The Portland daily press., 1883-03-30
lPeck's suu.I

lttcAh sun
81 guess your pas losses in The silver
mine has made him crazy, haven't they.
said the grocery man 10 the bad boy, as he
came into the store with his eye-winkers
singed of, and powder marks on his face,
and began to play on the harmonica, as be
sat down on the end Of stick Of stove
wood and balanced himself.
"Gh, guess not. lie has hedged He
got in with deacon Of another church, and
sold some Of his stock to him. and pa says
II VIII keep my concemu mourn sssrrp ne
VIII unload the whole Of it, ii the churches
hold out. He goes 10 new church every
night there Is prayer meeting Or anything,
and makes ma 60 with Him to give him tone,
and after meeting she talks with the sisters
about how to piece a silk bsd quilt, while pa
gels III his work selling silver stock. Idon't
know but he will order some more stock
from the factory, If he sells all he has got,
and the boy went on playing, There's a
land that is fairer than day.
''But What was he skipping up street for
the other night with his hat off, grabbing
al his coat tails as though they we're on fire?
thought never say pussy man run any
faster And what vas the celebration
down on your street about Mat time? 1
though. the world was coming to an end, =
ard the grocery man kept away from the
boy for fear he would explode.
20. that was only Fenfan scare, nothin'
serious. You see pa is sort of half English
Yra,, ne .I,t.,,r - ~, -. A...n.t... :.s.
when he wants Office, but when they talk
about draft he claims to be subject Of
Great Britain, and he says they can't touch
him. Pals a darn smart man, and don't
you forget 1t. There don't any Of them get
ahead Of pa, much. Well, pa has said
good deal about the wicked Fenians, and
that they ought TO be pulled, and all that
and when read the story in the pape1
about the explosion in the British Parlia-
ment pa was hot. He said the damnirish
was running the whole world. He didn't
dare say 1t at the table, or our hired girl
would have knocked him silly with a SPOON
full Of mashed POTATOES, cause she is a nj
IRISH girl, and she can lick any Engilshman
in this town. Pa said there ought to have
been somebody there to have taken that
bomb up and throwed it In the sewer before
It exploded. He said If he ever should see
a bomb he would grab It right up and thro1
1t away where 1t wouldn't hurt ANYBODY.
ia has me read the papers to him nights,
cause his eyes have got splinters in en-,
and after had read all there was Ia the
paper made up lots more and pretended
70 read It, about how 1t was rumOred that
the Fenians here in Milwaukee we're going
to place dynamite bombs at every house
where an Englishmau lived, and at q given
signal blew them all up. Pa Iooked
pale around the gills, but he said he wasn't
scared. Ia and ma we're going to call on
a she deacon that night that had lots Of
money in the bank to see IL she didn't want
TO invest ia dead sure paying silver mine,
and me and my chum concluded to give
them a send-of. We got my big black Univ
rubber ot-ball, and painted stDiny-might'
in big white letters on it, and tied piece
Of tarred rope TO It for a fuse, and got a bio
iire-cracker, one Of these old Fourth Of july
horse-scarers, and a basket full Of brok-
en- glass. We put the the football in front
Of the step and lit the tarred-rope
and got under the step with the
hre-cracker and basket, where fbev ID
down into the basement. Pa and
ma came out the front door and down The
steps, and pa saw the football, and the
burning fuse, and he said, Great God, Han
ner, VIC are blowed up and he started TO
run, and ma she stopped to look al 1t. just
as pa started TO run ] touched off the fire.
cracker, and my chum arranged 1t to pour out
The broken glass on the brick pavement Just
as the fire-cracker went Off Well, everything
went just as we expected except ma. She
had examined the foot ball, ana concluded
1t was not dangerous, and was just giving IL
kick as the fire-cracker went off and The
glass fell, and the fire-cracker was 30 near
her that IL scared her and when pa looked
around ma was flying across the 81 iewalk,
aud pa heard the noise aud he thought the
house was blown TO atoms o, you'd d died
TO see him 90 around the corner. You
could play crokay on his coat-tail, and snis
face was as pale as mas when she goes 10 a
party. But ma didn't scare much. As
soon as she stopped against the hitching
post she knew 1t was us boys, and she came
down there, aud maybe she didn't maui me.
] cried and tried TO gain her sympathy by
telling her the fre-cracker went off before It
was due, and burned my eyebrows off, but
she didn't let up until promised to 90 and
find pa. ] tell you, my ma ought TO be en-
gagged by the British government TO hunt
out the dynamite fends. she would corral
tlem in two minutes. II pa had as much
sand as ma has got, il would be warm wealth.
er for me. Well, me and my cbum went
and headed oil pa, or guess he would be
running yet. We got him up by the lake
shore aud he wanted TO know if the house
fell down. He said he would leave Il to me
II he ever said anything against the FeniaDs,
and told him that he had always
claimed That the Fenians were the mic
est men IN the world, and 1t seemed