INQUISITIVE MRS. HOOPER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 707, 5 November 1875, Page 3

INQUISITIVE MRS. HOOPER.

0 — She was one of those inquisitive old women, says the Boston Commercial Bulletin, who would seem always to have'an interrogation point concealed about them. And as is generally the with a person who is hard of hearing, her voice was painfully audible within the range of a sixteenth of a mile. * Anybody sick at your house ?’ she inquired of Mr Sampson, the young dry goods man, who has been marri. d about a year, as he measured off three yards of cheap calico, and asked her with a subdued smile, ‘ Is that all ?’ ‘ A—that is—my wife isn’t vci y well,’ said Sampson, growing red clear to the back of his ears as he noticed four ladies in different parts of the store exchanging significant glances. ‘Hey?’ remarked the good lady, with her hand at her ear, in a voice which started a horse that was hitched across the street. 1 1 said that my wife wasn’t very well,’ shouted Sampson, his face suffused with a lively purple, and the veins in the top of his head distended ; and as Mrs Shepherd, who was buying flannel at the other end of the store, said something in a low tone to Mary Carter, who responded ‘Te ho,' Mr Sampson wished that he was a balloon. ‘ Oli-h !’ answered the old lady in a tone of high-keyed indifference, ‘ What s the matter with Lizzy now, cholry morbus?’ ‘ She ain’t very well,’ said Sampson ; shan’t 1 show you anything more ?’ ‘ Hope Lizzy ain’t going to he sick',’ continued Mrs Hooper, ‘ I see you aong tor the doctor early this mornin’, and ses I to Mr Hooper, ‘ 1 wonder who is sick at Sampson’s.’ Mrs Hooper’s voice penetrated to the precincts of the apothecary’s shop opposite, and Chandler, the clerk, took his place in the store door, and listened with a grin, while several small boys gathered round the door. ‘ No, I guess not!’ shouted Sampson vaguely, and wondered if the thermometer wasn’t up to 150 dergees in the shade. ‘ She ain’t got the neuralgy, hez she ?’ said Mrs\Hooper, untving the corner of her pocket-handkerchief, whence she extracted the price of the calico. Harker s hoy, who is fourteen years old, and lives opposite to Sampson, snickered so long and loud as he heard this question from his post of observation in the store door that he grew hysterical, and was led forth by the tip of his car into the street by Sampson’s clerk, are id the derisive shouts of the other hoys. ‘ Guess I’ll run in on my way home,’ said the unconscious Mrs Hooper. ‘ What did I understand you to say was the matter with her ? Sense I got to he deef I ain’t so quick at heariu as I was, and tiie old lady leaned over the counter with her left ear canted upward in an interrogatory manner. Fortunately Sampson’s hired girl came breathlessly into the store and told him he was wanted at the houso right off, and, as he grabbed desperately at his hat and fled, the domestic was, immediately snirounded by the female customers, and, above the half-audihlo whisperings of them all was wafted the voice of the maid servant, the burden 'of whose answer was—- * She’s a’ doin’ nicely. It’s a boy, and weighed eight pounds.’