News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-09-27
THE BAD BOY AND HIS PA.
STILL ON THE OLD FARM.
The Deacon Will Not Accept Hennery's
Resignation, so He Plays II Joke and
Gets the Eager"
TFrom the Milwaukee SUM-

from the Milwaukee SUM-
"Well, I swow, here comes a walking
hospital, said the grocery man as the
bad boys shadow came in the store, fol-
lowed by the boy, who looked sick, and
yellow, and tired, and he had lost half
his flesh. ''What's the matter with
you?"
"Got the ager," said the boy, as he
wiped the perspiration off his upper lip,
and looked around the store to see if
there was anything in sight that would
take the taste of quinine out of his
mouth. Had too much dreamy life of
ease on the farm, and been shaking ever
since. Darn farm, anyway"
'FYOu see I went out to the farm with
my chum, and l took the fish poles and
| remained in the woods while he drove
the horse to the deacOn's, and he gave
the deacon my resignation, and the
deacon wouldn't accept it. He said he
would hold my resignation until after
| harvest, and then act on it. He said he
could put me in jail for breach of prom
Use if [ quit work and left him without
! giving proper notice, and my chum
came and told me, and so [ concluded to
work rather than have trouble, and the
| deacon said my chum could work q few
| days for his board if he wanted to. It
| was pretty poor board for boy to work
| for, but my chum wanted to be with me,
so he stayed. Pa and ma came out to
! the farm to stay day or two to help.
Pa was going to help harvest, and ma
was going to help the deacon's wife. but
| pa wanted to carry the Jug to the field,
| and lay under tree while the rest of us
! worked, and ma Just talked the arm off
! the dcacon's wife. The deacon and pa
| laid in the shade and see my chum and
me work, and ma and the deacOn's wife
| gOssiped so they forgot to get dinner,
| and my chum and me organized a strike
but we were beaten by monopoly. Pa
| took me by the neck and thrashed out
shock of wheat with my heels, and the
| deacon took my chum and sat down on
him, and we begged and they gave us
our old situations back. But we got
even with them that night.
CATER my chum and me had got all
the chores done that night, we sat out
on a fence back of the house in the or
chard, eating green apples in the moon
light, and trying to think of a plan OF
revenge. just then I saw a skunk back
of the house. right by the outside cellar
door, and | told my chum that it would
serve them right to drive the skunk
down cellar and shut the door but my
chum said that would be too mean.
asked him if it would be any meaner
than for the deacon to thrash us because
we couldn't NOW hay away fast enough
/ for two men to pitch it in, and he said it
wouldn't, and so we got on each side of
the skunk and sort of scared it down
cellar, and them we crept up softly and
closed the cellar doors. Then we went
in the house and whispered to ma and
asked if she didn't think the deacon lad
some cider, and ma she began to hint
that she hadn't had a good drink of cider
since last winter, and the deacons wife
said us boys could take a pitcher and go
| down cellar and draw some. That was
too much I didn't want any cider, any
way, so | told them that | belonged to q
| temperance society, and [ should break
my pledge if [ drawed cider, and she
said I was good boy, and for me never
to touch drop of cider. Then she told
my chum where the cider barrel was,
down cellar, but he said he was afraid to
| 90 down cellar in the dark, and so pa
said he and the deacon would go down
and draw the cider, and the deacon's
wife asked ma to go down too and look
at the fruit and berries she had canned
for winter, and they all went down cellar.
Pa carried an old tin lantern with holes
in it to light the deacon to the cider bar
rel, and the deacOn's wife had a taller
candle to show ma the canned fruit. [
tried to get ma not to go, cause ma is a
friend Of mine, but she said she CUES sed
she knew her business. When anybody
sffvs that they gT1ess they know their
own business, that settles it with me,
and l don't try to argue with them.
Well, my chum and me sat there in the
kitchen, and [ stuffed a piece of red
table-cloth in my mouth to keep from
laughing. and my chum held his nose
with his finger and thumb so he wouldn't
snort right ont. We could hear the cider
run III the pitcher, and then it stopped
and the deacon drank out of the pitcher,
and then pa did, and then they drawed
some more cider, and ma and the dea-
cons wife were talking about how much |
sugar it took to can fruit, and the deacon
told pa to help himself out of a crock of
fried cakes, and | heard the cover on the |
crock rattle, and just then [ heard the |
old tin tern rattle on the brick floor |
of the cellar, the deacon said, 'MercifuI |
goodness, pa said i am stabbed, and |
ma yelled goodness sakes alive and |
then there was lot of dish-pans on the
stairs begun to fall aud they all tried to
get up the cellar stairs at once, and they
fell over each other, and O, my, what
frowy smell came up to the kitchen from
the cellar. 1t was enough to kill any
body. Pa was the first to get to the
head of the stairs. and he stuck his head
in the kitchen, and took a long breath
and said, 'rhOOsh HenDery, your pa is
a mighty sick man. The deacon came
up next, and he had run his head into
hanging shelf and broke a glass jar of
huckleberries, and they were all over
him, and he said give me air. Earth's
but desert drear. Then ma and the
leacon's wife came up on gallOp, and
they looked tired. Pa began to peel off
his coat and vest and said he was going
put to bury them, and ma said he could
)urv her, too, and I asked the deacon if
ne didn't notice FAINT odOr of sewer gas
coming from the cellar, and my chum
said i smelled more to him as though
something had crawled in the cellar and
lied. Well, You never saw Il sicker
,rowd. and felt sorry for ma. But
7ou'd a dide to see pa. He was mad.
They finally got the house aired, and my
hum and me slept on the hay i'll the
Darn, after we had opened the outside
cellar door so the animal could get out,
md the next morning [ had the fever
md ague, and pa and ma brought me
home, and [ have been firing quinine
Town my neck ever since. Pa says it is
Malaria, but it is getting up before day
light in the morning and providing around
farm doing chores before it is time to
10 ch res, and don't want any more
arm"
FopntiOuS Road IrnutS