Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-05-12

case there was ecreW loose somewhere,
and it ali happened Just the other way.
When he found Jim Blake stealing APP
Piles, and went unuef the tree to read to
him about the bad little boy who fell out
Of Q neighbor's 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
a 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 aany
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 lame dog that hadn't any place to
stay, and was hungry and prosecuted, and
bring him home, and pet him and have
that dogs lmpcrishabie 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 the clothes off
him except those that were in front, and
made spectacle of him that was aston
ishing. 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
about the most Improbable things he
could invest In.
Once when he was on his way to Sunday
School he saw some bad boys starting
off pleasuring in a sail-boat. He was
filed with CONSERVATION, because he knew
from his reading that boys who went
sailing on Sunday invariably got drowned.
So he ran out on raft to warn them, but
q log turned with him and slid him into
the river. A man got him out pretty
soon, and the doctor pumped the water
out of him and gave him fresh start
with his bellows, but he caught cold and
Law 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
we'll, in the most surprising manner.
Jacob Blivens said there was nothing like
these things in the books. He was per-
fectly dumbfounded.
When he got well he was little dis
but he resolved to keep on try
ing, anyhow. He knew that 80 far his
wouldn't do to go in a book,
but he hadn't yet reached the allotted
term of life for good little boys, and he
hoped to be able to make record yet, if
he could hold on until his time was fully
up. If everything else failed, he had his
dying speech to fall back on.
He examined his authorities, and found
that it was now time to go to sea as cabin
boy. He called on q ship captain and
made his application, and when the cap
tain asked for his recommendation he
proudly drew out a tract and pointed to
the words: ITO Jacob BliyeRs, from his
affectionate teacher" But the captain
was coarse, vulgar man, and he said,
"Oh, that be bowed; that wasn't any
proof that he knew how to wash dishes or
handle slush bucket, and he guessed he
didn't want him." This was altogether
the most extraordinary thing that had
ever happened to Jacob in all his life A
compliment from a teacher, on tract,
had pever failed to move the tenderest
emotions of ship captains and open the
way to all 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 it.
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 lot of them
in the old iron foundry fixing up little
Joke on fourteen or fifteen dogs, which
they had tied together in long procession,
and were going to ornament with empty
cans made fast to their
tails. Jacobs heart was touched. He sat
down on one Of those cans-fOr lac never
minded grease when duty was before him
and he took hold of the foremost dog by
the collar, and turned his reproving eye
upon wicked Tom. Jones. But just at
that moment Alderman McWelter, full Of
wrath, stepped in. All the bad boys ran
away but Jacob Bilvens rose in conscious
innocence, and began one of those stately
little Sunday school book speeches, which
always commence with "Oh, sirr' in
dead opposition to- the fact that
no boy, good or bad, ever starts
remark with "Oh, slr!' But
the Alderman never waited to hear the
rest. He took Jacob Bivens by the ear.
and turned him around, and hit him a
whack In the rear with the fiat Of his
hand and in an instant that good little
boy shot out through the roof and scared
away towards the sun, with the fragments
Of those fifteen dogs stringing after him
like the tail of kite. And there wasn'ta
sign of that Alderman or that old iron
foundry left on the face of the earth and
as for young Jacob Blivens, he never got
q chance to make his last dying speech
after all his trouble fixing it up, unless he
made it to the birds; because, although
the bulk of him came down all right in a
tree-top in an adjoining county, the rest of
him was apportioned around among four
townships, and so they had to hold five
inquests on him to find ont whether he
was dead or not, and how 1t occurred.
You never saw q boy scattered 80.
Thus persisted the good little boy who
did the best he could, but didn't come out
according to the books Every hoy who
ever did as he did prosperedNexcept him.
His case is truly remarkable. 1t will
probably never be accounted for.-1ne
Gala9y.
THE shipwrecks of 1859, according to
the books Of the French Lloyds, involved
the total loss of 2,6l2 vessels, of which
a IL 0o<n