Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1861-04-12
MISCELLANY Y.
From the Iowa School journal.
The Worst Boy in School.
BY MRS. CAROLINE A. soULE.

Is that one of my scholars 2"
Miss Merton, the new teacher, pointed
TO lad just outside the garden fence. He
was ragged and dirty, barefooted too, and
wore an old straw hat, so much in pieces
that his tangled locks stuck up every
which way" through the holes. He was
throwing stones at a robbins nest that hung
high up in cherry tree, and screechng all
the time in a way that made one involun-
tarily clap his hands to his ears.
Il am sorry to say it is" replied Deacon
Gray. The worst boy in school, too, the
one that will make you the most trouble
Indeed, don't believe you'll be able te 90
anything with him. He's as strong as a
giant. little short fellow as he is. He fog
ged the teacher last winter, and left him for
dead. He's the worst boy, take him all in
all, ever saw"
Has he parents 7"
"No; his mother died when he was a
baby, and his father, hard-working man,
hadn't any time to see to him, and the child,
/ expect, had pretty hard time of it, with
one old maid and another for housekeeper.
When he was five years old, his father died,
and since that he has been tossed from pill
lar TO post. He's naturally bright boy,
and if his mother had lived he might have
been somebody, for she was just one of the
most patient, loving women you ever saw in
all your life; Christian woman, if ever
there was one"
Poor boy /" Miss Merton spoke ten
derly. "What pity somebody don't adopt
l. Al, tba,r and hos. ri -
That's just what I've told father many
time," said Mrs. Gray, looking up from
the bread she was kneading. i've always
said if some one would only take him in
and do by him as they would do by their
own horn child, it would be the salvation of
him."
"Motber wanted should take him in
this spring, when he was out of place, but
told her it was loo risky. If hadn't any
children | might perhaps, but to have such
a rough, tearing, swearing, mischevous boy
here all the time with my three little girls,
learning all sorts Of business TO that young
ster there" and he pointed to two-year
old boy who sat on the floor playing with
pussy g I couldn't risk it no way. Yet
I'm sorry for him."
THAT'S what everybody says" contin-
ued his wife. " They are all sorry for him,
but no one is willing 10 try and reform him,
and if it aint done soon, it'll be too late, for
just as sure as he goes on the way he is
now, he'll be in the penetentiary before he's
twenty-one."
81 wish you had taken him in." Miss
Merton spoke earnestly.
You won't wish so a month hence,
said the Deacon, just wait till you've seen
him cut up"
But it j do think so four weeks from
now, will you take him? Say yes; please
do" and she laid her hand confidingly on
his arm.
"Well, yes; if after that time you think
you can do anything with him, why, I'll try
him spell. But he's hard case"
Miss Merton looked out of the window
again. The boy had climbed over the pal
ing and was now starting by the tree. She
went out quietly into the front yard. There
were not many flowers in bloom yet. only a
few daffodlls. bunch of tae,r de Us, and a
box of yiolets. She gathered few of the
latter and sauniered leisurely down the
gravelled walk, pausing now and then to
look at the annuals just peeping out Of the
moist ground. By and by she reached the
cherry tree. on whose lowest bough the boy
yet stood, for he had not advanced foot