McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-11-01
PECK's BAD BOY AND his PA.
Tho Boy Runs Funeral and Shows That
He is Not Half as Mean as Folks
Thinks He is.

Pecks Sun.
swell, you don't look very kitten
this morning." said the grocery man t
the bad boy, as he stood up behind tn
stove to get warm, and looked q
though life was not one continued pic
mic, as heretofore. "What's the mat
ter with youp Your father has not beef
tampering with you with boot, ha
hop"
''No, sirP" said the boy, as he bright
ened up. Spa and me are good friend
now. He says he has discovered tina
my heart is in the right place, and thai
l am going to amount TO something
and he has forgiven every foolish thing
l ever did to him, and says for me to
come % him any time when L want ad.
vice or money to do good with. Why,
when pa found had pawned my watch
to get money to buy medicine for the
old woman, he went and redeemed it.
and offered to whip the pawnbroker for
charging me too much for the money.
y, pa is darling now. He went to
the funeral with us.'
"What funeralP" said the grocery
man, with look of surprise. "You
are crazy. haven't heard of any fu-
neral at your house. Don't you come
no Joke on me-"
go, there is no joke about it," said
the boy. ''You see, the little apple
girls grandma lost her grip on this
earth, soon after she got the medicine
and the doctor, and died. 1 was down
there ard it was the solemnest scene
ever witnessed. 1 looked around, and
see that somebody had got to act, and I
braced up and told the girl 1 was all
wool, yard wide, and for her to lust
let me run things. She was going to
the poor master, and have the City bury
the old lady, but couldn't bear to see
that little girl play solitaire as mourner
and ride IN an express wagon with the |
remains, and not have any minister,
and 60 to the pauper burying ground |
where they don't say grace over the
coffin, but two shOvelers smoke black |
pipes and shovel the earth in too quick
and talk Bohemian all the time. It
didn't seem right for poor little girl
that never committed crime except to
be poor and sell wormy apples, to have
no style about her grandma's funeral,
SO told her to brace up and wipe her
eyes on one of my handkerchiefs, and
wait for Hennery. Well, sir, I didn't
know as Ihad so much gall. You have
got to be put in a tight place before you
know the kind of baled hay
there is in you. I rushed out
and found motherly old
lady that used to do our washing, and
give me bread and butter with brown
sugar on it, when I went after the
clothes. l knew a woman that would
give bad boy bread and butter with
brown sugar on it, and cut the slices
thick, had warm heart, and 1 got her
to GO down the alley, and stay with the !
little girl, and be sort of mother to her
for a couple of days. Then I got nv
bicycle and took it down to the pawn t
shop and get twenty dollars on it, and ,
with that money in my pocket felt 6
as though 1 owned a brewery, and l !
went to teller that runs an excursion t
hearse and told him I wanted hearse i
and one good carriage, at two O'Clock e
sharp, and the mOurners would be
ready. He thought was fooling, but +
showed my roll of bills and that set e
led him. He would have turned out /
,ix horses for me, when he seen had t
he wealth to put up. I went down f
md told the little girl how had ar t
.anged things, and she said she wasn't t.
liked for no such turnout as that. She g
hadn't any clothes, and the toes of one s
DOT were all out of the shoe, and the tt
leel was off the other one, SO she u
walked sort of italic like. 1 told her g
lot to borrow any trouble, and would q
ig her out so she would do credit to a L
ocular avenue funeral, with plumes 81
m the hearse, and 1 went Ii
lome and hunted through the tt
losets and got lot of clothes IL
IA wore years ago, when my little u
,rother died, and pair of her shoes, W
md long veil, and everything COM cl
'lete. / was going to jump over. the ct
,ot sight of me and called me back. CT
cit guilty, and didn't want to explain, Sc
nd pa opened the bundle, and when he re
aw the mourning clothes that he had pr
lot seen before since we buried our lit til
title baby, great tears came to pas eli
yes, and he broke down and wept like 1t
child, and it made me weaken some, sh
90. Then pa wanted to know what it th
II meant, why / was stealing them m
lothes out the back way, and / told TO
i'm all, how I had pawned things to pr
se that little girl through her trouble, Sit
nd had taken the black clothes cause
thought pa would go back on it, and
Ill me to let people run their own M
lnerals. expected pa would thrmp Ia
10, but he said he would 60 his bottom WI
onar on me, and, do you know, the old
aisy went with me to the house, and d.