The Press., 1884-12-25
ssI SPY.,
HOW BILL ME PLAYED THE GAME IN CHILD
 HOOD's HAPPY HCUR


 HOoD's HAPPY HOUR.
 z sI Spy. Dear reader, do you remem- Der the boy of your school who did the heavy falling through the ice and was al- ways about to break his neck, but man. aged to live through it all :? Do you call to mind the youth who never allowed any, body else to fall out of tree and break his collar bone when he could attend to 1t himself :? s
 Every school has to secure the services of such boy before it can succeed, and so our school had one. When I entered the school saw at glance that the board had neglected to provide itself with a boy whose duty it was to nearly kill himself every few days in order to keep up the in- terest, so I applied for the position. se- cured 1t without any trouble whatever. The board understood at once from my bearing that would succeed. And did not betray the trust that they had reposed in me.
 Before the first term was over l had tried to climb two trees at once and been carried home on stretcher ; been pulled out of the river with my lungs full of water c Id artificial respiration resorted to been j ,rked around over the north half of the county by fractious horse whose halter l had tied to my leg, and which leg is now three inches longer than the other, togeth- CT with various other little eccentricities which l cannot at this moment call to mind. My pal ents at last .got so that along ab, ut 2 o'clock p: m they would look anxiously out of the window and say, ''Isn't 1t about time for tue boys to get here with Williams remains ? They gen. erally get here about 2 o'clock
 One day five or six,of us were playing "I spy" around our barn. Everybody knows how to play II spy" One shuts his eyes and counts 100, for instance, while the others hide. Then he must fluid tie rest and say II spy'' so-ond-so and touch the ''goal' before they do. If any body beats him to the goal the victim has to ''blind" over again.
 We'll, knew the ground pretty well, aud could drop twenty feet out of the barn to land near the goal, touch 1t, and let the crowd in free without getting found out did this several times and got the blind er, James Bang, pretty mad. After boy has counted 500 or 500, and worked hard to gather ill the crowd, only to get jeered and laughed at by the boys, he loses his temper. It was so with James Cicero Bang. knew that he almost hated me, and yet went on. Finally, in the fifth ballot, Isaw good chance to slide down and let the crowd in again as I had done on former occasions. I slipped out of the window and down the side of the barn about two feet when I was detained un- avoidably. There was 'sbatten" on the barn that was loose at the upper end. l think I was wearing my fathers vest on that day, as he was away from home and frequently wore his clothes when he was absent. Anyhow the vest was too large, and when slid down that loose board ran up between the vest and my person in such a way as to suspend me about eigh- teen feet from the ground in prominent but very uncomfortable position.
 l remember it yet quite distinctly. James O. Bang came around where he could see me. He said: "I spy Billy Nye and touch the goal before him." No seem to sympathize with me in my great sorrow and isolation. Every little while James 0. Bang would come around the corner and say 70 see ye. You needn't think you're out of sight up there. can see you real plain. You better come down and blind. I can see Xe up there Y
 l tried to unbutton my vest and get down there and lick James, but it was of no use.
 It was very trying time. can re- member how tried to kick myself loose, but failed. Sometimes would kick the barn and sometimes would kick large hole in the horizon. Finally was res cued by a neighbor, who said he didn't vast to see good barn kicked into chaos just to save long legged boy that wasn't worth over six bits
 It affords me great pleasure to add that while am looked up to and madly loved by every one that does not know me, James 0. Bang is the brevet president o1 a fractured bank, taking lonely bridal tour by himself in Europe, and waiting fol the depositors to die of old age.
 The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they most generally get there with both feet Adapted from the French by per. mission.) ..