Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-01-14
BAxTER's INGENIOUS BOY.

secutive summers. He was at one time
quite famous in the neighborhood for
his ingenuity, Baxter is. or was, very
fond of referring to him as '.that oldest
boy of understandable ingenious fell
low."
One day Baxter found his boy out in
the woodshed trying to make toy can
non out of beer bottle. The boy was
laboring with three-cornered file at the
vent where the match was to be applied.
Baxter explained that the bottle was
not at all suitable for the purpose in
tended; the material was two brittle.
But he would show the boy how. to make
a toy cannon that would be entirely
safe. So he procured a pine stick and
whitfield it down until it resembled the
end of an axletree; then he wrapped a
sheet Of writing paper around the plug
just below the shoulder, making sort
of mould, and stuck pin through the
paper and into the plug near the end.
He next whitfield the other end of the
stick in the form of a wedge and stuck
it in crack in the kitchen floor. The
boy watched the progress with the clos
est attention. Baxter then took small
stove. shovel. placed some lead scraps in
it aud put 1t over the Goals in the kitch-
en- stove. When the lead was melted
he carefully poured it into the mould.
Then he allowed it to cool, unwound the
writing paper, took out the pin, pulled
out the plug. and said '.'rhere, my
son, is cannon that won't burst, or if
it does it will sort of tear open, and the
pieces won't fly"
The boy was happy. He mounted
the gun on wheels and entered upon the
enjoyment of a perpetual Fourth of July.
But his satisfaction with his new toy at
length grew cold. and he. turned his at
/ tention to the construction of a hand
organ out of an oyster can.
The following spring. when the barn
floor was cleaned of stalks and hay dust
and was treated to its annual sweeping.
Baxter's boy found the cannon under
the rubbish. He looked it over and
concluded it ought to be longer and not
% large around-more like rife can
non and less like mortar. So he made
new model, preparing 1t after the maD-
Her in which he had seen his father
make the other one. When it was fn-
ished he brought it into the kitchen and
| stuck it in crack near the stove. His
father sat at the other side of the stove
reading the almanac, and his aged
grandmother was sleeping with her
knitting work" in her lap. Neither
saw the movement of the boy. The
lead cannon was then put in the old
stove-shovel and placed on the Goals,
and the boy sat back and watched it as
the lead grew dark IN color and began
to lose its form around the muzzle
While he was thus engaged series ol
events occurred which caused sudden
tnrn in a career that promised to be one
of extraordinary genius.
The boy turned somersault and roll
ed up against the cellar door.
Baxter went out of an adjacent win
dow. taking the sash with him.
The deaf grandmother woke up ant
said walk in" then she opened he
eyes and gasped something about th,
Judgment day."
The neighbors rushed into the yart
and said that volcano had broken ou
right under Baxter's kitchen.
Excelsior Steam Fire Engine No. |
got stream through the kitchen win
dow in just three minutes and twenty
nine seconds.
In fifteen minutes the members Q
the hook and ladder company were il
the kitchen, and the grandmother wa
removed in an inscnsible and drenchet
condition. The boy was not to b
found.
Fragments of stove were imbedded il
the plastering, forming sort of reck
less-looking mosaic. The griddles wer
sticking cdgewise between the lath over
head. An iron pot was resting on tn
mantle, top down, and half boiled har
was wedged in the end of length o
stovepipe. The room had a genera
appearance of being clothed in sackclot
and ashes-without the sackcloth.
An insurance man estimated the dan
age by fire and water at $738,89.
After the estimate of damages ha
been made a council of doctors had prt
nounced the grandmother's conditio
serious, but not dangerous. Baxter's il
genious boy crawled out a cellar VIII
dow.
He said he "didn.t know it was loac
ed."
A CONTRAST we were to be aske
! to say in one word the quality that NOR
E than ANYTHING else marks English town