The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1883-09-08
TEE BAD BOY.
PEcK's sun.

TEE BAD BOY.
Prom PEcK's Sun.
What are you sitting there like
u bump on a log for T. asked the
grocery man Of the bad boy, az the
youth had sat on a box for half an
hour, with his hands in his pockets
looking at a hole in the floor until
his eyes were set like a dying horse.
What you thinking Of anyway 1t
seems to me boys set around and
think more than they used to when
l was a boy" and the grocery man
brushed thewilted lettuce and shook
it, and tried to make it stand up
stiff and crisp, before he put it out
doors, but the contrary lettuce,
which had been picked the day be-
fore, looked SO tired that the boy
noticedit.
That lettuce reminds me of a
girl. Yesterday | WAS in here
when it was new, like the girl go
ing to a picnic, and il was as fresh
and proud, and starched up, and
kitteny, and fnll of life, and as a s
sv az u girl starting ont for a picnic
and like the girl, the starch is all
taken out, and it - Timber and Ian
gnid, and it looks as though it
wanted to be laid at rest beside the
rotten apples in the alley, rather
than to be set up in front of a store
to be sold to honest people, and
give them the gangrene of the
liver" and the boy put on a health
commissioner air, that frightened
the groceryman, and he threw the
lettuce ont of the back door.
you never mind about my let
t%uce," said the grocery man. 81
can attend to my affairs. But now
tell me what you were thinking
about here all the morningW
II was thinking what a fool
King Solomon was" said the boy
with the air of one who has made
a statement that has got to be ar
gl,1 pretty strong to make it hold
vTSteT.
NOV, look here said the gro
cory man, in anger, Il have stood
it to nave you play tricks IN ne,
and have listened to your condemn
ed foOlishness without a murinur az
long ~ you have confined yourself
TO people now living, but when you
attack solomon. the wisest man
the great king, and call him a fool,
friendship ceases, and You mustg get
or of TINS store. Solomon in all
his glory, Isl friend Of mine, and
40 to,l boy IS going to abuse him
"a IA presence. Nowyou Just dry
upf
"Sit down on the ice-box," said
the boy 80 the grocery man.
"Waa, You need is rest. You are
ovcfH0rHed. Ilnr alleged brain
is equal to wiitcd lettuce, and it
can devise ways and means to hide
rotten peaches under good ones, so
rs to sell them to blind orphans,
but when it comes to graspinggreat
questions, your small brain cannot
comprehend them. Your brain
may go up sideways to a great
question, and rub against it, but
you cannot surround it, and grasp
IT. That's where YOU are dotorm-
ed. Now, it is different with mo.
l can raise brain to sell to you gro
cerv men. Listen. This Solomon
il credited with being the smartest
man, and yet history says he had Il
thousand wives. Just think of it.
You have got N wife and pa has
got one, and all the neighbors have
one, it they have had any kind OF
luck. Does not one wife make you
pay attentions Wouldn't two wives
break you upl Wouldn't three
cause you to see starsi Why, man
alive, you do not grasp the mag
nitude u the statement that Solo
mon had a thousand wives. A
thousand wives, standing side by
side would reach about four blocks.