Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-11-23
THE BAD BOY.
The Boy Strikes New Girl. and Pawns
His Watch.

''Iou seem sort of broke ND this
morning." said the grocery man to the
bad boy, as he came in and stood
against the counter, under the kerosene
lamp that was leaking on his hat,
and l knew you would be when saw
you going down the dark alley last night
with that ragged girl that peddles apples
., You are Il sly one, and | have
watched you, and am satisfied Won are
on the wrong road. You better let up,
young man, or your people will be
ashamed Of you. When boy that be-
longs to the better class OF society goes
down dark alley with low girl
"But, gol darn it, she lived in the
alley. Ii she hadn't lived in the
alley l wouldn't have gone there" said
the boy, little nettled at the remarks
OF the grocery man, and trying to ex-
plain.
eyes, that is all right" said the
cheese tiend, winking at the carpenter
who was mailing weather strip on the
door, and who looked as if he needed a
weather strip on the bottom of his pants,
to bank up his low shoes. "Of course
she lived there, and she inveigled YOU,
respectable boy, into her den, and you
didn't have to have your coat collar
pulled of to get you to go. ! am
ashamed of you, to go off down dark
alley with a disreputable girl"
"There, hold on, condemn you," said
the boy, as he grated his teeth and
picked up a stick of stove wood and
drew it on the grocery man, his face pale
as a ghost, while the carpenter stopped
work to look on. "You say word
against that poor girl, and down comes
your grocery. She is a Christian, that
girl is, though she don't put on any airs
and 60 to church with silk dresses and
rich duds. But she prays, by jingo,
better than any of 'em. There amt
none of these prayer sharps that get up
and talk big words, that can make me
cry, but that little girl made me cry last
night as though had broke pair of
skates. You see her father is drunk
ard, and he takes half she makes ped
ding apples, to buy gin, and her grand
mother has got the consumption, and
that takes the other half to support her.
l knew that girl when l went to school,
and yesterday she come to me crying,
and said she was going to ask favor OF
me, cause | had heart in me. don't
know how she found it out, but anyway
she sail she had knowed it for years.
1t seems her drunken father had taken
all her money, and had gone Oh an aw-
full bum, and she didn't have any to
buy some of those cough syrup lozenges
for her grandma, and the old lady was
chokin' up pretty rough, and she wanted
me to lend her dollar till she could
realize on the apples she was going to
get trusted for. Probably you noticed I
haven't got any watch this morning. l
have got my chain, with bunch of keys
on it in my pocket, but nobody will
know l haven't got any watch unless
they ask me what time it is, and then /
will tell them it has run down, and /
guess it has, cause pawn-brokers never
wind up watches. Well, sir, l got four
dollars on my watch, and went and
bought apples for her and medicine for
her grandma, and then l went down
home with her. You are right about the
alley being pretty rough, but when I
went in the little room, where the old
lady was on bed, and heard her let off
one of those regular observation-disclosures
coughs, that sounded away down cellar,
where it is damp and mouldy, l tell
you it made me feel serious. And when
that ragged little girl got down on her
knees and prayed, there in the dirt, and
asked God to bless the friend that had
risen up and lifted such load off the
sufferer, do you know, felt as though
l had swallowed piece of turnip or
something hard, and couldn't get it up
or down, and the tears come to my eyes
just like when you peel onions. She
didn't use any of the highfalutin Ian
guage, such as the high salaried preach
ers use, when you want dictionary in
your pew to find what the words mean.
1t was no full dress, formal prayer, like
some of the ministers give us, when it
seems rs though they had just been
given letter of introduction to God,
and wanted to show Him that He was
in luck to get acquainted with so dis
tinguished and educated a preacher.
She didn't go on and advise God how to
run things, like some of the preachers
l have heard, and act as though if God
didn't take their advice He would lose
his situation and be mighty lucky if
he got a job carrying around collection
plate. 1t wasn't that kind of prayer.
The little girl got right down on her
knees, and said, %, Father in heaven
just as though God was sitting right
there in front OF her on three:legged
stool, and she seemed so confident that
the heavenly father heard her that
could almost see His hand on her head,
petting the poor child. She didn't tell
God anything about my pawning the
watch and buying the apples, and she
didn't mention my name at all, but l
could imagine that He who watches
even the sparrows fall, was onto the
bunch of keys in my vest pocket,
hitched to the watch chain, bigger than
a house. Say, do you know, some of
these long prayers by the dress parade
preachers, who get salary big enough to
own a yacht, make me tired, and want
to 60 out in the woods and hear even a
flock OF blackdirds sing praises, in pref
erence to listening to a long recital of
what 'ot of miserable sinners all the
people are who are being prayed for,
but &C uld have listened to that dirty,
ragged girl pray for an hour, she was SO
natural and so pitiful, and talked SO God
| could understand it whether He had
ever graduated at college or not. But
she wasn't talking against time for
wages, and she just seemed to have a
little conversation with the good Lord
just as a child would with its father, and
then she got up and fred some medicine
down her grandma, and made her cup
OF tea on an oil stove, and toasted a
piece of bread and poached an egg while
sat there thinking. Do you know she
hroke mo all I'm IL ~ u,sp,t for tho =