The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-03-23

vlctuals, an circ' latin wild de crowd"
he tholght, walking up boldly to the
door. where dozen or more BOYS were
watching the arrival of each new conner.
Now. then, here we have himr' said
one, and for an instant Steph hesitated.
Its Billy Tarbox," cried another.
'No, 'tain't,' said somebody else;
ats Job Potter. Hey, Job, you've got
ON your go-to-meetin' clothes; you can't
Seph felt laugh tickle him clear down
to the soles of Jobs boots; but he was
trifie nervous also, and consequently
suppressed it quickly. Without saving
anything, he pushed by them and en-
tered.
"Here's Job!'' 'sHere's Jobr' shouted
every one at once; and before Seph could
make up his mind what to do, fifteen or
twenty boys and girls in masks began to
caper aroand him. As soon as he did
collect his scattered wits, however, he
decided to play that he was dumb, and
refused to speak. That made them laugh,
and shortly they left him to greet another
arrival
Nobody, indeed, seemed to have the
least suspicion whohe really was. They'd
''neber cotch him to let dem know.
needer,'' Seph ruminated He guessed
he'd ''cut his eye-teeth, an knew what
he was bout. When dar was mince-pies
round. and stuffed chicken, an heaps OBJ
good things, jes' lebe him alone.'
s'But,'' as the old saying has it, ..there
is many slip 'twixt the cup and the lip .,
Before supper-time could draw near,
there was little catastrophe awaiting
Seph that he had not counted on.
1t arose from the fact that there was
meeting at the church that evening which
the Deacon and Mrs. Potter attended,
their way lying directly past the school
house. Who ever could have supposed
that curiosity would have prompted the
two good old people to look in and see
what the young folks were about, even
though they did not approve of such go
ings on?
But in the meantime Seph enjoyed
himself amazingly. He watched the
table longingly; he listened to the fiddle,
and danced until he was out of breath;
he played chase the squirrel, and had
capital fun for an hour or more; then the
end was at hand,
While standing in the middle of the
floor, hesitating what to take part in
next, he happened to notice a face out
side one of the windows, and it did not
take him more than the thousandth part
OF a second to recognize the Deacon
looking straight at him. 1t was a tre-
mendous moment, and Seph could al
most feel the wool on the top of his head
uncurl and rise right up under his hat.
His first impulse was to make rush
for the door. When he crossed the en-
try door-sill. however, he stubbed one
foot and fell, and the Deacon's hand was
on him before he could recover himself.
He led Seph down the road, Mrs. Pot
ter following close behind and pleading
for mercy, as mothers do.
But in moment the mask fell off, and
the Deacon, amazed, let go his hold.
"What-r'
Seph did not wait to hear ANYTHING
more, but ran into the bushes, then
leaped over fence, and ran at his best
speed across an acre or two of plowed
ground.
By gollyr' he gasped. dropping
down at last exhausted. g { reckon Ts
glad I'm black dis yere time, anyhow!"
Sorely disappointed, however, he
skulked back to the barn, and there
another misfortune overlook him-his
own clothes had disappeared.
For moment or two this startling dis
covery was too much for his intellect to
grasp. He searched here and there des-
perately, overturned the hay, upset a
barrel of oats, frightened the hens from
their roosts, and got the horse to
neighing. Then, scared and bewildered,
he rushed outside, undecided what to do.
Surprise, however, awaited him here
again. In moment he saw himself-or
at least somebody with a black face and
his clothes on-steal out from the wood
shed near by. and hurry down to the
road.
If he .swasn't himself, who in de world
was hep dat's what he d like to know
But in about three minutes, when he
saw the mysterious parsonage and the
Deacon meet Unexpectedly near great
tree that stood in the yard, he was never
SO glad in his life to be in some other fell
lows clothes.
Seph ran over to the wood-shed,
climbed up the ladder to the chamber
above, and began to disrobe himself of
Jobs clothes in hurry. He had got
them all off, when that parsonage came
scrambling up the ladder also, and the
two confronted each other in the strag-
Cling moonbeams that found their way
through a cobwebbed window.
"Whatyer gwine to do wild my clothes
on, Job Potter?'' Seph asked, wrathful.
ly.
..Nothin'. Pas spoilt it all! He fult
thought that you was me, and then that
1 was you. There's no goin' to the par
ty, anyway
Seph dropped down on the floor, and
let out the laugh that had been tickling
him several times during the evening.
1T am all on account OBJ de Deacon
bein' so unreasonable, he said. s.We's
had perdicament for sartin. ''-F. B.
Stanford, in Harper's Young People.
In every house there should be
little nook in which few simple reme-
dies are kept. Among them should be
extract of ginger, Dover's powder, pep
Il L