The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1874-06-04
TER M 3:
THE BAD BOY.
CHAPTER I.-INrRopucroRY.

His name was John Henderson,
Tompkins, and he was going on thir.
teen years of age. He had frecklea
all over his nose, chewed plug tobacco,
and. loafed around select schools and
put tin cans on boys smaller than him
self. His father was killed by Cam
ada saw-Iog. his sister slept in the ST.
lent tomb, and his mother divided her
time between gossiping and canvass
/ ing for money for the heathens in At
r.ca.
CHAPTER II.-THUSLY.
Thus it will be seen that there was
no one to give John Henderson Tomp-
kins any domestic attention beyond
4 an occasional whack with a slipper,
which made him the worse. He was
not sent to school never had to take
dose of castor oil was allowed to go
around with a letter in the post-offce
and his pants supported by a mag
nifcent belt of sheeptwine, and If he
| wasn't home at ten o'clock at night
| his mother felt perfectly sure that he
would dump down somewhere and
! be home in time for Goldfish and po-
tatoes in the morning.
CHAPTER III.-sHAMEFUL NEGLECT.
John Henderson Tompkins' 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
would go TO if he grew up an awful
liar and horse-thief. She never told
him about the children of Egypt, Mo-
ses in the bulrushes or Daniel in the
Lions den, and it is no wonder that
he grew up to be a bad boy. She
didn't never have sticking plasters
ready whep he got cut, and Sunday
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 IV.-HIS PECULIARITIEs,
Everything that happened in the
village was laid at John Henderson
Tompkin's door. ats some of that
boys work." they said, whenever 8
bnshel of plums, a watermelon or a
peck of peaches mysteriously dissap-
peared. He was probably guilty of
everything charged, as, when he was
dead they found where he had hidden
seventeen stolen COW bells, forty axes,
ever so many saW-bucks, fifteen or
twenty front gates, and / can't remem-
Der how many snow shoyels.
CHAPTER v.-DowN ON HIM.
In time, as the reader was informed
ia previous chapter, the adult male
population of the village got down on
John Henderson Tompkins. Old
maids iabbed at him with umbrellas
merchants flung pound weights at
him ;shoemakers dosed him with strap
oil and grocefs always looked around
for ohm Henderson when they want
ed to heaye out bad eggs and spoiled
Fl ats.
CHAPTER Wills AMBITION.
You might think that they would
have eventually succeeded in breaking
the boys spirit and dashing his hopes,
but they couldn't do it. He had the
ambition which nothing could check.
He wanted to be bold pirate and sail
the raging main, and he was patiently
waiting for the time to come when he
could wear No. 10 boots and swear in
a voice like the echoes OF a bass viol.
He would be content to crawl into
hen roosts and 10 creep around house
barns for few years, but then-bnt
then
CHAPTER vII.-EFFoRTS AT REFORM,
Some of the more philanthropic
citizens made stenous efforts to reform
the boy. They locked him up in a
smoke house for q week they clubbed
him until he couldn't yell, and they
held him under pump until he was
limp as rag. but as soon az they let
him go he we went right back to his
old habits again.
CHATTER VIII.-NEARING HIS END.
John Henderson Tompkins has kept
this thing up for nine or ten years
when our story opens, and he was
nearing his end. Justice overtakes
the guilty sooner or later, and justice
was laying low for this bad boy. He
had the cheek to belieye that he would
live to be hundred years old, but he
was to be taken down q peg or two
and his mother left an orphan.
CHAPTER N.-THE END.
One day, while in the heyhay 'Of
his wickedness, John Henderson
Tompkins came upon something new
in the way of plunder. 1t was in q
pile of little cans labled, "Nitro-Gly-
cerene, Hands Off-Dangereus poi
son." &C.. but he couldn't read and he
did not care q copper. He carried
can behind a meeting house and sat
down on rock to open it. There
wasn't any guardian angel around to
tell him that he'd get busted if he fool
ed with the can, and so he spit on his
hands and gave it q whack on the
stone.
CHATTER X.-oBTTUARY.
The felix's all ran out, and after
good deal of trouble they found and
separated the pieces of meeting house
from the pieces of boy, and they got
together enough of John Henderson to
fiji cigar box and answer as the basis
of a funeral. They buried the remains
in a quiet nook, aud the gravestone
maker put little lamb on the head
stone to show that John Henderson
Tonipkins was meek and lovely.