the (sic) death's, and next
at the fatal accidents and steamboat explosions."
"It's said," said Aunt Rachel, with severe emphasis, "if you should
ever be on board a steamboat when it exploded you wouldn't find much
to laugh at."
"Yes, I should," said Jack. "I should laugh----"
"What!" said Aunt Rachel, horrified.
"On the other side of my mouth," concluded Jack. "You didn't wait
till I had got through the sentence."
"I don't think it proper to make light of such matters."
"Nor I, Aunt Rachel," said Jack, drawing down the corners of his
mouth. "I am willing to confess that this is a serious matter. I
should feel as they said the cow did, that was thrown three hundred
feet into the air."
"How was that?" inquired his mother.
"A little discouraged," replied Jack.
All laughed except Aunt Rachel, who preserved the same severe
composure, and continued to eat the pie upon her plate with the air
of one gulping down medicine.
So the evening passed. All seemed to miss Ida. Mrs. Crump found
herself stealing glances at the smaller chair beside her own in
which Ida usually sat.
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