INQUISITIVE MRS HOOPER.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2112, 11 October 1875, Page 3

INQUISITIVE MRS HOOPER.

She was one of those inquisitive old women, says tho Boston Commercial Bulletin, who would seem always to havo an interrogation point concealed about them. And as is generally the case 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 married about a year, as he measured off three yards of cheap calico, and asked her, with a subdued smile, " Is that all ? " J " A—that is—my wife isn't very well," | said Sampson, growing red clear to the \ back of the 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. " I 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 tbe store, said something in a low tone to Mary Carter, who responded 1 Te-he,' Mr Sampson wished that he was a balloon. " Oh-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 I show you anything more P " " Hope Lizzy ain't going to be sick, continued Mrg Hooper. "I see you a'go'Dg for the doctor early this mornin', and ses I to Mr Hooper, I wonder who is sick at Sampson's." Mrs Hooper's voice, penetrated to the precincts of the apothecary 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 350 degrees in the shade. " She ain't got tbe neura-lgy, hez she? " said Mrs Hooper, untying the corner of her pocket-handkerchief, whence she extracted the price of the calico. Harker's boy, who is 14 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 ear into the street by Sampson's clerk, amid the derisive shouts of the other boys. '• 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 be deef I ain't so quick at hearin' as I was,' and the 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 house right off, and as he grabbed desperately at his hat and fled, the domestic was immediately surrounded by the female customers, and, above tbe eager, half-audible whispering of them, 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."