News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-06-18
WHAT SHOULD HE HAVE DONE
The Bad Boy-The Mother and the Father
A Lesson in Real Life.

The Bad BOy-The Mother and the Father
| Lesson in Real Life.
John, senior, is Papa, @tat thirty.
John. Junior, usually addressed without
the prefix, was two years old December
Is. 1884. Visitors exclaim over him as
Glove of a child" his mother secretly
believes him to be perfectly beautiful;
mulatto Sally, who has nursed him
rom his birth, pronounces him ga
cherubim, if there ever was one on
earth" Since certain day last month
John, senior, considers him ''a handful. I"
On that day Junior, who had hitherto
| been obedient to the ukase prohibiting
him from touching anything on his
fathers writing table, entered the
library, where that parsonage was at
work, marched audaciously up to the
desk, snatched an open letter from under
the busy fingers and threw it upon the
floor.
"NowI 'Ook, |" calculated the
cherubim, locking his fists at his back
and putting up his lower lip in defiant
pout that made him into the loveliest
picture his mother had ever looked
upon.
"Junior is naughty boy r. said the
father, judicially. mo, mamma |" for
she stopped to recover the paper
"Junior must pick it up and put it back
on the table"
"'Ont II uttered the angel smilingly.
"My lamb !" (deprecating) from the
mother.
"Pick it up, sir p CmagisteriaD from
the father.
Both Johns have bright brown eyes.
They met now with dangerous flash, as
when two rapiers strike full ON the edges
of the blades.
'Junior-'ont--pick-it-upP The
pout was angry; small heel rang sharply
on the hearth.
John, senior, pulled open a drawer
and took therefrom strip of whalebone
that might have been tossed there after
and child had seen it once before, on a
dreadful November afternoon. neither
had forgotten. They recognized it i'm
mediately, the one with paIing, the
other with reddening cheeks. A sibilant
sign cut the awful hush that fell upon
the three at its appearance. The father
answered it:
''My dear" in ominous composure),
IL.
You had better leave the room"
John, dear, I am sure the darling
will"
"Obey me? So am I. 1t is a mere
question of time. For your sake-and
his-you would do well to leave us.
He thinks you sympathize with him."
Did she? Her anguished gaze de-
voured him, standing erect before the
parent transformed into Judge and ictor.
The beautiful eyes were wide and ablaze;
the baby feet were planted firmly and
far apart on the floor; the baby mouth
was shut in hard line. She fell on her
knees beside him, gathered him into her
arms; her wall was out of the depths of
a wrung heart
ooh, my boy do what papa tells you
to do Pick up that paper for mamma p
Then Twill she ever forget it p he
twisted himself loose from her embrace
and struck her full in the face, his own
with rage.
$50 way, bad mamma Junior
'ont p
Weeping loud as she went, the mother
fed to the remotest recesses of the
house, shutting the doors behind her,
not to hear the pursuing shrieks.
"Now," persisted the father, suspend
ing the punishment and speaking with
slow distinctness, "pick up that paper
and lay it on the table Doyou hear ?"
A mighty breath of relief escaped him |
as the child moved toward the letter.
ga sharp fight, but short one p he |
Junior put out-not his hand, but a
little foot. Catching the toe under the
edge of the paper, he pushed it along to
MS fathers chair, there gave it dex-
erous fiirt that nearly landed it on the |
seniors knee, and delighted at the ex-
oloit, laughed out gleefully, the tears
arrested at their fount.
John. senior, put the paper back on
he very spot where it had lain before.
"That won't do, young man Take
it up with your fingers r
Again brown eyes struck fire against |
brown eyes.agThe chubby hands clutched |
one another behind the stiffened spine,
and between the teeth came:
Junior thay he 'ont p
The mother, through all the closed |
loors, heard the outcries that ensued,
hen the stern tone of command inter-
hitting the ground swell of sobs.
Iapa ltue Diooo WellluS unseen
With every stab the parent dealt him
,eIf) whip-his-bo until-he
-picks-that-pa with-his-
lands- and-lays-it-on-the-table"
Victory at last Down dropped the
BOY on his hands and knees, crawled to
he hateful object of contention, de-
iberately bent his head, picked up the
etter with his teeth, crept in the same
1og-like fashion to his father, and laid
the prize on his boot
May the writer submit question to
the readers of this true story?
What ought John. senior, to have
lone ?-Bd6yhood.