The Nevada picayune., 1884-12-18
THE BAD BOY.
From Peck's Sun.

fyour houSe p asked the grocery
 man of the bad boy, 'as he came il
 with a big basket and ordered a quantity of groceries. "Your pals grocery bill is five times as big as it used to be. 1 thought it was on account of Thanksgiving, but it keeps piling right up, and you wouldn't order the cheapest, rusti- est mackerel and two shilling tea fer q thanksgiving. Whats up"
 t'Oh, we are keeping boarders, J said the boy, as he wiped the mould off some prumes on his coat tail. "You sec, after election pa and ma held council of war, and some thing had to be done, 'cause pa can't get any office out of Cleve- land before next March, if he does then. So they concluded to keep ing boardd~s, ma to manage the house and pa to hustle around out side and pick up the boarders, and collect 'the money, and 'sort of boss things. l have to do about all the work, though" :"
 "Well, that is enterprising, and ] am glad to see your pa settling down to a steady business. But how does it work so farF" and the handed the boy a bill for the weeks groceries, with a request that his pa would pay it at once, as he had to pay his rent.
 q don't think it is a success" said the boy, as he backed mp to the stove to get warm, "and guess it will use ma up entirely. You see pa hain't got no sense. Ifhe finds a man that is looking for board, he hustles him right home without making any inquiries as to wheth- CT the man can pay or not, and when they don't pay, he hasn't got sand enough 10 bounce lem, and ma has to do it. IL is one continu- ed round of pleasure between pa and ma, each finding fault with the way the Other runs things. Pa has fellow to board with Us, and two weeks lie didn't have any money, and he had borrowed nine dollars of pa, and I lent l.i'o my roller skates and he hasn't showed up lately. Then pa struck a music teacher, and gave her the privilege of giving lessons in the parlor, and she mauled the piano all day and had fellow come and sit up with her every evening. and when she come to pay Der bin there was something coming to her. She charged for giving me music les
 sons, 'cause l used 10 go in the palfor and stand up by the piano, to turn the music, and put my arm around her once in while. Gosh I thought she liked it, because she used to look up at me and smile and when ma told her to pay up, we owed her, and she said she would stay another week and board out the balance if ma would keep her naughty boy out of the parlor, Ma hustled her, out bet! Ma finds the most fault with pa about carv- ing. She has tried to teach him to cut meat thin, so thin that you can see throughSsit, but he carYes just as though we had visitors instead oS bOarders, and ma says that will
 break up the best boarding house in the world. l think pa showed the least sense when he took the living skeleton from the dime mu- scum to board. A living skeleton is all right enough in his proper sphere, at museum, and nobody thinks anything of looking at him, but to have one in the family is an other thing. Pa told ma that we could make more money on one living skeleton than we could on four ordinary boardels, and that encouraged na, and she let pa bring him home, but. lordy, the first round at the table convinced ma. The skeleton eat as much as any four boarders, and after din ner three boarders left. They said if they associated with the skele- ton they would be classed as curi- osities too. The skelteon is darn ed nuisance, cause he don't know his place. When the music teach CT was playing some tune and the boarders were sitting around the parlor listening, the darned old skeleton would play an accompa-