Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1883-12-15
Peck Bad Boy.
He Wakes the Floor for n
Thanksgiving Dance-De-
cides to Become a Living
Skeleton i'm n Museum.

w ELI HOW ulu you pun tulOuSu
Thanksgiving day." asked the gro
Gerry man of the bad boy, as he came
in the store looking as happy as if
there was good skating the year
round. slave any fun ?"
"Fun is not the name for it, said
the boy as he took a knife and
scratched some beeswax off the bot
tom of his boots. 81 thought l had
seen fun before, but that Thanks
giving day made me tired of laugh
ing. You see, we all went to Dea
con Perkins house for dinner. There
is two kinds of people in our church.
One kind believes that you must
never have any fun, and always wear
long face and sigh, and cry easy,
while the other faction believes III
doing up religious chores and hav
ing furlough. They believe that
there is time for praying and also
a time for dancing, and a time for
all kind of innocent fun.
DEACON PERKINS
is the leader of the funny side, and
he is the jolliest old dog you ever
saw, except when he is serious, and
then everybody lets up on any fool
ishness, and pays attention. The
minister believes in Deacon Per
kins' ideas, but he don't dare to
take sides, though he winks at the
fun and enjoys it. The deacon had
our folks and about dozen other
families to dinner on Thanksgiving,
ard we had a boss dinner. The dea-
con and the minister were just too
happy. except when the deacon ask
ed the blessing and talked about the
poor people all around that had no
turkey stuffed with oysters, and
then they were sad. But after they
got, to passing the plates for more
turkey and things, there was fun all
around the board. But the most fun
was after dinner. When it began to
get dark the deacon come to me and
said they were going to have dance
in the big room up stairs They had
taken up the carpet, and he said the
floor was not just right and he " ish-
ed l would get a cake of beeswax
and wax the floor the way they had
it waxed down at the dancing school,
and so me and my chum went up
stairs and waxed the floor. I guess
maybe we put on too much wax, for
the first half hour it stuck to peo
ple's shoes, but after that it begun
to get smooth, and by the time they
got warmed up, the floor was just
like CLASSY ice. The crowd was all
up stairs except
THE MINISTER
and two old maids that could not
dance. They were talking politics
and things, but afterwhile the min
lister said he didn't mind going up
to the dancing room TO look on, SO
he took the two wimmen down be-
side the fiddler, when his left foot
slipped sidewise and knocked the
feet out from under one of the VIM
min and she started to fall, and the
other one pulled the other way, and
both the minister's feet slipped and
the whole three of them went down,
and snorted right out. Ma looked
at me kind of sassy and l shut up,
but pa was walking across the floor
with a big woman to form a quad
rifle, and he said, the wicked stand
in slippery Places and just then one
of the women who was trying to get
up, hit pa in the heel with her shoe,
and his feet began to slide, and he
grabbed the woman he was walking
with, and they went down so the
gas fixtures ratified. Pa struck on
his hip, land one foot hit the minister
near the watch pocket and
HE GRUNTED, ia
and pa was so heavy he kept going,
and he plowed right through the two
wimmen that went down with the
minister, and they called pa an old
brute, and Deacon Perkins and ma
started to the rescue, and ma slipped
and pulled the deacon down, and
went to help ma and / met the I'D
dler and we both fell, and then all
laughed, and when the fiddler got up
he found had set down on the I'D
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