The Labor enquirer., 1883-02-03
The Bad Boy.
From Peck,s Sun.

boy had rubbed on the kerosene barrel
".What was your pa running after the
doctor in his shirt sleeves for last Sun
day morning? He looked scared. Was
your ma sick again?"
20, no, I was the one that was sick
You see, I wanted to get. pa into the
church again, land to get him to stop
drinking, so Igot boy to write letter
to- him, in female hand, and sign the
name of choir singer pa was mashed
on, and tell him she was yearning fol
him to come back to church, and that
the church seemed blank without his
smiling face and benevolent heart, and
to please come back for her sake.
"Pa got the letter Saturday night, and
he seemed tickled, but 1 guess he
dreamed about it all night, and Sunday
morning he was mad, and he took me by
the ear and said l couldn't come no
Daisy business on him the second time.
l1c Sclu llC MIG" L HIOlC GIlC lCGIClJ any
got me to go up to the store room and
prepare for the almightiest licking boy
ever had, and he went down stairs and
broke up an apple barrel and got stave
to whip me with.
"WelI, I had to think mighty quick,
but l was enough for him. l got dried
bladder in my room, one that nae and
my chum got to the slotter house, and l
blowed it partly up, SO it would be sort
of fat like, and l put it down inside the
back part of my pants, right where pa
hits when he Furnishes. I Iknowed when
the barrel stave hit the bladder 1t would
explode. Well, pa came and found me
crying. | can cry just as easy as you can
turn on the water at faucet. and pa
took off his coat and looked sorry. l
was afraid he would give up whipping
me when he see me cry, and wanted to
60 on with the bladder experiment, so l
looked kind of hard, as if was defying
him to do his worst, and then he took
me by the neck and laid me across the
trunk.
Il didn't dare struggle much for fear
the bladder would loose itself, and pa
said, Now, Hennery, I am going to
break you of this damfOolishness, or l !
will break your back, and he spit on his
hands and brought the barrel stave down
on my best pants. Well, you'd die if you
heard the explosion. It almost knocked |
me off the trunk. 1t sounded like firing
a tirecracker away down in the cellar in
4 barrel, and pa looked scared l rolled
off the trunk on the floor, and put some
-four on my face, to make me look pale,
and then kind of kicked my legs like
a fellow who is dying on the stage, after
being stabbed with a piece of lath, and |
groaned, and said, Pa, you have killed
me, but forgive you,. and then l rolled |
around, and frOthed at the mouth, cause
l had piece Of soap in my mouth to
make foam.
swell, pa was all broke up. He said,
Great God, what have l done? 1 have
broke his spinal column. O, my poor
boy, DO not dien l kept chewing the
soap and foaming at the mouth, and l
drew my legs up and kicked them out,
and clutched my hair, and rolled my eyes,
then kicked pa in he stummirk as he
bent over me, and knocked his breath
out of him, and'then my. limbs began to
get rigid, and I said, TOO late, pa, die
at the hand of an assassin. Go for
DOCTOR
"Pa throwed his coat over me, and
started down stairs saying, l. have muir
dered my brave boy and he told ma to
90 up stairs and stay with me cause Lhad
fallen off trunk and ruptured a blood
vessel, and lie went after the DOCTOR
When he went out Of tile front door, l
sat up and lit cigarette, and ma came up
anu GOlu lleI uOW IOOleu pa, anu II
she would take on and cry when pa got
back, l would get him to 20 to church
again, and swear of. drinking, and she
laffed and said she would.
so when pa and the doc came back,
ma was sitting on velocipede l used to
ride, which was in the store room, and
she had her apron over her face, and she
just more than beloved. Pa he was
pale, and he told the doc that he was
just playing with me with a piece of
board and he heard something crack,
and he guessed my spine got broke fall
ing off the trunk. The doctor wanted to
fool uhnra NV snina uaS hrnke hnt