Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-12
THE BOSS BOY OF THE SCHOOL.
The Inconvenience Bill Nye Experienced
from the Batter on the Barn.

lEOnA INC DdItCn On Ln0
Dear reader, do you remember the boy
of your school who did the heavy falling
through the ice, and was always about
to break his neck but managed to live
through it all? Do you call to mind the
youth who never allowed anybody else to
fall out of tree and break his collar
bone when he could attend to it himself?
Every school has to secure the services
of such boy before it can succeed, and
so our school had one. When / entered
| the school l saw at glance that the board
| had neglected to provide itself with boy
whose duty it was to nearly kill himself
! every few days in order to keep up inter-
! est, so | applied for the position. / Sc
| cured it without any trouble whatever.
| The board understood at once from nv
bearing that L would succeed. And did
not betray the trust they had repOsed in
me. Before the first term was over
l had tried to climb two
| trees at once, and been car
| ried home on a stretcher; been pulled out
| of the river with my lungs full of water
and artificial respiration resOrted to;
| been jerked around over the north half of
| the county by a fractions horse whose
halter | had tied to my leg, and which is
| now three inches longer than the other,
! together with various other little early
| eccentricities which l cannot at this mo-
| ment call to mind. My parents at last
| got so that along about O'Clock p. m.
they would look anXiously out of the
window and say, "Isn't it about time for
| the boys to get here with Williams re-
mains? They generally get here before 9
| O'clock"
One day five or six of US were playing
81 spy" around our barn. Everybody
| knows how to play 81 spy.'' One shuts
his eyes and counts one hundred, for in
stance, while the others hide. Then he
must find the rest and say 81 spy so-and-
| so and touch the "gOal before they dO.1 If
anybody beats him to the goal the victim
has to "blind" over again.
Well, knew the ground pretty well, and
| could drop twenty feet out of the barn
window and strike on a pile Of straw so
as to land near the goal, touch it and let
the crowd in free without getting found
| out. l did this several times and got the
| binder. James Bang got pretty mad.
After boy had counted five or six hun
dred and worked hard to get in the crowd,
only to get jeered and laughed at by the
| boys, he loses his temper. 1t was so with
| James Cicero Bang. l knew he always
hated me, and yet l went on.
Finally, in the fifth ballot, l saw
a good chance to slide down and
| let the crowd in again, as l had
done on former occasions. l slipped out
of the window and down the side of the
| barn about two feet, when | was detained
| unaVOidably. There was "batten" on
the barn that was loose at the upper end.
| l think l was wearing my fathers vest
on that day as he was away from home,
and l frequently wore his clothes when
| he was absent. Anyhow the vest was too
large, and when l slid down that loose
| board ran up between the vest and my
| person In such a way as to suspend me
| about eighteen feet from the ground in a
prominent but very uncomfortable posi-
| ton.
L remember 1t yet quite distinctly.
! James q. Bang came around where he
| could see me. He said: 81 spy Billy Nye
and touch the goal before him." No one
| came to remove the barn. No one seemed
| to sympathize with me in my great sor-
| row and isolation. Every little while
| James G. Bang would come around the
! corner and say: ooh, l see We. You
needn't think you're out of sight up there.
| l can see you real plain. You better
come down and blind. L can see you up
| there"
| l tried to unbutton my vest and get
| down and lick James, but it was no use.
| 1t was a very trying time. l can re-
member how tried to kick myself loose,
! but failed. Sometimes | would kick the
| barn and sometimes l would kick a large
hole in the horizon. Finally was rescued
! by a neighbor, who said he didn't want to
see a good barn kicked into chaos just to
save a long-legged boy that wasn't worth
! over six bits.
1t affords me great pleasure to add that
while l am lOoded up to and madly loved
by every one that does not know me,
James G. Bang is the brevet President of
a fractured bank, taking lonely bridal
| tour by himself in Europe, and waiting
for 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.