The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1883-05-19
Lincoln County Leader.
Saturday, May 10, 1883.
THE BAD BOY.


VI away IRON leTe now edlu
the grocery mar to the bad boy as
he came into the store and was
going to draw some cider out of a
barrel into a pint cup that had
some flies in 1t. sect right out
ofthis place and don't let me see
you around here until the health
officer says your Pa has got over
the smallpox. l saw him this
morning and his face sail covered
with p%Ostules, and they will have
him in the pest house before night.
Yougit," and he picked up a butter
traycr and went for the boy who
took refuge behind a barrel of
onions, and held uphis hands as
though Jesse James had drawn a
bead on him.
so, you go and chase yourself.
That is not small pox Pa has got.
He had a fight with a nest Of
hornets" said the boy.
"Hornetsl Well, I'll be cussed, y"
remarked the grocery man, as he
put up the butter trayer, and
handed the boy a slice Of rotten
muskmelon. ''How in the world
did he get into a nest Of hornets!
l hope you did not have anything
to do with it,"
The boy buried his face in the
melon, until he looked as though a
yellow cash had been cut from his
month to his ears, and after swol-
loving the melon, he said: "Well
Pa says | was responsible, and he
says that settles it, and | can go
my way and he will go his. lie
said he was willing to overlook
everything | had done to make his
life unbearabIe, but steering him
into a nest of hornets, and then
getting drunk was too much, and
can go"
''What, you haven't been drunk,
says the groceryman. "Great
heavens, that will kill your poor
old father"
90, l guess it won't kill him
very mucn. lie has been getting
drunk for twenty years, and he
says he is healthier to day than he
ever was, since his liver has got to
working again. You see, Monday
was a regular Indian summer day,
and Pa SAID he would take me and
my chum out in the woods to
gather hickory nuts, if we would
be good. l said | would, and my
chum said he would, and we got a
couple OF Bags and went away out
to Wauwatosa, in the woods. We
dubbed the trees andgot o nuts
than anybody, and had a lunch,
and Pa a Just enjoying his re-
lidiln first rate. While Pa was
talking IA nap under a tree, my
chum and me looked around and
found a hornets nest on the lower
limb of the tree we were sitting
under, and my chum said 1t would
be a good Joke to get a pole and
run it into the hornets nest and
then run. Honest, | didn't think
about Pa being under the tree, and
| went into the field and got a hop
pole, and put the small end up
into the nest, and gouged the nest
a couple of times, and when the
boss hornet came out of the hole
and looked sassy, and then
looked back into the hole and
whlstled to the other hornets to
come out and have a circus, and
they began to come out, my chum
and me run and climbed over a
fence and got behind a pile OF hop
poles that was stacked up. Iguess
the hornets saw Pa just as soon as
they got out of the nest, cause
pretty soon we heard Pa call
Helen Damnation,' or some wo-
man we didn't know, and then he
took his coat, that had been using
for pillow, and whipped around,
and he slapped hisself on the
shoulders, and then took the lunch
basket and pounded around like
he was crazy, and bime-by he
started on a run towards town,
holding his pants up, and Inever
saw a fat man u so, and fan
himself with a basket. We could
hear him yell, come OF boys.
Hell is out for noon, and he went
over a hill and we didn't see him
any more. We waited till near
dark because we we're afraid to GO
after the bags Of nuts till the hor-
nets had gone to bed, and then we
came nome, The bags were awful
heavy and think it was real mean
in Pa to go off and leave us, and
not help carry the bags"
swan" said the grocery man