Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1884-03-01
THE BAD BOY.


want to talk with you," said the grocery
man to the bad boy, as lie came in laugh
ing and slapping his hands on his legs,
81 have heard something to-day that has
hurt me rs much rs though you were my
boy" and the groccryman looked as if it
wouldn't take many goodsizod onions to
make the tears come.
"Great jewillikens, what is it," asked
the boy, as he looked in the face of his
mercantile friend. "What is tho matter?
Won't your creditors accept ten cents on
a dollar?" and the boy looked like law
yer ready to help client out, and reached
into cinnamon bag and took out hand
full of cinnamon.
"No, nothing Of that kind, " said the
groceryman. 81 am told OH good author
ity that you have become bad again, and
that you have been playing the meancst
trick on your pa that you have ever
played. The minister told me he was
coming In from country funeral the
other day, and he overlook your pa on the
road with a gun, and asked him to get in
| and ride, and your pas pants were all
torn, his boots and gun full OF snow, and
he was so scared that he kept looking
around all the way to town, expecting to
be shot in the back. Now, what kind OF
q way Is that to treat the author OF your
being? Say, you will have through
ticket TO the bad place, and your train
will leave on schedule time and arrive at
the grand central depot in Hades, just
as the fire is kinded. You bad, bad boy.
have been proud Of you, and thought
you would come out all right, but now
know you are hypocritc.
"There, there, don't put on any extra
Sadness" said the boy, rs he quartered
all orange. "Pa is all right. lie wanted
us to stir him up. You see, since | have
been good, pa has been neglected, and lie
has become sour and his clothes don't ut.
He told ma that what he wanted was cx-
citemcnt, and he had got to have 1t. He
said when the boys wero playing things
on him, and making him scratch gravel,
and he felt as though house was going
to fall OIL him every minute, he enjoyed
himself, had good appetite, and felt
equal to any emergency, but since tho
boys had become good, and let him alone,
his life was burden, lie had failed in
business and everything went wrong, AMI
and unless there was n change soon, he
would lose his mind. He said he sighed
for the old times, when he didn't know
whether he was afoot or horseback, and
when something was liable to happen
every minute. He said he was brought
up to be surprised and fall through holes,
and to have everything stop, and 10 lead
a quiet life, and jnst eat, drink and sleep,
with no cyclones, no happy laughter Of
children raising the deuce, was more than
ne could bear. Ma told me about it, and
the state of mind pa was in, and I felt
sorry for pa. Ma told me to try and think
up something that would sort of wake up
pa, or he would relapse into a state Of
melancholic, and have to hire doctor. /
told my chum about pas case, and he
said it was too bad to see man suffer that
way, and we must do something TO save
his life. So we agreed to take pa out
rabbit hunting. asked pa If he didn't
want to 60 with us, and he jumped right
up and yelled, and said it would tickle
him half to death to go. told him where
there was place about four miles out Of
town where there was dead loads Of rab-
bits, but the man that owned the farm
drove everybody off. Pa said there
couldn't no man drive him of, and for us
to come on. Well, you'd dide. Pa
wasn't afraid of anybody, until the man
hollered to him to git. You see, we went
out to the farm, and stationed pa by a
fence, and my chum and me went TO the
other side of piece Of woods to scare the
rabbits towards pa. Then we went up TO
the farm house, where man lived that
we know, and told him we wanted TO
scare a man out of his boots, and he said
all right, 90 ahead. SO we borrowed some
farmers clothes, and old plug hats, and
went around behind the barn and yelled
to pa to get of that farm. Pa said for us
to 90 to the bad place. He said he came
out to hunt rabbits, and by gosh he was
going to hunt rabbits. Theu my cham
and me started toward pa, wading in the
snow, and pa thought we were grown
men, seven feet high. When we got about
twenty rods from pa we told him to git
aud he was going to argue with us, when
we pulled up our guns and fired both bar
rels at him. We had blank cartridges,
but pa thought he felt shot striking him
everywhere, and he started for barbcd
wire fence, and we loaded our guns again
and fired just as pa got on tlse fence, and
he yelled murder. You know these barb
ed wire fences, don't you? The barbs
catch on 10 your pants AMI hang on.