The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1883-06-08
THE BAD BOY.

Oec Heie, you Soon3 iou sSs WV
of here" said the groceryman to the
bad boy, as he came into the store
with his face black and shining, 81
don't want any colored boys around
here. White boys break me up bad
enough.
80, phllopene," said the bad boy,
as he put his hands on his knees and
laughed so the candy jars ratified on
the shelves. "Yout didn't know me.
I am the same boy that comes in
here and talks your arm off," and
the boy opened the cheese box and
cut off piece OF cheese SO natual
that the grocery man had no difi-
Guilty in recognizing him.
"What in the name OF the seven
sleeping sisters have you got on your
hands and face" said the grocery
man as he took the boy by the ear
and turned him around. "You would
pass in a colored prayer meeting,
aud no one would think you were
galvanized. What you got up in
such an outlandish rig for?''
swell, I'll tell you, if you will
keep watch at the door. If you see
a bald-headed colored man coming
along the street with club, you
whistle and I will fall down cellar.
The bald-headed colored man will
be pa. You see, we moved yester-
day. Pa told me to get a vacation
from the livery stable, and we wonld
have some fun moving. But I don't
want any more fun. I know when
I have got enough fur. Pa carried
all the light things, and when it came
to lifting, he had crick in the back.
Gosh, I never was so tired as I was
last night, and I hope we have got
settled. only some of the goods hav-
emit turned up yet. A drayman
took one load over OH the west side,
and delivered them to a house that
seemed to be expecting load of
household furniture. He thought it
was all right, if everybody that was
moving got load of goods. Well,
after we got moved pa said we must
make garden, and he said we would
go out and spade up the ground and
SOW peas, and radishes, and beets.
There was some neighbors lived in
the house next to ours, that was all
wimmen, and pa didn't like to have
them think he had to work, so he
said 1t would be- good joke to dis
guise ourselves as tramps, and the
neighbors would think we had hired
some tramps to work in the garden,
l told pa of a boss scheme to fool
them. 1 suggested that we take
some of this shoe blacking that is
put on with sponge, and black our
faces, and the neighbors would think
we had hired an old colored man
and his boy to work in the garden.
Pa said it was immense, and he told
me to go and black up, and if it
worked he would black hisself. So
I went and put this burnt cork on my
face, cause it would wash off, and pa
looked at me and said it was a
whack, and for me to fix him up too.
So [ got the bottle of shoe backing
and painted pa so he looked like a
colored coal HEAVIER. Actually when
! ma saw him she ordered him off the
premises, and when he LATED at her
and acted sassy, she was going to
throw billing water on pa, but told
her the scheme, and she let up on pa
| o, you'd died to see US out in the
garden. Pa looked like uncle Tom
and.I looked like Topsy, only 1 ain,
that kind of a person. We worked
till a boy threw some tomato cans
over the alley fence and hit me, and
piled over the fence after him, and
left pa. 1t was my chum, and wher
1 had caught him we put up a jot
to get pa to chase US. We throwed
some more cans, and pa came out
and my chum started and after him
and pa after both of us. He chased
US two blocks and then we got be-
hind policeman, and my chum tole
the policeman it was a crazy ole
colored man who wanted to kidnal
US, and the policeman took pa by th'
neck and was going to club him, bu
| pa said he would 90 home and be-
have. He was offul mad, and b
went home and we looked through
the alley fence and saw pa trying t
wash of'the blacking. You see tha
blacking won't wash off. You hay
to wear it off Pa would wash hi
face with soapsuds, and then look il
the glass, and he was blacker ever,
| t;roo ho xYaeba1 op1 rUhap voo Ia a..