The weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1883, 1883-04-18
THAT BAD BOY.
He Permits his Pa to Kill Him
That he May work his Pro-
genitor's Reformation.
From Peck's Sun.

| SAAS oAOO-S 80
charged the cheese to the boys father,
and picked up his cigar stub which he
had left on the counter and which the
boy had rubbed On the kerosene barrel,
mo, sir, that whistle would scare any
dog,-say, what was your pa running
after the doctor in his shirt sleeves for
last Sunday morning? He looked as if
he was scared. Was your ma taken sick
again."
"Oh, no, ma is healthy enough now
she has got new fur-lined cloak. She
played consumption on pa, and coughed
SO she like to raise her lights and liver,
and made pa believe she couldn't live,
and got the doctor to prescribe a fur
lined circular, and pa went and got one,
and ma improved awfully. Her cough
has all gone and she can walk ten miles.
wanted to get pa in the church again,
and get him to stop drinking, so I got
boy to write letter to him in female
afd md dan the name Of choir singer
Fsals mashed on md tell I'm she was
yawning for him to come back to the
church, and that the church seemed
blank without his smiling face and be-
nevolent heart, and so please come back
for her sake. Pa got the letter Saturday
night and he seemed tickled, but guess
he dreamed about it all night, and Sun
day morning he took me by the ear and
said couldn't come no Daisy business
on him second time. He said he knew
wrote the letter, and for me to g. up in
the store-room and prepare for the al
mightiest licking boy ever had, and he
went downstairs and broke up an apple
barrel and got stave to whip me with.
Well, had to think mighty quick, but
was enough for him. L got dried blad-
der in my room, one that me and my
chum got to slaughter-house, and l
blowed it partly up SO it would be sort of
fiat like, and l put it down inside the
back part Of my pants, right where pa
hits when he Furnishes me. knowed
when the barrel stave hit the bladder it
would explode. Well, pa he came up
and found me crying. lean cry just as
easy as you can turn on the water at
faucet, Pa took off his coat and looked
sorry. l was afraid he would give up
whipping me when he seen me cry, and
I wanted to go on with the bladder ex-
pertinent, so 1 looked kind of hard, as if
was defying of him to do his work, and
then he took me by the neck and laid
me across a trunk. l didn't dare to strug-
gle much for fear the bladder would
loose itself, and pa said, Now, Hennery,
I am going to break you of this dam fool
ishness or break your back SO he spit
on his hands and brought the barrel
stave down on my best pants. Well,
you'd died if you had heard the explo-
sion. Italmost knocked me off the trunk.
1t sounded like firing fre-cracker away
down cellar in barrel, and pa looked
scared. rolled off the trunk on the floor
and put some -four on my face to make
me look pale, and then kind of kicked
my legs like fellow who is dying on the
stage after being stabbed with piece of
lath, and groaned and said, Pa, you have
killed me, but l forgive you, and then
rolled around and frothed at the mouth.
Pa was all broke up and said, Great God,
what have done? I have broke his
spinal column. 0, my poor boy, do not
die I kept chewing the soap and foam
ing at the mouth, and drew my legs up
and kicked them out, and clutched my
hair, and rolled my eyes, then kicked pa
in the stomach as he bent over me, and
knocked the breath out of him, and then
my limbs began to get rigid and l said,
Too late, pa, l die at the hand of an as
sassin. Go for DOCTOR Pa throwed
his coat over me and started downstairs
on run, saying, 4 have murdered my
brave boy He told ma to 60 upstairs
and stay with me, as l had fallen off a
trunk and ruptured bleod-vessel, and
he went to doctor. Then sat up and
lit cigarette, and ma came up and told
her all about how fooled pa, and if she
would take on and cry when pa got back
would try to get him to 60 to church
again and swear off drinking. So when
pa and the doctor came back, ma was sit
ting on a velocipede used to ride, with
her apron over her face, and she more
than beloved. Pa was pale and told the
doctor that he was just playing with me
with piece of board, when he heard
something crack, and he guessed my
spine got broke rolling off the trunk. The
doctor wanted to feel where it was broke
but opened my eyes with vacant sort
of stare, like woman who leads dog by
string, and told him there was no use
setting my spine as it was broke in sew
eral places. told pa was going to die
and wanted him to promise me two
things on my dying bed. He cried and
said he would, and told him to promise
he would quit drinking and attend church
regular, and he said he would never
drink another drop and would 60 to
church every Sunday l made him get
down on his knees beside me and swear
it, and the doctor witnessed it, and ma
called the doctor out into the hall and
told him the joke. Then the doctor told
pa he was afraid that pas presence would
excite the patient, and for pa to put on
his coat and go out and walk around the
block or go to church and ma and he
would remove me into another room and
do all that was possible to make my last
hours pleasant. Pa cried and said he
would put on his plug hat and 60 to
church, and he kissed me and got -four
on his nose, and nearly laughed to see
the -four on his red nose, when thought
how all the people in church would laugh
at pa. ThenI got up and pulled the busted
bladder out Of my pants, and ma and the
doctor they laughed awful When pa got
back from church and asked for me, ma
said l had gone down. She said the
doctor found my spine was only uncoup-
led and that he coupled it together and 1
was all right. Pa said it was "a mighty
strange, cause heard the spine break
when l hit him with the barrel stave.'
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