Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1900 — A Lively Stone. [ARTICLE]

A Lively Stone.

The tortoise is a great sleeper, and that characteristic yields the London Spectator a funny story of one which was a domestic pet In a country house. As his time for hibernating drew nigh, he selected a quiet corner in the dimly lighted coal-cellar, and there composed himself to sleep.- A new cook was appointed soon after. She knew not tortoises. In a few months, with the lapse of time, the tortoise woke up and sallied forth. Scrbams soon broke the kitchen’s calm. Entering that department, the lady of the house found the cook gazing in awestruck wonder, and exclaiming, as with unsteady hand she pointed to the tortoise: “My conscience! Look at the stone that I’ve broken the coal wl’ a’ winter!” «