Smyrna times., 1874-07-15
ms eIIUW e OWS .
The Bad Boy.
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER l.
IntroductorH-His name was John Hender
son Tompkins, and he was going on thirteen
years old. He had freckles all over his nose,
chewed plug g-tobacco, and loafed around select
schools, and put tin ears" on boys smaller
than himself His father was killed by
Canada saw-log, his only sister slept in the
silent tomb, and his mother divided her time
between gOssiping and canvassing for money
for the heathens In Africa.
CHAPTER II.
Tiusly.-Thus it will be seen that there was
no one to give John Henderson Tompkins any
domestic attention beyond an occasional whack
with slipper; which made him the worse.
He wasn't sent to school, never had to take
dose of castOroil, was allowed to go around
with letter in the post-ofice and his pants
supported by a magnificent belt of sheep
twine; and if he wasn't home by ten o clock
at night his mother felt perfectly sure that he
would dump down somewhere, and be home in
time for Goldfish and potatoes in the morning.
CHAPTER III.
Shameful Neglect John Henderson Tomp-
kins' mother never took him on her knee and
asked him if he knew what was beyond the
bright stars, and if he knew where he he d go
to if he grew up an awful liar and horse thief.
She never told him about the children of Egypt,
demand it is no wonder that he grew up to
be bad boy She didn't never have sticking
plasters ready when he got cut, and Sunday
mornings there was no one to rub him behind
his ears, fill his eyes with soap and water and
comb his hair the wrong way.
| CHAPTER w.
His Pecultart;es- Everything. which hap
pened in the village was laid at John Hender.
sou Tompkins' door. It, some Of that boy $
work, they said, whenever bushel of plams,
watermelon, or a peck of peaches myster-
iOusly disappeared. He was probably guilty
of everything charged, as when he died they
found where he had hid seventeen stolen cow
bells, forty axes, ever so many saw bucks, fif-
teen or twenty front-gates and | cant RENE m
ber how many snow shovels.
CHAPTER V.
Dozen on Him-In time, as the reader was
informed in a previous chapter, the adult male
population of the village got "down on
John Henderson Tompkins. Old maids jab
bed at him with umbrellas, merchants flung
pound weights at him, shoemakers dosed hin
with strap-Oil, and grOcerS always looked
around for John Henderson Tompkins wher
they wanted to heave out bad eggs and spoiled
fruits.
CHAPTER VI.
His AnlJtion.-Yo GU might think that the
would have eventually succeeded in breakn
the boys spirit and dashing his hopes. Bu
they couldn't do it, He had an ambition
which nothing could check. He wanted to
a bold pirate, and sail the raging main; an
he was patiently waiting for the time to com
when he could wear No. 10 boots, and swea
,, in voice like the echoes of a bass violl III
! would be content to crawl into hen,roosts an
! to creep around horse barns for few years
i but then-but then
= CHAPTER VII.
Efforts at Reform.-Some of the more ph
: lanthropic citizens made strenuous efforts
2 reform the BOY. They locked him up ia
1t smOke-house for week, they clubbed hi
2 until he couldn't yell, and they held him undC
" pump until he was as limp as rag. Blu
4 as soon as they let him go, he went right baC
. to his old habits again.
d. CHAPTER VIII.
h Nearing His Epd.-John Henderson Tom
s kins had kept this thing up for eight or nil
Or years when our story opens, and he was nea
N ing his end. Justice Overtakes the gull
ot sooner or later, and Justice was laying low f
:, this bad boy He had the cheek to belle
IN that he would live to be hundred years ole
iG9 but he was to be taken down peg or two, al
or his mother left an orphan.
Of CHAPTER TX.
" The End.-One day, while in the heyday
II, bis wickedness, John Henderson Tompki
~ came upon something new in the line of plu
@n 'si der. 1t was pile OF little cans labled NtI
he he glycerine-hands -dangerous-poison,
,e- But he couldn't read and he didn't care
,rt st copper. He carried a can behind the meet
house and sat down ona rock to open it. The
wasn't any guardian-angel around to tell h
that he'd get busted if he fooled with tt
ais can, and SO he spat on his hands and gave il
whack on the stone.
lat CHAPTER X.
" O6ituary-The folks all ran out, and aft
80 a good deal of trouble they found and sepa
ted the pieces of meeting house from the pieC
of boy, and they got together enough of 10
20. Henderson to fill cigar-box and answer as I
lst basis of funeral. They buried the rema
5tH per- in quiet nook, and the gravestone maker
e.. little lamb on the headstOne, to show I'll
rs. John Henderson Tompkins was meek a
tie tie lowy-Ma1 Adeler.
the --