Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-28
Our Young Folks.
BoB's WONDERFUL BICYCLE.

BOB'S WONDERFUL BICYCLE.
Bob Burns was a boy with a wonderful mind
For cogs. cranks and levers, and every kind
" machine, from q dollar t%oy-engine to those
That rush through the depot and shrek
And, indeed, lit was plain
To a person that's sane
To something uncommon said Aunt Betsy
Jan
And for one I don't blame her, for Bob surely
Quite clever with jack-knives. and gimlets, and
And constructed such marvels, the neighbors
all said,
Enough to u any ambitious boys head.
SO Bob came at last to consider that he
was about as ingenious as mortal could be.
One day there arose q tremendous sensation
IN his little town, DER a queer combination
UT wheels, rods and bolts, which the school.
master, Michael,
Informed all who asked him was called q
bicycle.
Pcrched high in the seat,
Just by working his feet,
a man gayly rode up and down through the
And the boys said: "How jolly!" The girls
Bob studied that bicycle day after day,
Played ~''hookey'' from school, and caiught-I
You know what he caught-something warm,
At last, this deluded %
Young fellow concluded
Ih1s new-fangled notion he knew all about,
And could make one himself that would "beat
it all out"
Quite stiff in the joints (perhaps twas rheu-
And so rusty it wheezed in a manner asth-
matte.
This furnished the wheels. big and little: the
The bolts, bars and screws-with
He begged and he borrowed, north, south, east
and west.
1905 And then what a clatteri
no.. Clink, clank, hammer, batter,
TIL the neighbors all thought what on earth
is the matter?
But Bob So, worked away with a grin and a
He barked his poor shins, and he bruised
every knuckle.
And rubbed
His nose,
And studded
His toes,
AM how many other things, goodness knows,
Ii!l ut last, with q final hammer and clink,
There now" he muttered, "sheIl do, I
Blu was bound, as he said, to make most peo-
pie stare.
For it ran, not by t~readles, as those you may
But by a huge spring that was wound with a
So that Iii you need do, if you wished for a
Was to pull on the throttle and of you would
glide.
Then he called, to observe the result Of his
His parents, his brothers, n sisters, and
neighbors,
| A MI 1v;ealxy ----
All others created, from first unto last.
The news and the wonder spread fast, and his
fame
Grew wider and wider. The people all came
BY scores and by hundreds to witness him try
And one wealthy gentleman offered to buy it
At whatever price; but he proudly refused,
And mounted the seat to show how it was
used.
The spring ai9f had been wound up as close as a
And all crowded round as he pulled on the
throttle.
W Whht : W afiri r.
How excited they were,
AS he dashed through the crowd like a shaft
Ran over two dogs, hit a fat man a blow
That knocked him q distance of ten feet,
Still faster and faster,
Like news of disaster,
He sped through the town and was soon out
of sight,
Unable to stop, and in terrible fright.
The trees skipped behind at a digging pace,
The fences on each side seemed running q
race.
Up hill and down dale,
With the speed OF q gale,
He wh tdii DER the road with a flap of coat
Streaming out from behind, and his face
| The dogs tried to catch him. the women
The men followed after him with many a
shout.
Farmer jones' two horses ran madly away,
Though every one says they get nothing but
hay.
Thus: mile after mile, at the same rapid gait,
He dashed and he ,splashed, with his hair
standing straight,
ing fast,
And the tears falling thick as the rain, till at
With a terrible shock
He struck a big rock,
Was thrown from his seat, sir, and straight as
Was shot through the window right into the
The PE e;ns+ little scholars all started with
For never before had they seen such a sight;
But the master, with wonderful presence of
mind
heHlafke0, us ne Quletly mended q PEN.
Master Bob, when you enter the school-room
again,
Come in at the door, sir! and, lest you should
waste
Your delicate breath, enter not in such
haSte.''
The bicycle? Oh!
1t split into hundreds OF pieces, you know,
And each of the pieces is whirling away
In the parks, or the roads, and the meadows
to-day,
As this or that bicycle, patent applied for,
Though I can't imagine what boys like to ride
for.
e. j. Wheeler. in st. Nicholas.