Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-11-05
The Uross-Patoh.

know little black.eyed boy, with tight
ourls all over his head. He IL very sweet
aud pleasant when things go right but he
has days when everything seems to 70 wrong,
and then he Is called Cross.Patch. HIS
other name Is Frank. When these DAYS
come round everybody wishes IL was night.
Gross Patch comes down TO breakfast with
red nose aud a SHUTTLE, and drags his feet
along as il they were flat-irous.
Papa hears him coming. and says. "Fall-
ing barometer, heavy showers, and possibly
storms" Papa says this as if he we're read.
ing the newspaper, but he is really reading
Frank.
As Cross-Patch comes into the room and
bangs the door, Tom, his big brother, OK.
claims, "lndicative mood I" and Susie, who
goes to the high school, laughs and says,
"Objective case, and dis.agrees with every.
body in the first person singular |"
81 don't care ain't aud you shan't
laugh at mo!" roars Frank.
"Croth.pash !" lisps little Lucy. u
"COme here, Frank" says mamma, very
gently, "and tell mamma what is the mat
ter"
"Phebe got soap in my eyes. aud she
washed my face hard in the middle, Just as
II didn't have any nose at ALL and the
comb stuck in my hair every time and hurt,
and" Ito.
"Apd you got out at the foot OF the bed =
says provoking Tom. .di BOD
"No, l didn't. got out ut the side
and 'tisu't tair =" cries Frank. .
"No," says papa, with sigh, III see il
isn't; it is very cloudy aud threatening.r
Then they all laugh, and Cross Patch gets
worse and worse. He sits down at the table
and takes baked potato; il is hot, aud
burns his fingers; 50 he pushes his plate
away very hard, and upsets glass Of milk
and has to be sent upstairs. He puts an
apple In his pocket, and goes off to school
without any breakfast. On the way big
bad boy takes the apple away from him
just as he is going To take his first bite.
At school things are no better. The
hardest word in the spelling lesson is through
and Of course the teacher gives him thai
word to spell, and he sticks in the middle OIL
it, and can't get through.
Then comes the multiplication table, and
the teacher asks him "nine times four" and
he answers, "sixty-three." The crosswis,
has got into his brain, and he keeps on say
ing "sixty- three" till he thinks il is right
and then be is very cross when he is told t
learn his lesson, aud stay after school Il
recite il.
As be goes home be wishes he could mee
the man that made the spelling book, anC
the ether man that made the multiplication
table, 50 that he might knock them bott
down, and jump on them with all his might
a long time but, as he doesn't see them any
where, he thinks he will play ball.
He plays that the front gate is the spell
ing. book man, and that the lantern post Il
the man that made the Multiplication table
and he sends the ball, FIRST at one, and thel
at the other, with great fury. At last, 10
very wild throw, Cross. Patch hits the mul
DUPLICATION mani mean the lantern post
on the head. The pieces come rafting dow
on the sidewalk, aud this dreadful nois
frightens away all the crossness. Fran
runs into the house TO his mamma, and tell
her how sorry he is, and begs her to tel
papa all about it, and gives her all tn
money in his little savings bank, to pay 70
the broken lantern. Then mamma asks hin
if he is sure that Cross Patch has gone ava,
entirely, and he cries a great shower o
tears, and says, "Yes, mamma, every inch o
him !" and mamma gives Frank some suppe
and puts him to bed, and tells him to pra,
to the good angels to drive Gross. Patch YER,
far of, in the night, so that he can't get bacl
for great many days.-Wide Atcake.