Mexico weekly ledger., 1885-01-22
THE BAD BOY.
IPeck's SUM-

heAo' sAiu the grocerymRn to
the bad boy, as he came in looking
cross.
'Don't hello to me-" said the boy,
as he took up the store cat and went
to the sausage machine on the coun-
ter and began to turn the handle.
Il am no telephone"
swell, you are transmitter all the
same" said the groceryman, laugh
ing at his attempt at joke, ''but
drop that cat. What do you want to
hurt cat for, putting her in a sau-
sage grinder
20, I amt going to hurt your
cat, but I wish every cat was dead.
Our cat got me inte a knawful scrape
last night, and I was no mere to
blame than the man in the moon" ;"
said the boy, as he sat down on a
box. Everything that goes wrong
is laid to me, cause I used to be
little tuff in my youth. That shows
that boy ought never to be- tuff,
cause it sticks to him as long as he
lives"
"Give us the cat story" said the
groceryman, as he sat down by the
boy and tried to raise his droeping
spirits with a glass of rotten spple
cider.
"Oh, I wish I had never been horn.
or that I had been born twins, or
triplets, so there would have been
more of us to staId the racket. Last
night went to bed at nine o'clock,
and left pa and ma up playing you-
cur. don't know how long had
been asleep when I heard rattling
down in pa and mas room, and pa
yelled murder, and ma yelled police,
and window was smashed, and
heard a cat squalling, and ! opened
my mindow and yelled fire, and then
I grabbed my pants and went down
stairs to see what the row was, and
help put out the fire. I rushed into
the room, and there was the offulest
smell of burnt hair I ever smelled.
Ma was up on chair in her night
clothes yelling, and pa was standing
looking out of the broken window,
the top was off the coal stove, the
stove door open, and the coal-hod
and the coal scattered all around the
carpet, and pa was all mussed up,
with blood ON the front of his night
shirt, and scratch on his leg. When
I came in pa grabbed me by the
neck and said he would learn me to
fill the coal-hod with black cats, and
thought pa was crazy. Ma gr,.b-
bed pa and told him I was not to
blame, and about that time police
man pounded at the door and wsn-
ted to know what the riot was about,
and pa told him everything was ell
fright, and the policeman told the
driver of the chemical fire extinguish-
er he could go home, and then pa
told me what was the row. It seems
our old black cat didn't have no
more sense than to go to sleep in the
coal-hod, on top of the coal, and just
before pa got ready to get into bed
he went to fill up the stove, and nc
poured the cat right into the fire.
Well, I spose you would have died
to see pa. As quick as the cat stru.l
the fire she woke up, or maybe she
woke up going down the reservoir
but anyway there was m-e-o-w II
, the stove, and then the cat came
, right through one of the mica door,
| and struck pa with her toe nails, arld
began to walk On him. and howl. II
was SO scared he dropped the cosl
hod and grabbed the cat by one Leg
and threw her through the window
, and then he began to dance around
, guess at first he didn't know
, whether it was for-sure cat, or onl,
. imagination, cause pa has got to talk
! ing little Tom and Jerry during th,
| holidays, and his nerves are a httl.
t unstrung. I expressed my sorror
. that the eat should have been scorcll
, ed, and that made pa mad, cause b,
| said we all thought more of the initl
ries the cat received than we did fal
: his being scratched from Genesis t,
I Revelations, and he said what
ought to have done was to go arount
: the last thing before 1 went to be
r and see that there was no cat in th
r coal scuttle. He said / owed tina,
t at least. to my family. Pals the ur
n reasonablest man I ever saw. VIII
( would ever think of looking for cs
in a coal scuttlef After pa had give
II me fits about it, he began to jaw m,
d and told her she ought to know be
il ter than to yell so.''
e 'Say," said the groceryman, sto]
ping the boy, II want you to tell n
,e the truth. Did you have anything
:. do with putting that cat in the CO
N scuttle For if you did, that settl'
,e it with me"
it '1No, sir, I hope to die if I did
re said the boy. did / ever do an
At thing to cause you to think I was
is cold-bIooded. heartless villains Ha'
I'd / ever harmed a dumb ANIMAL
G have saved lots of dumb anima