The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-08-04
The Boy. the Beetle. and the Dog.

| =
The Boy, the Beetle, and the Dog.
| IA Sketch from Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer.1
The minister gave out his text and
droned along monotonouely through an
argument which was SO prosy that many
head by and by began to nod and yet
it was an argument that dealt in imitless
fire and birthstone, and thinned the
predestined elect down to company so
small as to be hardly worth the saving.
Tom counted the pages of the sermon !;
after church he always knew how many
pages there had been, but he seldom
knew anything else about the discourse.
However, this time he was really inter-
ested for O little while. The minister
made grand and moving picture of the
assembling together of the worlds mil
lennium, when the lion and the lamb
shonld lie down together and little
child should lead them. But the pathos,
the lesson, the moral of the great spec
tacle were lost upon the boy he only
thought of the conspicuousness of the
principal character before the Unlocking
nations, his face lit up with the thought,
and he said to himself that he wished he
could be that child, if it was tame
lion.
Now he hpsed into suffering again
as the dry argument was resumed.
Presently he bethought himself of q
treasure he had, and got it out. 1t was
a large black beetle, with formidable
jaws-a "pinch-bug" he called it. 1t
was in q percussion-cap box. The first
thing the beetle did was to take him by
the finger. A natural flip followed, the
beetle went floundering into the aisle,
and lit on its back, and the hurt finger
went into the boys mouth. The beetle
lay there working its helpless legs, I'M
able to turn over. Tom eyed it, and
longed for it, but it was safe out of his
reach. Other people uninterested in the
sermon found relief in the beetle, and
they eyed it too.
Presently vagrant poodle dog came
idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the
summers softness and the quiet, weary
of captivity, signing for change. He
spied the beetle; the dropping tail lifted
and wagged. He surveyed the prize
walked around it; smelt of it
from a safe distance; walked around
1t again grew holder, and t. ok
closer smell then lifted his lip and
made "a gingerly snatch at it, just miss
! ing it made another and another !;
began to enjoy the diversion; subsidized
TO his stomach with the beetle between
his paws, and continued his expert
ments grew weary at last, and then IN
different and absent-minded. His head
nodded, and little by little his chin des-
cended and touched the enemy, who
seized it. There was sharp yelp, q
fiirt of the poodle's head, and the
beetle fell a couple of yards away, and
lit on It's back once more. The neigh
boring spectators shook with gentle
inward Joy, several faces went behind
fans and handkerchiefs, and Tom was
entirely happy. The dog looked fool
ish, and probably felt so; but there was
resentment in his heart, too, and cray
ing for revenge. So he went to the
beetle and began wary attack on it
again jumping at it from every point
of circle, lighting with his forepaws
within an inch of the creature, making
even closer snatches at it with his teeth,
and jerking his head till his ears tapped
again. But he grew tired once more
after while tried to amuse himself
WIFI NY, Out lOllnu no RELIEF, iOlloWei
an ant around, with his nose close to
the floor, and quickly wearied of that ;
yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle en-
tirely, and sat down on it Then there
was a wild ylep of agony, and the poodle
went yelping up the aisle; the yelps con-
tinued and so did the dog he crossed
the house in front of the altar I; he flew
down the other aisle; he crossed before the
doors; he clamored up the home-stretch;
his anguish grew with his progress, till
presently he was woolly comet, NOV
: ing in its orbit with the CLEAN and speed
Of light. At last the frantic sufferer
sheered from its course and sprang into
its masters lap he flung it out of the
window, and the voice of distress quickly
thinned away and died in the distance.
Tom Sawyer went home quite
cheerful, thinking to himself that there
was some satisfaction about divine SER
vice when there was bit of variety IL
it. He had but one marring thought
he was willing that the dog should play
with his pinch bug, but he did not think
it was upright to carry it off.