The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-12-26
PICKS BAD BOY.
IPeck's Sun.l

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 and a tough look, of the old groceryman,
 who was wiping the mold of of some
 dried peaches with dirty cloth, and the
 boy took up handful of the peaches,
 smelled of them, looked as though he
 vss seasick, and added: They ought to hang a man for selling such stuff"
 "Business is none of your, business" i"
 said the grocerymen, and young person, & lfyou don't like those pea hes you needn' t
 buy any. Dried peaches were considered
 great luxury in an early day. In 1855 S lremember-"
 "Yes: these are 1855 peaches" said the boy, interrupting the old groceyman, I who was getting mad. "But tell me, a 5 few years ago there was an old fellow S kept grocery here on this corner who was the worst old fraud in the world. He would charge two prices for everything, and charge things to man three times, and he sold decayed cod6sh, glucose for sugar, and the neighbors used to say he would steal. Where is he now? Got rich, suppose, and gone on a trip around the world. used to know him and he vas bad lot"
 "l am the same man." said the gro- ceryman, blushing. "l have been here ten years" And then, recognizing for the first time the Bal Boy," he added {: "l was ruined by young villain who used to hang signs around my place, ad- vertising dead cat sausage and such things. He made my life burden, but he went away year or more ago, and have been told he was engaged in stage robbing out west, and had built up good business. took an oath to kill him on sight, and you look so much like the bad boy that think l will run this cheese knife into you couple of times for luck" and the groceryman made jump for the boy apparently perfectly frantic.
 @S,operl' said the bad boy, as he stepped back and let loose one of his old laughs that used to liz hten up the gloom in the grocery. "Stay your hand, rash man, or you will dull your klife. Elm brace me; am your long lost mascot" and the boy opened his arms and raised the roof with such happy laugh as the lonesome old groceryman had not heard around the place for year
 "Kill the fat prodigal, the calf has got back" shouted the groceryman, as he dropped the cheese knife and hugged the bad boy, and then pushed him of and looked at him. "I would have known you in minute if it had not been for that mold on your upper lip. like this mold on the dried peaches. By gum, am glad to see you. Where have you been, and does your pa know you have got backp Have you been in jail and how did you get out3 Are you going to stay long, or have you an engagement to rob banks Tell me all, for have missed you, you young whelp."
 "Oh, go take a walk with yourself and lose yourself" said the boy, as he disen- gagged himself from the embrace of his old friend. "Yes. pa knows Pm back, and he is resigned to his fate"
 "Do you know thought you might have got home when heard somebody yell murder over to your house last night" said the groceryman. "What was you soap box, and spit at the stove, and play some trick on me, and tell me all about yourself It has made me grow old the past year, not to have single trick played on me, and nothing happening to get me mad. A man wants excitement or he is no good," and the groceryman pushed up the soap box for the boy and drew the half bushei measure for himself, and as the two sat do wn and looked at each other as though they expected something to happen out of the ordinary run, the sight was picture worth seeing.
 "Well" said the boy, as he brushed od the soap box to see if there was any bent pin or shoemaker's wax for him to sit on, "old gentleman, you have had furlough for a year now, and it has not done you any good. You look pale. What you want is something to think of, to wake you up. For week or so shall be at home, and want you to feel n atu- ral. just as though you expected the floor to fall in the cellar, or the roof to blow sf, or can of dynamite to explode any minute. Where have been Been to college. l have got an education that would surprise you. Look at my head. Bumps have grovn out on it all over, as big a hickory nuts. That is brain, en- larged from study. Oh, have drank from the fountain of knowledge until it is a wonder have not got the educational dropsy. Studies that it takes ordinary pale boys years to master, I have tackled and mastsred in day. l am loaded for bear"
 "You look it," said the grocezyman, as he reached over and felt of some of the bumps on the boy's head. "Say, this bump may be from an enlargement of the brain, but it looks to me as though you had been hit with a sledge hammer" !"
 ~Shi Don't give it away" said the boy, as he winked out of his Left eye. sYou are right. In our class in gymnas- tics there were some fellows very handy with their 6sts, and at the graduating ex- ercises l was knocked silly. One of the amateur Sullivans in our class knocked