Morning journal and courier., 1885-11-06
That Boy.

From the Contemporary Review
 He is human, of course, but all the same he moves in queer little world of his own. Grown-up folk in general he regards as a discipline, and not friendly on the whole to his personal interests. His parents are nec- essary; so much is obvious to him. But they have extraordinary ideas about right and wrong, theorize prepostereusly on wet feet and holes in trousers, and hold unac- countable opinions about school and the washing of faces and hands. He submits to all this as far as he must, and consoles himself with the reflection that some day he will be old enough to do without parents, and then he will not wash his face oftener than he chooses nor go to school. In the meantime he plays truant as frequently as he can, and especially when autumn, with her mellowing fingers, has been busy among the wild fruit, is he to be found afeld. What a happy little wretch he is! Everything about him exeites him to activity; .ssxerythlng af stones, chasing butterflies, eating blackber ries, he wanders about, thoroughly care
 less, irresponsible, gladsome urchin. Noth- ing hurts him. He triumphs over the mis- celIaneous food he crams himself with; comes up smiling after every accident. His body is all elastic and hinges, and it does not matter now mucn ne GulQDI0S SAW SOluo t1IQ6 ago an account of boy who sat on the blow hole of a stranded whale, and was suddenly snorted off by the indignant behemoth fifty feet up in the air and as many yards out to sea- I do not say the story is true, but I hope it is. So too, quite recently, 8 boy going along in field in Cornwall was sud- denly snatched up by a whirlwind and whisked over the hedge. But in each case he came back quite .unhurt. There is one catastrophe. however, to which he seems particularly liable, and that is the wasp. Where he finds so many it is difficult to say, but the fact remains that he has 8 positive genius for getting stung. This demoralizes him altogether, and he has been known to run prodigious distances to report the calam- ity to the domestic circle, roaring all the way For one thing the wasp is like the boy, rummager in hedgerows: for another, it is very fond of blackberries. Moreover, it is given to concealing itself, especially in fruit and as the urchin, with sweet trustful- ness in things in general, seems to think it reflection upon providence that he should examine what he is going to eat before he puts it in his mouth he does not, 8 rule, detect the insect upon the berry or inside the plum till it is too late and the wasp has made it's protest. The boys confidence in nature is complete, so generous, that he disdains anything that has the appearance of caution, and when one sees him in the mid dle of bramble bush picking with both hands and popping in the berries without the least examination 1t is perfectly awful to think of the chronological odds and ends that he must consume in the course of a days debauch. The wasp, on the other hand, is of suspicious sort, quick to take offense and prompt in reprisals when Hber- ties are taken with it. It has only one argu- ment, but that is a stinging one, and the boy therefore holds the 'twops" in abomination.