Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-12-31
THAT EMERSON BOY.
The Information OF mI.ehisf.

rho INCARNATION OF Mischief
From tho Detroit Free Press.
The Emerson boy is dead. aud there
isn't any one around that house to make
fun. He was a cheerful, lively boy, and
he did his best TO make that household
put on the mantle of joyfulness. Elmer
son often remarked that Bob didn't seem
ever to sit down and think Of the grave
and death, and he probably never did
No, Bob wasn't Of that make. He
wanted 10 have fan. Both his ears were
nearly worn up by being cutfed so much,
aud ii took whole row of currant
bushes to furnish whips to dust his jacket
for the summer.
Emerson did not know what fun was
until Bob was eight years old. Then
the boy began TO LAUNCH out. He would
bore gimlet-holes in the bottom of the
water pail, put cartridges in the coal
stove, unscrsw the door-knobs, fill the
kerosene lamp with water, and a good
thrashing didn't burthsh his mind over
five minutes. Sometimes his father
would take him by the hair and yank
him up to the sofa and sit down and ask;
Robert Parthenon Emerson, what in
blazes ails your
Its the yaller flanders, guess,
Bob would meekly reply.
Robert, don't you want TO be an an
CELL" the old man would continue.
"And have wingsT
Yes. my son"
"And ay higher kiteY
YES"
"And fight hawks?'
Yes. guess SC"
bet your beef would-whoopl Bully
for the angels"
THAT sacrilege, that isl" the old man
would remark, and he would jerk Bob's
hair some more and declare that the
young rascal was bound for the gallows
After lying under the pear tree for six
minutes Bob would recover from his sad
ness and 90 over to the barn, and run
the pitchfork through the straw cutter,
harness up the COW, and stick pins into
the family horse.
One night he brought home wolf
trap and set it in the middle of the wood
shed floor to catch rat. He chuckled
a good deal that evening at the thought
Of what would happen to the rats, and
he fell asleep and dreamed that he was a
hand organ, and that some one stole the
crank to him, so that be couldn't be
played on. just before going to bed.
old Emerson went out after scuttle of
coal, and he stepped his bootless foot
into that trap. BE made a mighty
spring and uttered q mighty yell, and it
took two men ten minutes to spring the
trap off his leg.
ITS that boys work." he groaned, as
he nursed his foot, and be took up the
bootjack, limpsd into the bedroom, and
gave Bob an awful clip just as the child
was dreaming of playing base ball with
q mermaid.
"Tll pound We to death ii We don't
stop this fooling" cried the old man, but
he hadn't been out Of the bedroom ten
minutes before Boo was planning to stop
up the chimney next day and smoke
everybody out OF the house. 1t WASH
MANY DAYS before he fixed darning
needle 10 the cushion of his fathers arm.
chair and bounced the old man three feet
high; and his licking hadn't got over
smarting before be exploded a fire.
cracker in his mothers snuf-box. That
night the old man said to him as he took
him by the ear;
Robert Parathon Emerson, do you
ever think OF where you will go tor
Eyes sir, he answered, "Illgo to bed
purity SOON.
Then he got another mauling, and
went to dream that he was three-tined
and that man was using him
to load hay with.
Poor boy Even three days before he
died, and while on his dying bed. he
managed to slip an eight-ounce tack
into his fathers left boot and get up an
other circus.