The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-10-18
THE BAD BOY.
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 When they were in the back room the
 groceryman said, "No~, l don't want to
 pry into the family affairs of my GUS
 toners, and don't want to know anything
 that is not told me freely, but hear there
 is heap of trouble over to your house,
 and that your pa and ma do not speak to
 each other and that your pa meditates
 suicide. How is it, and what is the
 matter"
 Well, I'll tell you," said the boy, as
 he looked through the crack in the door
 to sec that nobody was listening. "You
 see pa is man who don't keep posted
 He don't read the papers. Last week
 the papers were full of new trick that
 is being played on travellers by woman
 who get a man to hold a basket in a
 depot while they buy a ticket, and they
 go away and the man finds that there is
 an abandoned baby in the basket, and
 he has to take care of it. If pa had read
 the papers he would have been posted
 on the trick, but all he reads is politics.
 Yesterday pa was down to the depot to
 see General Sherman pass through, and
 while he was waiting for the train he had
 to go into the ladies waiting room to sec
 who was there he could mash, cause as
 much as l have talked to pa he is the
 same old masher he was long ago. He
 sat down on settee, and good looking
 woman came along and glanced al pa
 out of one corner of her eye. Ina, was
 enough for pa. He weakened, and
 glanced back, and she came up to him
 and said, Young man, you look like a
 gentleman that delicate woman could
 trust Pa said he wished he had as
 many dollars as delicate woman could trust him. and he looked SO tickled when she called him young man. Pa is offdl proud when anybody don't seem to think he IS old. Well, the young woman said where there were so many bad men 1t was a great chance that a woman took in speaking to a stranger, but there was something so noble and kind in his face that she felt as though he would be to her like a younger brother, and that she could leave treasure with him for few mo- ments with feeling that he would pro- sect it with his life. That younger brother business fixed pa, though he thinks now that she alluded to the Younger Brothers that are in state prison in Minnesota. Pa said to her that she could leave her very life in his possession and it would be all O. K., and he smiled at her with one of his old back-numher smiles of the vintage of iSs6 Then she handed him shawl-strap with package inside, and told him that it was valuable. and she would not trust it to any other man, and if he would guard il while she went out to the baggage-room to see about her baggage she would always re- member him as one of natures young who deserved to be decorated with the order of knighthood. Pa swoller- ed that tatfy just as easy as could be, took the handle of the snawl-strap and placed the package across his knees, and the woman gave him smile and wink and went out. Pa sat there holding the package until Sherman's train had come and gone, and as the package began to get heavy, like watermelon, he sighed tor the woman to come back. Pa thought 1t was a watermelon, because it began to SO he laid i, on the seat beside him, and then it began to kick and cry. Pa grabbed it and unbuckled the straps. and when he found that 1t was a baby about month old, his eyes stood out so they looked like door-knobs. He soon tumbled to the situation, and was going to lesve 1t on the seat when the depot man said None of that, old man ? and pa had to carry it out of the depot. He got on street car and was going to leave it, but the driver was watching him. and he had to take it home. met pa on the steps and asked him if he was sick. he looked so pale, and he said he wasn't sick, only discouraged He asked if ma was in, and told him she was and she had callers. Pa would have gone around to the cellar door, only the package be- gan to cry, and just then the door opened tor the callers to go, and pa had to go right in amongst them. 1 guess pa would have explained it to mas satis- faction if he had been given time, bu, the first thing the callers said was, o. what a pretty baby, and how much it looks like you If pa had had a gun, he would have put charge of buckshot right into that flock oi women, but he didn't have no gun. so he said it was a gol darned lie.' Ma asked pa where he got it, and he said if they would come in the parlor he would tell them, and the callers came back. Ma didn't act very tickled. but she looked at pa sort ot sassy, and pa looked as though he would give eight dollars if he wasn't there. Well, pa told the whole story about the woman at the depot, though he didn't say anything about how she wunk at him. All through the story the callers looked at each other and at ma as though they didn't believe a word of it, and ma kept swallering something that wouldn't swaller very easy, and pa acted as though he felt that they looked upon him as a horse thief It was painful scene, and when pa got through his story, the callers said they would have to go, and they looked so cross at pa, and so sorry for ma, that was glad when they was gone. Then ma, she was offul mad, and she said to pa, this is purty piece of busi- ness Pa he couldn't say a word, and ma said the navsty thing should be bundled into the street, and she wouldn't touch it with the tongs, and pa looked as though he would sink, and ma looked as though ~k~ ~-.~kAd l.. ..~,.lS Txyl- :.