The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-12-31

Loud and loud the raftcrS rang.
ANA many eyes with tears were irausht.
'.luu choose the best and leave the rcst:''
'ymh"linc cried with sha king voice;
Il promised to we'd you with your choice.
And each has chosen the way guessed!
-Good Words.
WHAT JOHNNY DID IN THE DARK.
A Christmas Story for the Little Folks.
81 ROSTER W. RAYMOND.
This tale is calculated to do good to the
young. As for grown-upS, they're set; and
YOU can't do them any good If you try. But
every truly weli-bchavcd boy, whose shoe.
strings are properly tied and whose hair is
parted on the side, but not on the back of
his head, and every nice girl, who don't
wcsr high heels or carry too large 4 fan,
will derive great profit from the story | am
gong to tell. As for believing it, my dear
young friends, YOU may do rs you like about
that. If YOU are acquainted with all the
principal rivers, mountains. cities. bounda-
rics. capcs, oceans, islands, populations and
staple productions in the geography, you
know SO much more than do that fear you
viii deSpi>c my Narrative. But whether you
believe it or not, l tell you i'll will do you
good for while You are listening to it it will
Keep YOU out OF mi>chitf-and to be kept out
Of mischief rs the best historians agree, is il
blessing that don't happen always to every
body. And i'll order that YOU may carry with
YOU q clear recollection Of what | say, shall
treat my title just like the text of sermon,
according to the best models: Subject, What
J"h"ay did il. the DIRK: first head, What
Jolnny? second head, D"d:: third head,
H-hot Jotnny Did: fourth head, In the Da,h ::
fifth head, Did In the Nu'k: sixth head,
What Johnny Did in th Dafk: seventh
head, '"',,.q,sencs$ and Appli,at'on. Another
4 =
You 90 10 sleep during any part of my re-
marks You will know just whereabouts am
when you wake up. l have tried this plan in
church, and it works very well. The only
disadvantage Of the arrangement l have
adopted is that some of the heads seem to
have very little sense in them; but, bless me.
If you set seven heads together anywhere,
some of them will lack sense. That isn't my
fault, therefore; it's human nature.
To begin, then: What yohnny! Why,
Johnny Cooper. Of course. I'll warrant il
You had lived within three blocks of him you
wouldn't have to ask. If he had never called
on you formally. his ball would have visited
You more than once through the basement
window pane. and his china alleys would
have rolled down your cellar grating, and ten
TO one some time or other pieces of his pailta-
looms would have been found waving like
little taGs from the sharp points of your iron
fence. If there was a long, slippery place on
Il taut!ful chance to inspect the sky, YOU
might be sure johnny Cooper was one of the
boys that had polished it for a slide. You
would have seen him also, on bright winter
mornings, pulling his sled to school For, as
the poet has beautifully observed,
johnny had a little sled
To use when there was snow.
And everywhere that johnny went
The sled was sure to go
Why will people be SO absurd as to clear
Off their sidewalks in the winter clear down
to the bare stone. 1t is enough to make any
fellow angry, when he is hauling Il sled with
girl ON it, to come to such disgusting
spot a that There is only one consolation;
il does polish the runners, that's fact.
The girl on Johnny's sled was Chicken
Little. She was Johnny's sister; and her real
maine was-upon my word I've forgotten what
it wac. Everybody called her Chicken Little :;
and YOU couldn't have heard any other name
if You had listened year. You would have
been Obliged to hunt it up in the big family
Bible, and there YOU would have found, be-
side, the names of William and Susan
Cooper, the elder brother and sister. William
was the eldest of all. He used to be called
Bill to my certain knowledge; but ut the
time Of my story he was eighteen, and wore
a fancy necktic. and carried cane, and fire.
quently felt of his upper-lip; and l should
like to see the person who would have dared
to call him Bill. The family compromised on
Will, and the cook said NJ. William"
And it was much the same with Miss Susan,
who was two years younger. She studied
Mental Philosophy, went to parties, and
wrote to her friends in very large, slanting
md, on tinted paper, with her own mono
gram at the top. But | can't undertake to
describe all the Coopers to you; l have said
enough to answer the question, What
.lohnny'
Ny second head is Dill: and perhaps you
wonder what can be made out of that But
! haven't listened to sermons for nothing.
D,d my friends, is word indicating def
mite past time; and the question arises, what
time: Well, it was Christmas Eve. But Did
involves another thing besides time, and that
is. place. The place was partly in the bed,
partly in the hall, partly on the stairs, partly
in the parlor, and altogether in the dark.
Now, putting my fret and second heads to.
gethcr-for two heads are better than one,
you know-I obtain my third head, VIA,
just like spelling Constantinoplc-C-O-N, con,
there's YOUR CON; STAN, stan, there's your
STAN, there's your CoNsTAN-and SO forth.
She don't reflect that she may be making fun
of the outline Of the discourse of some excel
lent Turkish missionary. Her objection does
mean, now, before he came to the Dark was
to quarrel with everybody in the house and
get himself sent to bed in disgrace 1t is re.
markable how easily boy who, in the main,
means well, and does pretty WELL can get into
mood in which everything goes wrong, and
he among the rest; SO that he is disobedien,
to his father, and suiky to his mother, and an
imp of mischief to his big brother, and tor.
mcnt to his elder sister, and hectoring bully
to his little sister, and horrid nuisance ia
the coOk-and 80 on, to the cats and dogs and
all the boys that live on the block. Grown
folks get into such tantrums, too; but in bon,
it is very naughty, and they have to be put to
bed. In grown folks it is not naughty, sup
pose, because there is nobody to put them to
bed; and rs for expecting them to be sorry o.
their own accord and punish themselves
come now, that is not reasonable!
Johnny Cooper, | regret to say, failed te
on the rampage for an hour or two, wa:
cent off upstairs, loudly declaring that
everybody was real mean to him, and nobody
loved him, at which Mr.. Cooper said: " b
silent, sir" and viii said small boys nevel
did know what was good for them, and sister
Sue muttered that he was perfectly horrid,
and Chicken Little stretched out her arms to
him, but, being repulsed, buried her curly
head in her mothers lap, while the mother
looked very sad and whispered only: "Good
night, my son; some day you will know Us
better"
So Johnny went to bed, trying hard to keep
up his wrath; for he knew by experience
that he should get sorry very soon il he didn'
take pains and guard against it. As he un
dressed alone he resolved in his heae
schemes of vengeance on all mankind. i
was too bad, he said to himself, that he had
gone and spent his pocket-money on present.
for everybody, and now nobody deserved
them. He had a great mind to 60 down
stairs early in the morning, and find all those
presents, and take them away somewhere ani