Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-09
STORY OF A JAcK.KN,FE.

Tho Mischief 1t Wrought and the Sad
Feeling Which VIII Attend Its Reforna-
ton.
Once upon q time there was q Jack
knife. It
Now, there are good jack-knives and
there are bad j%ack-knives, just as there
are good little boys and bad little boys.
There are a great many iack-kniyes
that always seem anxious to make
something useful, and there are a great
many other jack-knives' that always
seem to be in misunderstanding the fur
niture, scratching the doors, and doing
other things that are bad.
This Jack-knife I am telling you
about was mi of the bad kind.
l never heard its name, but probably
it was Sharpe.
Well, day this Jack-knife went
on q regular lark. Now, when q bad
boy goes on a lark, there is sure to be
some mischief done: and jack-knives
are likely to act very much as little
boys act. So this Jack-knife, being, as
l said, OF a regular lark, went racing
about, hunting for 3 chance to do some
thing terrible. By and by it rushed out
upon a piazza, where it thought no ono
could STE it, but where there was s
door-a clean, fresh-painted, brand
new door, that had never had .
scratch on it.
Then this terrible Jack-knife whipped
out one of its blades, and it said (thas
is, it would have said if it could TALKS
'.Here's a good chance to cut and slash,
and nobody'll ever know who did it.
I'll just have a fine old time with this
door. And s'pos'n' they find it out
what'll they say? Well, who carese
Hero go my initials" Now, initials ars
the first letters of anybody's name.
And that makes me think this Jack
knife's name couldn't have been
Sharpe. For the first letter that it cut
was a big NJ. Dear, dear, it was simply
dreadful to see that nice door cut and
hacked in that way. And 1 think the
door felt terribly about it, too, for il
just turned a kind of pale drab.
Well, when this terrible Jaek-knife
had cut and hacked out the NJ, then il
began to cut 3 big C. Now, of course;
its name couldn't have been Sharpe,
nor Steele, nor anything like them, for
those names don't begin with an NJ,
But it never finished the G. For just
then somebody came along and fright
ened it away. Bad jack-knivcs are
very easy to scare. But it had done
enough to spoil the looks of the door;
and the worst of it is that it can never,
never be fixed-no, never.
Now, I have been thinking, suppose
this old Jack-knife should some day be-
reformed, and become a real good
Jack-knife, as I hope it will; and sup
pose that, instead Of doing bad things,
it should learn to do useful things
such as sharpening le~ad-pencils, maxi
ing boats that will sail, and tops that
will spin, and other things like that,
suppose all this-and then suppose tha'i
some day-may be fifty years frops
now-it should come around and JUST
take a look at that door: Oh, yes; it
would be there, no doubt, with the very
same hack there that the Jack-knife
had made. My, wouldn't that jack
knife feel sad! Every time it looked
toward the door it couldn't see any
thing but those dreadful hacks that it
had made fifty years ago. Sad? I
should say it would feel sad!
MoRAL--Neverdo anything you may
be sorry for.
N. B. This is a true story, and was
written by an eye-witness.-L. ~ ChG-
pin, IN ST. Nicholas.