Litchfield enquirer., 1867-12-26

ai forehead gifstened with syrup: "Johnny :, don't you remember that I have alway f told you never to meddle with matches?" It was something delicious to see John ny trying to remember. He cast one ey. , meditativelyup to the ceiling, then he iixei 1t abstractedly upon the canary bird, thel , he rubbed his ruffied brows with stick, !, hand; but really, for the life of him. Ii, couldn't recall any injunctions concernius matches.
 1T can't papa. truly, truly" said John
 ny. at length. II guess must have for got it."
 Well, Johnny, in order that you may not forget it in future" Here Johnny was seized with an idea 1 He interrupted me.
 ''Pll tell you what yon do, papa-yoa just put it do,cn in ,oritin."
 With the air of man who has settled d question definitely, but at the same time is
 willing to listen politely to any crude sug. gestions that you may have to throw out, Johnny crossed his legs, and thrust his hands into those wonderful trousers pock- cts. I turned my face aside, for I felt a certain weakness creeping into the corners of my mouth. was lost In an instant the little head, covered all over with yellow curls. was laid upon my knee, and Johnny was crying, "Tm so very, very sorryr'
 l have said that Johnny is the terror of the neighborhood. think l have not done the young gentleman any injustice. If there is window broken within radius Of two miles from our house, Johnny's ball or stone known to come from his dexter ous hand, is almost certain to be found in l the battered premises. l never hear the l musical jlngling of splintered glass, but l my po7te-neonnaie gives conyulsiye throb in my breast-pocket. There is not door, step in our street that hasn't borne evi- dences in red chalk of his artistic ability: there isn't bell that he hasn't rung and run away from at least three hundred times. Scarcely day passes but he falls out of something, or over something, or into something A ladder running up to the dizzy roof of an unfinished building is no more to be resisted by him than the back platform of horse-car, when the conductor is collecting his fare in front.
 l should not like to enumerate the bat ties that Johnny has fought during the,past eight months. It is q physical impossibili- ty, I should judge, for him to refuse chal- lenge. He picks his enemies out of all ranks of society. He has fought the ash- mans boy, the grocers boy, the rich boys over the way and any number of miscel- laneous boys who chanced to stray in our street.
 I can't say that this young desperado is always victorious. have known the tip of his nose to be of an unpleasant redness for weeks together. lave known him to come home frequently with no brim to his hat; once he presented himself with only one shoe, on which occasion his jacket was hao sV %Io+ him the appearance of an over-ripe chest nut bursting out of it's burr. How he would fight! But this can say,-if John ny is as cruel as Caligula, he is every bit as brave as Agamemon. never knew him to strike boy smaller than himself I nev- CT knew him to tell lie when lie would save him from disaster.
 At present tue General, as sometimes call him, is in hospital. He was seriously wounded at the battle of the Little Go Cart, on the 9th inst. On returning from my office yesterday evening, I found that scared veteran stretched upon sofa in the sitting room, with patch of brown paper over his left eye, and conyicting smell of vinegar about him.
 '.Yes" said his mother, dolefully, 'John- ny's been fighting again. That horrid Bar nabee boy (who is eight years old, if he is a day) won't let the child alone"
 "Well," said I, 1T hope Johnny gave the Barnabee boy thrashing"
 Didn't thought" cries Johnny, from the sofa. II bet!''
 70 Johnnyr' says his mother,
 Now several days previous to this 1 had addressed the General in the following terms:-
 johnny if I ever catch you in another fight of your own seeking, l shall cane you."
 In consequence of this declaration, it became my duty to look into the circum- stances of the present affall, which will be known in history as the battle of the Little Go Cart After going over the ground very carefully, I found the following to be the state of the case.
 It seems that the Barnabee. boy-I speak of him as if he were the Benicia Boy-is the oldest pupil in the Primary Military School q think it must be military schooD of which Johnny is @ recent member. This Barnabce having whipped every one of his companions, was signing for new boys to conquer, when Johnny joined the institu- tion. He at once made friendly overtures of battle to Johnny who, eddy enough, seemed indisposed to encourage his advan- 4 ty prosecutions, which had continued up to the day of the fight. ...>. ts On the morning of that eventful day the Barnabee boy appearedin in the school yard with a small go-cart. After running down on Johnny several times with his useful vehicle, he captured Johnny's cap filled it with sand, and dragged it up and down the yard triumphantly in the go-cart. This made the General very angry, of course, and he took an early opportunity of kick ing over the triumphal car, in doing which he kicked one of the wheels so far into space that it has not been seen since.
 This brought matters to a crisis. The battle would have taken place then and there, but at that moment the school-bell rang, and the gladiators were obliged te give their attention to Smiths Speller. But gloom hung over the mornings exercises "a gloom that was not dispelled in the back row, when the Barnabee boy stealth fly held up to Johnny's vision slate whereon was inscribed this fearful mes sage:-
 "I'me going to lick you at recess"
 Johnny got it ''put down in writin' this time!
 After nasty glance at the slate, tn. General went on with his studies compos nllx, aoo,,rL .fElovonH o,n1ooI noroa o,,