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Un des aymbolaa suivants apparaitre sur la darniire image de chaqua microfiche, salon le cas: le symbole -n^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN ". at a to be led left to as tathe Las cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent etre filmis A des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour 6tre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est f:lm6 d partir de {'angle supirieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'imagea n^cassaire. Las diagrammes suivants illustrant la mithode. 2 3 I 5 6 MJCROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 1.25 5.0 '""= 5.6 3£ 3.6 ^ 1^ 22 2.0 1.8 ^ /^PPL_itzLJ iiVu^'iLDt: Inc 1653 East Main Street Rochester, New York 14609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288- 5989 - Fox LITTLl 111188 ELLERBY AND HER BIG ELEPHANTS, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN BY MRS. BOOMER *-^ A A AL ii LA IS UEAN OF KUROW). r^oo oQo LITTLE MISS ELLEEBY And Her Big Elephants. I SAY "her big elephants," but I 1 must premise that that is some- what of a figure of speech. I would not msult your credulity by asking you o beheve that little Miss Ellerby had two big elephants of her very own In- deed It was rather the other way • the elephants, so to speak, had Miss Eller- f>y. At any rate hoW to be rid of them was a problem which perplexed her bv day and troubled her in her dreams by "k^ • T . ^"^ ^"^ ^ ^t"«l3- accurate when I describe both of these obtrusive animals by thesingle adjective "big " for there are degrees even in bigness,' and than the other, as indeed it ought to be, being its mother. jRBY ts. but I some- would ng you 3y had n. In- '; the Eller- them ler by US by :urate rusive ?,"for !, and >igger rht to LITTLE MISS ELLERBY. 3 AS I write, anoth-r inaccuracy sug- gests itself. By my ca^Iing my little historiette, *' Little Miss Ellerby and Her Big Elephants/' I find it more ditticult to make you understand that It was a kind of a joint-stock affair after all, for others had to go shares in their proprietorship, and in the very palpable duty of getting rid of them both as quickly as possible, and how to do this was the puzzle. It all came about in this way. Little Miss Ellerby, who had a heart of gold (about the only goid she had, good little soul), and a deep and abiding love for her Church and Parish, and who never tired in her efforts to benefit both, had come home after a long round of district visiting thoroughly tired out, and what was somewhat unuusal for her, a trifle depressed and disappointed. One after another had groaned over the Church debt. Some had shirked doing anything at all because the debt was so -x£„ ciivi ujc iiuic we couia do would not make much difference anyway," another had said, '' She preferred sending her * LITTLE MISS ELLERBY money to the heathen, and that was about all she could manage to do " another was a member of ^'this society" and another -of that," one excuse followmg each other so glibly that although they deceived neither those who spoke nor her who listened, still they served to send little Miss Ellerby home with a confused sense of thincrs bemg altogether wrong somehow tak- ing away her appetite, and giving her a bad attack of what her good old hand maid Bridget called her ^neurolgy." A cup of tea somewhat revived her and a few comforting words from the Book ot Books calmed her nerves and raised her hopes She was sitting quietly in her easy chair, half dozing and half cogitating when her bright schoolboy nephew i-eo, popped in as he often did on his "^^V. ^? ^^""^ '"^ ^^^ "^^^ street. Why! Aunt Liz, not even your knitting in your hand, and you do look '^^ ~-> -w,.T-_r o TTivyiig vviLii your'" " Tired, Leo, only, and a fit of the .>Iues, which will all go away if you I that was to do," ; society" excuse ^ly that er those led, still Ellerby f things 3w, tak- ig her a d hand- olgy." 'ed her, •om the ^es and er eas}' gitating nephew on his street. 1 your io look r" of the If you v; AND HER BIG ELEPHANTS. 5 stay and chatter to me a bit," which Leo was nothing loth to do. What started the boy upon the sub- ject of elephants is hard to say, but as most boys are fond of animals, and as there was a promise of a travelling circus coming their way shortly, possibly that was at the bottom of it. One story after another he related of the wonderful instinct of these big creatures, how cunning they were, how clever' how docile and patient, how obedient in spite of their tremendous strength and then " Aunt Liz" added he, '' they really can enjoy a joke too, like the old fellow who took the painter's brush, when the man had left his paint pot be- hind him when he went to his dinner, and with it streaked the sleepy old camel in the next compartment of the menagerie, till he made him look like a longnecked humpbacked Zebra.' From this h:; went on to tell the pathetic story ("which T rpnllv h^r*^ I'c f^,,^\ ^r ^ old Jumbo's death, how the big kindly brute tried to save the Baby Elephant and did so too, at the cost of his life. 6 LITTLE MISS ELLERBY With a "goodbye, Auntie," and the remark made for the fortieth time, that he just wished that "the circus 'folks would hurry up," Leo darted off to get up his tasks for the High School on the morrow. Now whether it was this elephant talk of Leo's or whether the least bit m the world of pickled salmon which Bridget brought in at supper time upon a damty china plate, wherewith to tempt her dearly loved Mistress's failing appetite, was the cause of her very bad dream, (you see that the tale hinges upon a di;eam after all), little Miss ^llerby was never quite sure, and in- deed during the progress of the dream, she did not know it was a dream but believed it to be a very terrible reality. "She heard or thought she heard (which amounts to the same thing ) a terrific noise; a kind of groaning and grumbling mixed with what might have been thp <:icrhinfr /-»f ♦k^ ...:„j _•.- .1 - — ••fc>"^"6 -i iiiv; wiiiu ill cne locust trees or the roaring of a big animal in distress. Was it a whirlwind? wasit an earthquake? was it a fire} and the ime, that cus folks off to get chool on elephant least bit n which me upon ewith to s's failing very bad t hinges tie Miss and in- dream, Jam but reality. : heard ling.) a ng and ht have in the f a big rlwind? a fire ? AND HER BIG ELEPHANTS. 7 that thought which strikes terror into the female breaut. With beads of horror upon her brow Miss Ellerby started up, (or thought she did which 1 repeat amounts to the same thing), and seizing a quilted wrapper which lay upon the chair beside her, and thrusting her feet into some slippers lying handily under- neath it, (you see she was a methodical body with an eye to propriety ^ven in her dreams), she rushed out imo the landing crying " Bridget! Bridget! get up, fire! fire! thieves! call the engines! call the police! call the call the Churchwardens." Now this happy thought shows the tenor of little Miss Ellerby's mind. Whatever the impending trouble waj, it might be a something which would involve her beloved church, and the beautiful school buildings, or, horror of horrors ! the Rectory, the new Rectory of which they wereall so proud, whilst fhp Rprtor hnv»ci:3.ir tirK/M-w-. «n alike loved and respected, with his kindly wile, and,— well,— his big tribe of little ones, might be burned in their beds! 8 LITTLE MISS ELLERBY Bridget was equal to the occasion, what the hubbub was all about she knew not but she distinctly heard the com- mand to *'call the Churchwardens" and that she obeyed without the shghest hesitation and with a prompt- ness worthy of all praise. Now one of the Churchwardens was their nearest neighbor with just a tiny strip of lawn separating the two houses. With well directed aim Bridget who had after her usual housewifely fashion, all her kindling wood in the coal box ready prepared for the morn- ing s needs made use of them as missiles, hurling lump after lump against the closed Venetians of good Mr PrattV bedroom window shouting "Church! Rectory! Schoolroom! fire^ fire!" Tn spite of his sixty years and his somewhat ponderous frame, in that incredibly short space of time which schoolboys Drpn#arolli7 ^^rv^^.'U^ Jiny Mr. Pratt appeared upon the scene looking somewhat scared it is true but ''all there" nevertheless {■' xasion, leknew e com- irdens" It the >rompt- is was a tiny louses, it who ^wifely in the morn- tm as lump good Duting ! fire? d his that which as a 1 the it is !• AND HER BIG ELEPHANTS. 9 By this time the whole place was alive, one had shouted one thing and one another until the entire pari^ was represented from the Rector him- self down to the Sexton's youngest boy. "What was it all about? Where was the fire ? Who had shouted first ? stop the engines! What's the meaning of it all?'' ^ The gathering crowd were all making for one point and that was the beauti- ful block of shaded grounds upon which stood the Church, Rectory, Schools, all models of their kind and without equals far or near, a fact they had often challenged any one to con- tradict. Just at the central point which gave entrance to all. there was a large arched and pillared doorway, and to either side of this was firmly chained an elephant. That on the right hand being a veritable monster, that on the left certainly of m.nrh smaller dimensions, but big enough in all con' science! Under the foundations of each building alike, some mysterious power 10 LITTLE MISS ELLERBY eiephanh^ were Z? , ' ^"^ the to them, which was iithout /'^^""^ convey the whn)^ k ^ , '^""'^t' ^ the is of the toadt,?e thT '"'^ ?f which were dancing and frol.-7''' joyously under th^ k 'ro'icking lovely LonwhieJ\!'fr • ^^ ''^^ ^ unusual brilliancy, jusuL'"'"^ ^"'^ no such undermi^S Slot h h "' '^ been concocted ■ ^ ^ ^^"^ ^^er disSsrg'^trcrsr'--^. "°- ^'^^' <-« was writte!, fn letters of' m"°""'"'^^"* ner of blue silk /nr nl . ^^''^^ "J'°" ^ ''an- -lesia), whSh iSorS^P-' ^ ""^'^ gamers that the nZT^r . f ^e-struck 'Parochial Debt' whiL th^'l ^''T "^^ the other indicated the Kr f "Pf" tionship which the lesser hrn? / °^ ''''^■ greater, for unnn,/"'^ "'"'■'^ to the T«» ; Pon It was mscrilipH "tk„ Interest of the n^K^ « ._ j-t-nocd 1 he knows ee//5.r^/^';;;,vT ''^7''"^'^ °"^ _ //a«df, and -s indeed often Hers or r such i the sed to signed bt, to y into waves icking the with as if ever Q less nent ban- nple ruck was pon eJa- the rhe Dne lire ten 11 AND HER BIG ELEPHANTS. n the more offensivelv /, two. '''^^^'^^\} o rusive of the you may call him JI V ^^^ ^^"^^r. «"/ questions and to^/° ^"'^^^ •nformation in his power Tw''''^ this juncture that Httle Miss Fif k^' began to have a fo.w u Ellerby whole thing n'ightLe . T ''^^^ '^^ a", the two el?nhant! \ ^''''''^ ^^'^^ foreshadowing oFCI - ""« ""'^ ^ \"d the piebalS i£k oAh'"'''^^°^^' charge, an outcome of ^ ^^ "^" '" the zebra-like came! p^ i ''"''^ °^ was speedily denied f . . ''^ '^^^^ crackofhis whip anri ' ^^'.'^'"^ ^ «ke upheaval of 5hat 'eeme'd "I'^^i" very ground upon whlh ?k '^"^ ^^^ assembled, the twn T u ^^""^ were their work and ^h '^'^P.^ants bent to lurch forward"a' 1^^^'}-^ gave a upon their journey '"' WifTr ''""'"^ anguish and despair Miss F k ''^' "^ what she took to be her nnT ^ T^'"^ ^^erchie, but which tutd^g^ t'a 12 LITTLE MISS ELLERBY. large bath towel she had seized in her hurry. In her hands it became a veritable nag of truce, for at the mere sight of it the man made a signal which his mam- moth steeds instantly obeyed, and all agam was still. Seizing the auspicious moment the whole parish advanced as one man to expostulate, to plead, to explain, to promise anything, anything if only those elephants would go away at orce Hungry! whytobesure they were" said the man, -the Httle chap in particular! he always has to be fed first, and the worst of It is you never seem to ^et on any fiirther with him, feed him as you may! When his next meal time comes round, there he is, trunk-hunting about so to speak, to pick up every morsel that comes in his way. As to his poor mother! why the patience of that animal is beyond belief. She never even looks to be i^di until her youn^ one is satisfied, and goodness kn^ws*" whenever that may be ! I only hope that her turn Nvill come some day, for AND HER BIG ELEPH..NTS. 13 big as she looks, she must be that holler that if her ribs were not as strong as iron, and her hide as thick as a dozen parchments, she'd never be fit for her work!" With this, he gave an ommous crack of his whip, as though time was up, and they must stay no longer palavering. In dreams (for of course you remember this is only a dream after all,) things and places, and times and seasons get oddly mixed up, and son.e two or three years seemed to have come and gone Tike a flash and much of what had really occurred in the interim I must leave to your imagination. The imminent though imaginary peril of losing their really much-prized church with Its beautiful adjuncts, a peril they had escaped it is true, had led them to a more taorough appreciation of them all, and they had even gone so far as to say '' we should have deserved it, had the calamity befallen us." The old excuses and reasons which had once 14 LITTLE MISS ELLERBY seemed so all sufficient, now appeared to themselves what they had always been m reality, paltry and insufficient. The majority acknowledged that they had let the heavy burden fall upon the few, who from year to year had been feed- ing (metaphorically) Jumbo junior, to prevent the distracting roar of the starving Mother-elephant from reaching their ears. They had in old times been tempted to believe that they might make a bargain with their Maker, that if they gave to His poor, or ranged themselves under one organization or another, and did something for his creatures that that absolved them from doing more. Noiv, they recognised that both were equally duties. Of either could it justly be said 'This should ye do. and not leave the other undone." They did not withdraw their hands from any good work which they had begun. Those had been begun in obedience to the Royal Command to " Feed my lambs," to tend the sick and soothe the sorrowful, to visit the widows in AND HER BIG ELEPHANTS. 15 their affliction," and of these com- mands they must still be mindful, but over and above these, and because of the heart softening influences of these very things, they did more, they went to the root of the matter, and laying by weekly as God had blessed them, each in proportion to his means, they found that their charity purse was never with- out a coin to bestow upon a peedy fellow creature and yet that they could pay their share towards the due and fitting maintenance of the Sanctuary itself "A long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull altogether/ had achieved by united action in a very short time what had been for so long almost a single-handed fight. They could endorse the truth of old John Bunyan's lines ''A man there was, some called him mad, the more he gave the more he had " and far better still they could realize the beautiful words in Proverbs, T Tfh 9 A . „,^ yet increaseth." 16 LITTLE MISS ELLERBY. (1 he tollowing paragraph to be used if little Miss Ellerby's storv should be read at a parochial meeting for kindred purposes.) To every story there is, or should be a moral. Far be it from me to sug- gest that our case resembles that of the parish quoted above, but as our assembling together this evening cer- tainly has some reference to a Parochial Debt, let me ask our friends when they plan to drop a coin into the plate, to change their minds, and drop in two, if It be only '- tor the sake of the bigger of Little Miss Ellerby's two big Elephants." ^ H. A. B. V -