Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-08-11
THE BAD BOY.
Trimmed in Mourning for Thirty Days
Had II Funeral at His House-Flirtation
of Deceased's Best Friend


why don't you take an ice pick
and clean the dirt out from under
your finger nalls?" said the grocery
man to the bad boy, as he came in the
store and stroked the cat the wrong
way, as she lay in the SUE on the
counter, on quire OF MANILA paper.
Cant remove the dirt for thirty
days. 1t is an emblem of mourning.
Had funeral at our house yester-
day." and the boy took pickle out of
a tub and put it in the cats mouth,
and shut her teeth together OH it, and
then went to the show case, while the
groceryman, whose back had been
turned during the pickle exercise,
thought by the way the cat jumped
into the dried apple barrel and began
to paw and scratch with all four of
her feet, and yowl, that she was going
to have q fit.
Il hadn't heard about it," said the
groceryman, as he took the cat by the
neck and tossed her out In the back
shed into an old oyster box full of
sawdust, with the parting injunction
that if she was going to have fits she
better go out where there was plenty
of fresh air. death is always sad
thing to contemplate. One day we
are full of health and joy, and cold
victuals, and the next We are screwed
down in box, few words are said
over our remains, few tears are
shed, and there is a race to see who
shall get back from the cemetery first,
and though we may think we are an
important factor in the worlds pro-
gress, and sometimes feel as though
it would be unable to put up margins
and have to stop the deal, the world
goes right along, and it must annoy
people who die, to realize that they
don't count for game. The greatest
man in the world is only nine-spot
when he il dead, because somebody
else takes the tricks the dead man
ought to have taken. But, say, who
is dead at your house,"
''Our rooster Take care, don't you
hit me with that canvassed ham,"
said the boy, as the groceryman
looked mad to learn that there was
nobody dead but a rooster, when he
had preached such a sermon on the
subject. "Yes, how soon we are for
gotten when we are gone. Now, you
would have thought that ROSTERS
hen would have remained faithful to
him for n week, at least. l have
watched them all the spring, and l
never saw more perfect picture of
devotion than that between the ban
tam rooster and his hen. They were
constantly together, and there was
nothing too good for her. He would
dig up and angle worm and call her,
and when she came up on a gallop
and saw the great big worm on the
ground, she would look so proud of
her rooster, and he would slraighten
up and look rs though he was saying
to her, I'm a daisy and then she
would look at him as if she would
like to bite him, and just as she was
going to pick up the worm he would
snatch it and swallow it himself, and
chuckle and walk around, and be full
of business, as though wondering why
she didn't take the worm after he had
dug it for her, and then the hen
would look disappointed at first, and
then she would look resigned, as
much as to say, Worms are too rich
for my blood, anyway, and the poor
dear rooster needs them more than l
do, because he has to do all the crow
ing,' and she would go off and find a
grasshopper and eat it on the sly for
fear he would see her and complain
because she didn't divide. y, 1 have
never seen anything that seemed to
me SO human as the relations between
that rooster and hen. He seemed to
try to do everything for her. He
would make her stop cackling when
she laid an egg, and he would try to
cackle, and crow over it as though he
had laid it, and she would get off in
a corner and cluck in modest, retir
ing manner, as though she wished to
convey the idea to the servant girls in
the kitchen that the rooster had to do
all the hard work, and she was only
a useless appendage, fit only for So
ciety and company for him. But l
was disgusted with him when the
poor hen was setting. The first week
that she sat on the eggs he seemed to
get along frst-rate. because he had
couple of flower beds to dig mp, which
a press of business had caused him to
neglect before, and couple of neigh
bors' gardens to destroy, so he seemed
to be glad to have his hen retire to
her boudoir and set, but after he had
been shooed out of the gardens and
fower-beds he seemed to be nervous,
and evidently wanted to be petted,
and he would go near the hen and she
would seem to tell him to go and
take a walk around the block, because
she hadn't time to leave her business,
and if she didn't attend to it they
would have lot of spoiled eggs on
their hand, and no family to bring up.
He would scold and seem to tell her
that it was all foolishness, that for
his part he didn't want to hear lot
OF chickens squaking around. He
would seem to argue with her that a
brood of chickens would be dead
give-away on them both, and they
would at once be classed as old folks,