The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1883-03-14
THAT BAD BOY.
He Permits His Pa TO Kill Him That He
May Work His Progenltor's
Reformation.

ri #@E "dy WOIh = LIOSGultOE
; Reformation.
mo- said the grocery man, as he
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 ~
ooh, no, ma. is healthy enough now
she has got a 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. [
and get him to stop drinking, so [ got a
boy to write a letter to him in a female
hand and sign the name of choir singer
pa was mashed on, and tell him she was
yearning for him to come back to the
church, and that the church seemed a
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 nc Daisy business
on him a second time. He said he knew
[ wrote the letter, and for me to go up
in the store-room and prepare for the al
mightiest licking a boy ever had, and
he went downstairs and broke up all APP
4 81 ~~--Al - G-@ - @r4a.ro ~ xxrI ~ NO
with. Well, [ had to think mighty
quick, but | was enough for him. | got
a dried bladder in my room, one that me
and my chum got to a slotter-house, and
] bowed it partly up so it would be sort
of fiat like, and [ put it down inside the
back part of my pants, right where pa
hits when be Furnishes me. / knOWed
when the barrel stave hit the bladder it
would explode. Well, pa he came up
and found me crying. [ can cry just as
easy as you can turn on the water at a
faucet. Pa took off his coat and looked
sorry. l was afraid he would give up
whipping he when he seen me cry, and
/ wanted to go on with the bladder eN-
pertinent, SO [ looked kind Of hard, as II
[ was defying of him to do his work,
and then he took me by the neck and
laid me across a trunk. i didn't dare to
ol1tiS9iC HULL lOI lGdi GIC OIGot0CI Mo01N
loose itself, and pa said, Now, Hennery,
I am going to break you Of this dam
foolishness or [ will bear your back so
he spit on his hands and brought the
barrel stave down on my best pants.
Well, you'd a died if you had heard the
explosion. It almost knocked me Oft
the trunk. It sounded like firing a fire
| cracker away down cellar in q barrel,
and pa looked scared. I 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 a fell
low who is dying on the stage after being
stabbed with a piece Of Iath, and groaned
and said, Pa, you have killed me, but l
forgive YOU and then I rolled around
and frothed at the mouth. Pa was all
broke up and said, Great God, what
have [ done? / have broke his spinal
column. O, my poor boy, do net die [
kept chewing the a and foaming at
the mouth, and drew my legs up and
kicked them out, and clutched my hair,
and rolled my eyes, then kicked pa ID
the stomach as he bent over me, and
knocked the breath out Of him, and then
my limbs began to get rigid and | said,
TOO late, pa, L die at the hand Of an as
sassin. Go for q DOCTOR Pa throWed
his coat over me and started downstairs
on a run, saying, Il have murdered my
brave boy He told ma to go upstairs
and stay with me, as / had fallen Off a
trunk and ruptured a blood-yessei, ana
he went after a doctor. Then ] sat up
and lit a cigarette, and ma came up and
I 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 go to
church again and swear off drinking. so
when pa and the doctor came back, ma
was sitting on a velocipede | used 10
ride, with her apron over her face, and
she more than beloved. Pa was pale
and told the doctor that he was just play
ing with me with a pl see Of board, when
he heard something cIack, and he guess
trunk. The doctor wanted to teel where
it was broke, but | opened my eyes with
a vacant sort OF stare, like a woman who
leads a dog by a string, and | told him
there Was no use setting my spine as 1T
was broke in several places. | told pa |
was going to die and / wanted him to
promise me two things or IMPLYING bed.
He cried and saidlhe 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 go to church every Sunday. 1
made him get down on his knees beside
me and swear it, and the doctor witness
ed 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
Tor pa to put Oh his coat and go out and
walk around the block or 60 to church.,