The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-01-24
Boys FUNNY EXPERIENCE
What He Found Out and How 1t Affected
Him-IIis Good Resolution.

A BOYS FUNNY EXPERIENCE
What He Found Out aud How 1t Anectes
Him-His Good Resolution
June 20.-Tn have lot. to write
now. More than ever had before, fol
I've found out something.
Six months ago we moved out here
on our farm, and then we didn't 90 to
town, only just once in while, on the
cars. They put it in the paper when
we left. and once in q while they pnt il
in that pa-had been in the city@when
he called on the editor. But ] hadn'i
never been in. csc -
In the paper, mean. So was Just
the surprisedest you ever saw, to read
yesterday, in q little corner:.z :. Died,
June Is, in Hickory Township, of brain
fever, James Willis, aged thirteen
years" That was me! only, of course,
hadn't died, nor nothing, and i lived
in Hickory and ALL But then, it scasn't
me, of course, and still couldn't help
believin' it was, if they'd only left out
the braln-fever and the dyin'. -
Everybody else thought it was me,
tool mean everybody-in town-and
Cousin Fred came right out to see about
it. s.l,. $500.
Oh, how sorry everybody was! How
they pitied pa! and how they pitied NAL
and how sorry they were for Bess and
Bob for losin' such a noble brother! and
what great man Ihad given promise
OF making! and how much good they
had all calculated on my doing in, the
worlds - sszses7 .--erss< ~
Really, I couldn't help thinkin, It
would have been downright shame If
it had been me-everybody was so sorry.
Itwas publicly announced i'm the town
schools, Fred said! and the teachers
were all so sorry, and the scholars Just
felt aUfut-especially the girl that had
sat in front of me, and the two girls
back of me, all who had borrowed my
knife and things most of the time, =. { !,
kthink its wrong to Ikea fellow as
much as they did me, and never let him
know,it. I'd "a treated them lots bet
ter inslife, if I'd "a known it. ss89 Il
There were resolutions draweds up
and the teachers cried and said I'd been
a good boy and they'dealways been so
proud of me, and had so hoped I'd live
to bless the world, 1t seems that I was
the principal hope of that instiaifin II
I'd IA knowed they had such hopes of
me- I never would IA Whispered or
laughed or traded in school, once.
June 2I.-There was great long
piece in the paper this morning. And
oh, everybody's .a-feelin' SO bad The
resolutions came out, too. They made
me feel very queer. But we've found
out. Somebody did die, but it wasn't
me. 1t was just another boy. His folks
moved here lately, and are renters. 81
June %, Morning.-Pmg going totewn
to-day with Fred. He wrote his folks a
postal, sayin' 1 was all right, but for
them not to tell, but let my return be a
surprise. I Thought it might be too
much for everybody if Just went right
in to them, and 1 suggested the
propriety of sending telegram or
something, to tell them to prepare to be
awfully startled. But pa said he guess
ed it wasn't necessary. .ase. -
So I'm goin' right in, just so. Oh, !
am so anxious to see everybody! Won't
they all be glad? / feel as if Is Would
be dreadful thing for Everybody if l
scas to die. hope, harder'n ever, that
everybody'n live to rear me. l mean,
/ hope for eyerybody's sake, that I'll
live to grow up. I never want to affiict
people so again. Everybody liked me-
so well, {and I'm so thankful, and want
to stay with them! I'm going to have a
good time now, with SO, many friends
l guess I'll amount to considerable. =
Night = Well, most everybody was
glad guess. But it wasn't bit like
l thought it would be. Everybody had
heard about it bein, another boy, and
some had been a-ssyin' they knowed all
along it wasn't so. wasn't the kind
of youth TO die early And one. boy
said hadn't brains enough to catch &
fever in 'em. And some that had took
on about it looked sheepish; and that
ungrateful Elite Green took 1t back,
and said she never cried bit. And /
wouldn't never have nothing to say to
her again, il Twas hundred years old.
The Principal laughed, and said the
Presidents chair wouldn't have to go
empty, after all, and the teachers took
on some. A good many of the boys
said. s'Hallor' and didn't even shake
aafds. And when 1 sNK Eds4pntsr,@I.
thought, Now he's coming to tell me-