The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-06-09

with this good little boy /; nothing ever
turned out with him the way it turned out
with the good little boys in the books -
They always had good time, and the
bad boys had the broken legs but in this
case there was screw loose somewhere,
and it all happened Just the other way.
When he found Jim Blake stealing ap-
pies, and went under the tree to read to
him about the bad little boy who fell out
of a neighbours apple tree, and broke his
arm, Jim fell out of the tree too, but he
fell on him and broke his arm, and Jim
wasn't hurt at all. Jacob couldn't under
stand that. There wasn't anything in the
books like it.
And once, when some bad boys pushed
blind man over in the mud, and Jacob
ran to help him up and receive his bless
ing, the blind man did not give him any
blessing at all, but whacked him over the
head with his stick and said he would
like to catch him showing him again and
then pretending to help him up. This
was not in accordance with any of the
books. Jacob looked them all over TO
see.
One thing that Jacob wanted to do was
to find a lame dog that hadn't any place
to stay, and was hungry and prosecuted,
and bring him home, and pet him and
have the dogs imperishable gratitude
And at last he found one, and was happy;
and he brought him home and fed him,
but when he was going to pet him, the
dog flew at him and tore all thu clothes
off him except those that were in front,
and made spectacle of him that was as
tonishiug. He examined authorities, but
he could not understand the matter. 1t
was of the same breed of dogs that was
in the books, but it acted very differently.
Whatever this boy did, he got into trou-
BILE. The very things the boys in the
books got rewarded for turned out TO be
abou! the most Improbable things he
could invest in.
Once when he was on his way to Sum
day school he saw some bad boys starting
off pleasering in a sail boat. He was
filed with CONSERVATION, because he knew
from his reading that boys who went sail>
ing on Sunday invariably got drowned.
So he ran out'on a raft TO warn them,
into the river. A man got him out pretty
soon, and the doctor pumped the water
out OF him and gave him a fresh start
with his bellows, but he caught cold and
lay sick abed nine weeks. But the most
unaccountable thing about it was that the
bad boys in the boat had good time all
day, and then reached home alive and
r,aU ~ tho DoOct curpriciDO manner -
Jacob B.ivens said there was nothing like
these things in the books. He was per-
fectly dumbfounded
When he got we'll he was a little dis
couraged, but he resolved to keep on try
ing, anyhow He knew that SD far his
experiences would not do to go in book,
but he hadn't yet reached the allotted
term Of life for good little boys, and he
hoped to be able to make a record yet, If
he could hold on until the time was fully
up. If everything else failed, lac had his
dying speech TO fall back on.
He examined his authorities, and now
found that it was time to go to see as a
cabin boy He called on ship captain
and made his application, and when the
captain asked for his recommendation he
proudly drew out tract and pointed to
the words "To Jacob Blivens, from his
affectionate teacher But the captain
was a coarse, vulgar man, and he said,
''Oh, that be blowed; that wasn't any
proof that be knew how to wash dishes
or handle slush bucket, and he guessed
he didn't want him" This was alto
gather the most extraordinary thing that
had ever happened to Jacob in all his life.
A compliment from teacher, on tract,
had never failed TO move the tenderest
emotions of ship captains and open the
way to sll Offices of honor and profit in
their gift-~it never had in any book that
ever he had read He could hardly be-
lieve his senses.
This boy always had hard time of II.
Nothing ever came out according to the
authorities with him. At last, one day,
when he was around hunting up bad little
boys to admonish, he found a lot of them
in an old iron foundry fixing up little
joke on fourteen or fifteen dogs, which
they had tied together in long processlons
and were going to ornament them with
empty nitro-glycerine cans made fast to
their tails. Jacobs heart was touched.
He sat down on one of those cans-@for
he never minded grease when duty was
before him-and he took hold of The fore
most dog by the collar, and turned his
reproving eyes upon wicked Tom. Jones.
But lust at that moment Alderman Nc
Weller, full of wrath, stepped IN. All
the bad boys ran away but Jacob BliV-
ems rose in conscious innocence, and began
one of those stately little Sunday school
speeches, which always commence with
''Oh, sir p in dead opposition to the fact
that no boy, good or bad, ever starts a
remark with ooh, sirl" But the Alder
man never waited to hear the rest. He
took Jacob BIivens by the ear, and turned
him around, and hit him whack in the
rear with the fat of his hand and In an