The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-17
THE BAD BOY.
TRaekA Snn.l

peekA SuA.l
 "Hellor said sha RrocesymaA sc the bad boy, as he came h locking crcsa
 @DoaA hello to me said sAe boy, as he took ap tho store cat and wena te the sausaRa machine on the counter and be- gan eo turn the hladle. "l am 10 tele- phone.s
 "Wei, yoa are a tFansmitter al the same" said the groceEymAn, laughing at his attempt at joke. "hut drop that cat. What you want to hurt q cat Cor, putting her m . sausage griAdsrse
 70. ains going to hurt your cat, but wish every cat was dead. Our cat got me into nawful scYape last night, and vas no more to blame than the man in the moon. :" said the boy, as he sat down on a box. ''EveYehing that goes wrong is laid to me. cause : used to be little ,afs ia my youth. That shows that boy ought never to be tats, cause 1t sticks to him as long as he lives"
 Give us the cat story" said the gro. ceSyman as he sat down by the boy and tried to raise hts drosping spirits with a glass of rotten apple cider.
 70, ] wish had never been bora, oT that had been born twins, or triplcts, SO there would have been more ot us to stand the racket, Last n,ght went to bed q, nine o'clock, and left pa and ma up play. ing youcus. don't know hos long had been asleep when l heard rattling down In pa and mas room, and pa yelled murder. and ma yelled police, and a window was smashed. and heard cat tqualling, aud opened my window and yelled fire, and then grabbed my pants and went down stairs to see what she ro9 vas, and help put out the fire. rushed into the room, and there was the ofiulest smell oi burnt hair ever smellsd. Ma was up on q chair in her night clothes yelling, and pa was standing looking out of the broken window, the top was of the coal stove, the stove-dooF open, and the coal-hod and the coal scattered all around the carpet, aad pa was all unused up, with blood on the front of his night. shirt, and q scratch on hts leg. When came in pa grabbed me by tn" neck and said he would learn me to ill the coal hod with black cats. and l though, pa was crary. Ma grabbed pa and told Aim l was not to blame, and about tha. time a policeman pounded at the door avd wanted to know what the riot was about. and pa told him everything vas all right, and the policeman told tEe driver of the chemical fire extinguiahSy he could go home, and then pa told ne what was the row. It seems our old black cat didn't have no more sense than to 20 to s'eep in the coal hod, on top of the coal, and just before pa 20, ready to get into bed he went to 6ll up the stove, and he poured the cat Tigh, into the fire Well, spose you would have died to see pa. AS quick as ihs cai struck the fire she woke up, or maybe she woke up going down the reservoir. but anyway there vas a m-e-o-u-w in the stove. and then the cat came right through one of the mica doors and struck pa with her toe nails, aad began to walk on him, and howl. Pa was so scared he dropped the coal nod and grabbed inc cat by one leg and threw her through the window, and then he began to dance around. guess al first he didn't know whether it was foE-sure Cat, or only i'm. agina,ion, cause pa has got to taking a little Tom and Jerry during the holidays, and his nerves are a little unstrung. I expressed my sorrow ,ha. the cat should have been scorched, and that made pa mad, Cause he said we all thought more of the injuries the cAt received than we did for his being scratched from Genesis ta Revelations, and he said what ough, to have done was to go around the last thing before 1 went to bed and sec tha, there was no cat in the coal scu,,le. He sad owed that, at least, to my tamiiy. Pa is the unreasonablest man ever saw Who would ever think of looking for a cat in a coal scuttle2 After pa had given me fits about it, he began to jaw ma, and told her she ought to know better than to yell so."
 Say" said the groceryman, stopping the boy, want you to tell me the truth. Did you have anything to do with put ting that cat in the coal scuttle7 For il you did, that settles t with me-"
 No, sir, 1 hope to de if did" said the boy. "Did l ever do anything to cause you to think was cold -blooded, heaTtless villain1 Have ever harmed q dumb animaif have saved lots Vf dumb animals from harm, bu, have never in- jured one in the least. No. it was just an accident, such ss might occur in any family. but bet you pa never empties coal scss;!e again wi.hou. anal, sing IL for traces of cat;" and the bad boy wen, ou, feeling hurt tha, not only his pa but his old friend the grocesyman should take him to be boy who would seofch cat
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