Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1883-10-27
SATURDAY. OCTOBER q, 1888.
Peck.s Bad Boy and His Pa.

"What Is this 1 near ABOUT your iatneT
creating a panic in a dry goods store"
said the grocery man to the bad boy, as
he took a butter fryer and run it into a
pumpkin a few times. They tell me
that he had about a hundred female
clerks freed on the shelves, and on the
counters, and all of them screaming
Bloody murder, and that a floor walker
hit him over the head with a roll OF
paper cambria, and somebody turned III
\ Ere alarm. How was it,"
swell, If you will keep watch for pa
Il the door l will tell you all about it,
said the boy. Somebody has told pa
that I was at the bottom Of the whole
business, and when a man loses conf
dence in his boy, and rolls up a trunk
strap and carries it habitually, it stands
q boy in hand to keep his eye peeled.
You see pa has been in q habit lately of
going to the store a good deal and lally-
gagging with the girl clerks. Any girl
that will smile on pa, and look sweet,
SiLCIlcS HILL, uili nc Woh'o ~ VII ~ WV
in front Of the counter ten hours q day,
pretending to buy some kind of fringe,
or corsets, or something, and he would
fairly talk the arm off the girls. Ma
didn't like it at all, and she told pa he
ought to be ashamed Of himself, cause
the girls was only making a fool of him.
and all the people in the store were
lafing at him, bat pa said for her to shut
her yawp, and he kept on trying to find
Reuse to 20 to the store. Ma told Inc
about it, and she felt real sorry, and by
links il made me mad to see an old
man, old enough to have govt or paraly-
els. going around MASKING clerks in a
store, and | told ma if she would let me
! would break pa up in that sort of bust
ness, and she told me to 60 ahead and
make him Jump like q box car. So
'tother day ma gave pa a piece of ribbon
to match and a corset to change for a
larger size, and a pair of gloves to re-
turn because the thumb of m OF 'em
ripped of, and told him to buy four
yards of baby flannel, and see how much
it would cost to have her seal-skin cloak
refined, aud To see if ner new hat was
done. Pa acted as though he didn't
want to 60 to the store, but ma and me
knees that he looked upon it as a picnic,
and he BACKED his boots, and changed
ends with his cuffs, and put On his new
red necktie, and shaved himself, and
Fixed up as though he was going to be
married. I asked him to let me 60 along
tn carry the packages, and he said he
didn't mind if I did 60. You have seen
these injy rubber rats they have at the
rubber stores, haven't you? They look
90 near like a natural rat that you can't
tell the difference unless you offer the
rubber rat some cheese. / got II Of
those rats and tied a fine thread to it,
with a slipnoose on the end, and when
pa got into the store / put the slipnoose
over the hind button Of his coat tail, and
put the rat on the floor, and it followed
him along, and / swow it looked So
natural l wanted to kick it. Pa walked
along smiling, and stopped at the ribbon
counter, and winked at a girl, and she,
bent over to see what he wanted, and
then she saw the rat, and she screamed
and crawled up on the shelf where the
boxes were, and put her feet under her,
and said, take it away. kill it, and she
trembled all over. Pa thought she had
gone into q fit cause she was paralyzfd
on his shape, and he turned blue, and
went on, cause he didn't want to kill
her dead and as he walked along, the
rat followed him, and just as he bowed
% four girls who were standing together,
talking about the fun they had at the *
position the night before. they saw the
rat, and they began to yell, and climb
up things. One OF them got on a stool
and pulled her clothes tight around her
ankles, so a live rat couldn't have got
in her stocking, let alone a rubber rats
and the girls all squealed just like when
you tickle them in the ribs. PA he
loosed scared, as though, he was afraid
he va hrekiay Them al! up With his