Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1883-10-26
Eelecf Rea1ing,
The Bad Boy Affected.

You seem sort of broke up this
morning. said the grocery man to the
bad boy, as he came in and stood a.
gainst the counter under the kerosene
lamp that wac leaking on his hat
'And | knew you would be when / saw
you going down the dark alley last
night with that ragged girl that ped
dies apples. Oh. you are sly one,
and / have watched you, and am sat-
is6ed j hat you are on the wrong road.
You better let up, young man, or
your people will be ashamed of you.
When boy that belongs to the better
class of society goes dark alley with
a low girl
But, gol darn 1t, she lived in the
alley If she hadn't lived in the al.
| ley | wouldn't have gone in there
said tie boy, little nettled at the re-
marks of the groceryman, and trying
10 explain.
Yes, that is all right said the
cheese tiend, winking ut the Carpenter
who was mailing weather strip on
the door, and who looked as though
he needed weather strip on the bot
tom Of his pants to bank up his low
shoes. OF course she lived there,
and she inveigled you, a respectable
10y, into her den, and you didn' have
your coat collar pulled cf to get you
to 60. | em ashamed of you, to 60 off
down dark alley with disreputa-
ble girl
There, hold on, condemn you,' said
the boy, as he grated his t,eth and
picked up stick of stove wood and
drew it on the grocery man, his face
as pale as y ghost, while the carpenter
stopped work to look on. You say q
word against that girl, and down comes
your grocery She is y Christian, that
girl is, though she don't put on any
airs and go to church with silk dresses
aud rich duds. But she prays, by
lingo, better than any of 'em. There
amt none of these prayer sharps that
get up and talk big words that can make
you cry, but toas little girl made me
iery lase night as though 1 had broke
pair Of skates. You see her father
is ii drunkard, and be takes half she
makes peddling apples to buy gin, and
her grandmother has got the consump-
tion, and that takes the other half TO
support her. l knew that girl when
| went to school, and yesterday she
come to me crying, and said she was
going to ask favor Of me cause /
had heart in me. | don't know how
she found it out, but anyway she said
she had knowed it for years. 1t seems
her drunken father had taken all her
money, and had gone on an awful
bum, and she didn't have any to buy
some Of those cough syrup lozenges
for her grandma, and the old lady was
chokin up pretty rough, and she wan
ted me TO lend her q dollar till she
could realize on the apples she was
going to get trusted for. Probably
you noticed haven't got any watch
this morning. have got my chain,
with bunch Of keys on it in my
pocket, but nobody will know l hav-
emit got any watch unless they ask me
what time it is, and then / will tell
them it has run down, and l guess it
has, cause pawnbrokers never wind
up watches. Well, sir, ! got four dol
lars on my watch and l went and
bought apples for her and medicine
tor ner grandma. and then ] went
down home with her. You are right
about the alley being pretty rough,
but when went in little room, where
the old lady was on a bed, and heard
her let off one Of those regular bark
from the tomb coughs, that sounded
away down cellar, where it is damp
and mouldy. l tell you it made me
feel serious. And when that ragged
little girl got down on her knees and
prayed, there in the dirt, and asked
God to bless the friend that had risen
up and lifted such load off the suffer-
er, do you know. l felt as though l had
swallowed piece of turnip or some
thing hard, and couldn't get it up or
down, and the tears came to my eyes
just like when you peel onions. She
didn't use any of this highfalutin Ian
guage, such as the high salaried prea-
chers use, where You want diction-
ary in you pew to find what the words
mean. 1t was no full dress, formal
prayer, like some of the ministers give
us, when it seems as though they had
just been given a letter Of iutroduc-
ton to God, and wanted to show Him
that He was in luck to get acquainted
with SO distinguished and educated
a preacher. She didn't 60 on and ad-
wise God how to run things, like some
of the preachers l have heard, and act
as though if God didn't take their ad-
vice He would lose bis attention and
oe mighty lucky if he got job carry
ing around acollection plate. 1t wasn't
that kind Of a prayer. The little girl
got right down on her knees, and said,
%, Father iu Heaven just as though
God was sitting right there in front Of
her on a three-leeged stool, and she
seemed so confident that the Heavenly
Father heard her that / could almost
see His hand on her heaG, petting the
poor child. She didn't tell God any
thing about my pawning my watch
and buying the apples, and she didn't
mention my name at all, but could
imagine that He who watches even
the sparrow's fall was onto the bunch
of keys in my vest pocket, hitched to
the watch chain, bigger than house.
Say, do You know, of these long pray
ara hv tho dress narada nreachera who