Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-11
DAILY LEADER.
C%R0SSBONES' FATHER.
BY C. P. WILLIAM.

a dry, without loss of time, as regarded his
y name, his fathers occupation, and the
number and appearance of his sisters.
5 Other points were discussed more at lei
sure.
MaeLaren's, you must know was stu
ated in a village a few miles out of Liver
pool there were nearly sixty fellows there,
so you may be sure several of them had
made up their minds to go to sea IS soon
as ever they left school; and as two or
three of these slept in my bedroom-the
'JuniOr's' rOom-that will account for
what took place there after old Wiggy
took away the clndle every night. Old
Wiggy was the French master, and if you
could have seen his head-well, never
mind.
Among the other impositions on parents
which were set forth in MacLaren's pro-
spectus-none of which were ever kept to,
except perhaps the experienced dentist" y
who used to come every halt, and take
out all the best double teeth in the fellows
heads-among these, Isay, it was stated
that a 'library of well-selected books is
provided for the use of the young gentle
men, Now l appeal to any one who
went there, if there ever was a greater
crammer than this. What does well Sc
lected mean, l should like to know? Are
principles of Geology" or "Life of Rev.
Benjamin Bulb" or General Gazetteer"
or "Treatise on Comic Sections" we'll Sc
lected? Isuppose next they'll call the
Latin Grammar and Arithmetic a well Sc
lected library ofbooks. To be sure, there
were two or three old volumes of the
"Waverly Novels but as they were all
the middle of the tales, of course that
took a good deal from the interest of
reading them. The only two really good
books in the lot were "Curiosities of Ma
ture and Art" and Lives of Buccaneers
and Pirates" These two were always in
the hands of some of the juniors" and
were read out in the bedroom so often,
that at last we could have done almost as
well without the books as with them.
Whoever read them had to sit on the
floor in one corner with the candle partly
under a bed for fear of surprise.) The
"Pirates' was, Of course, the greater IA
vorite of the two; and Calomel, l do real
" think, knew it all off from one end to
the other, and was always persuading fell
to walk the plank by means of a Dol
ster Oft the beds on to the floor, and build
ing caves with the bed-clothes. He got
tired of that after he was pulled out of
his cave one night by MacLaren, and {
walked into with a slipper. The fellows :
were all sorry for old Calomel, of course, l
but it was great fun for them, and they I
help larking him a good deal y
about theidea ola pirate being hauled out L
If his cave and slippered. We'll, this o
me to what / was going to say. o
One night, in the middle Of a half. after \
had gone to bed, MeLaren came into d
our room with a candle and a new fellow. a
He told us the new fellows name was u
Hartley waited till he undressed; watched
into bed with little Binns, next bed D
Calomel, wished us goodnight, and Il
old us to go to sleep, and left us. Go to $
leepl Dyes, l dare say The minute u
he sitting-room door was heard to slam n
lpon MacLaren, you may fancy, ifyou "
an, the volley Of questions directed at
bed. az
The new chap was very laxative; said ~
e had been living with his aunt in York y,
hire for years, but that she having sud =
enly got married, ne had been sent home h,
D Liverpool, and thence to Macs. Had ~
9th brothers and sisters, but had been so =.
tile at home didn't knew much about 80
lem. He asked if Mac was very strict : p,
nd when we said 1--WE believed him -
he, iust?' he said he was afraid it a.
suit him, for that he had been dI
sed to his own fling in Yorkshire; and AZ
len went on to that extent about guns, h
orses and dogs, that Calomel at last ask he
him, rather dryly, if he hadn't nothing ~
1T to show for all this? He replied that %
had a watch which his aunt had given bo
an
"Oh." says Calomel, IA watch is nothing; IN
y father has two, a chronometer and a 90
.peateT." 40
"And mine" retorted the new chap, G,
las three an
In short, it became a regular Dragging m
between the two; and if the new
How told any lies as to our certain ~
1owledge CalOmel did, why he was a fir
,etty good hand at it, that's all. In spite al
all that Dobbs could say, though, the u,
w fellow always trumped his best cards; an
hen Dobbs mentioned a pony at home MI
which we knew he hadn't got), Hartley ~.
as down on him with his aunt stables nj
Id when Calomel spoke of q pistol which n,
!, possessed, the other declared that Dobbs ha
.ould only have seen the rabbit shooting "a
Yorkshire, and moreover stated that co,
ere were hanging up in his fathers house hi
lih GI DOOl- lhO GlllSs AbAA lASLolHs GIu Il N
5ord, oil Whlch ne INTENDED 10 avail MIN of
If during the next holidays. on
d" By-the-bye,' said Calomel, rather
eeringly, (and we ali at once remember 20
that the question hadn't been asked be- ~
but it was out of all rule, you see, a a
low coming in the dark "what is your ii.
Their ~ an
Ny father" said the chap very quiet he
"oh, he's a pirate ma
IA what? ?" shouted Calomel, jumping Ppf
upright in bed, so loud that the in
her had only time to repeat in the same g
anner-of-fact way, "a pirate" before we Of
ard old Mac come out of the sitting
ON, and along the passage to our door. OIL
own went Dobbs in such a hurry, that NJ;
heard his head go with a great bang cal
the beds; so that he couldn't help do,
wing a loud "Oh!" though the rest of US no,
re breathing veryhard, to make believe wa
: were asleep. so
Mac called out that if he heard any m,
pre- noise, he would do what should NJ
ep us awake for some time, and then a :
INT off. {
More would very likely been said then, on
great was the sensation caused by the mi
W fellows declaration, but as we didn't ma
ar Macs sltting-room door shut again, loo
/, couldn't tell but that he was somewhere 70
wo
Not that there was anything of a sneak oro
Mac; only he liked to catch fellows at ooa
Very different to old Wiggy, whose w
al name was Girard, and who was hated of
everybody for eoaxing Tor cogling as sai
: used to call it,, till he got something on
ainst the fellows, and then making their On
.uckles black and blue with a big don ~,
V. There was no time to saymuch next ~.
for every one lay in bed as long HI
he dared after the bell rang, and had mo
ly timo to jump into his clothes, and w5
t down to prayers before the second bell an
,pped. Calomel just asked once during ism
so as to prevent any mistake. 80
What did you say your father was, last {
ght, you sir? ~ But the reply was just oa,
ven in the same cool way, "a pirate" 32e,
lionel said no more. 10
After breakfast, however, a lot of us got bo,
gether in the playground, and talked the .eo
over. The existence of pirates was
yond question; there was no reason to be
ubt that they possessed sons like other be,
.ople, and perhaps left their business TO e.,
but we were not aware of any re-
rded case in which such sons had been ~,