The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1883-07-28

NfNH -H fN''H ENNFh '@-HNhF 800
er dark sombody fired a Roman
candle into my girls hat. and set it
on fire, and | grabbed the hat and
stamped on it, and spoiled her
hair that her ma bought her. BY
gosh, ] thought her hair was cur
ley, but when the wig was off. her
own hair was rs atraight as could
be. But she was purity, all the
same. We got under another tree,
to get. away from the smell OF
burnt hair, and a boy set of a mig
ger chaser, and it ran right at my
girls feet, and burned her stock
ings, and a woman put the fire out
for her, while ! looked for the boy
that fired the Niger chaser, but |
didn't want to find him. She was
pretty near a wreck by that time,
though she had all her dress left
except the polonaise, and we went
and sat under a tree in a quite place,
and putin arm around herandltold
her never to mind the accidents,
cause it would be dark when we
got home, and just then a spark
dropped down through the tree and
fell in my pistol pocket, right next
to her, where my bunch Of fire
crackers was, and they began to go
off. Well, / never saw such a
sight as she was. Her dress was
one of those mosquito bar, cheese
cloth dresses, and it burned Just
like punk. | had presence Of mind
enough to roll her on the grass and
put ont the fire, but in doing that |
neglected my own coniagratlor,
and when l got her put out, my
coat tan and trousers were a total
loss. My, but she looked like a
goose that had been picked, andl
looked like a fireman that has fell
through a hatchway. My girl
wanted TO go home, and l took her
home, and her pa was sitting on
the front steps, and he wouldn't ac-
cept her, looking that way. He
said he placed in my possession q
whole girl, clothed and in her right
mind, and | had brought back a
burnt offering. He teaches in our
Sunday school, and knows how to
talk pious, but his boots are oiful
thick. | tried to explain thatI was
not responsible for the fireworks,
and that he could bring in a bill
against the government, and |
showed him how | was bereaved
of a coat tail and some pants, but
he wouldn't reason at all, and
when | got over the fence, and had
pickep myself up l never stopped
till I got to Duffy's, and set up
with him, cause | thought her pa
was after me, and l thought he
wouldn't enter a sick room and
maui a watcher at the bedside OF
an invalid. But that settles it with
me about celebrating. | don't
care if we did whip the British, aft
er declaring independence, | don't
want my pants burnt oft. What is
the declaration Of independence for
to a girl that loses her polonaise,
and has her hair burned off, and a
niger chaser burning her stock
ingsl No, sir, they may talk about
the glorious Fourth of July, but
will it bring that blonde wig, orere-
tail my coat! Hereafter | am a re
bel, and | will go out in the woods
the way pa does, and come home
with black eye, got in a rational
way"
"What, did your pa ge5 a black
eye, tool | hadn't heard about
that" said the grocery man, giving
the boy a handful of mbaked pea
nuts to draw him out. Didn't
get to fighting, did he!'
Ono, pa don't fight. 1t is wrong,
he says, to fight, unless you are
sure you can whip the fellow, and
pa always gets WHIPPED, so he quit
lighting, Yopsee, one of the dea-
cons in our church lives out on a
farm, and all his folks were going
away to spend the Fourth, and he
had to do all the chores, so he in
vited pa and ma to come out to the
farm and have a nice quite time,
and they went. There is nothing
pa likes better than to go out on a
farm and pretend to know every
thing. When the farmer got ma
and pa ont there he set them to
work, and ma shelled peas while
pa went to dig potatoes for dinner.
| think it was mean for the deacon
to send pa ont into the cornfeld to
dig potatoes, and after he had dug
up a whole row of corn without
finding any potatoes, to set the dog
on pa, and tree him in an apple
tree near the bee-hives, and then