The Wahpeton times., 1886-11-18
GOING A-GJJDDLING,

hOA Ao' AA0t9y Als1S ctlWhyS Decu my
unlucky day, anyhow. If fate, as
frequently happens, has any unpleas.
antness in store for me, it is sure to
reserve it till Friday.
But Dominic Forbes was, as we
boys phrased it, Gin a tear" on
that particular Friday forenoon;
something had gone radically wrong
with him. Everybody knew that the
dominic was deeply in love with a
farmers fair daughter, and that the
scourtship ofDuncan Gray was othing
to his in vicissitudes, for at one
time bonnie Jeanie tombstone smiled
on him, and at another she laughed
at him. And whatever Jeanie' mood
was, we poor pupils became the result
ant; 1t was flog-fog-tlog all day
when Jeanie was saucy, but when
f. Jeanie was kind everything We did
pleased our dominic.
AS a rule, at all ordinary times Dom
inie Forbes was a tartar. Squeers was
aSsaint to him. And the tawse-a
piece of leather bride cut at the end
into two fingers and hardened in the
tire-go little rest. When it was put
away for time the "spengie" cane,
or rattan, took its place, and I do not
know which makes the palms and fin
gers tingle the most.
A bit of masher was Dominic
Forbes, especially on Sunday, when
he wore a swallow-tail coat, with a
morsel of crimson silk handkerchief
sticking out OF the pocket-he kept an
ordinary white one in breast-pock-
ct for nasal duty-and his club-foot
boot,with its extraordinary thickness
of sole, shining like half-a-yard of pol
ished Whitby jet. The dominie's hair
was as black as his boot, and his side
whiskers glittered like boatmen bee
ties.
Now Saturday was kind of mixed
day with us boys at Belltield school;
q day of grief in the morning, because
the work of the week had to be reca-
pitulated, and we were all sure to be
thrashed; and of Joy in the afternoon,
because it was q half-holiday and the
morrow was Sunday.
But no. to our great astonishment,
on this particular Saturday the dom
lnie was as sweet in temper as tab
by cat with five young kittens.
Jeanie had been kind. That was
the solution of the riddle.
But there he was, dressed in his Sab
bath clothes, silk handkerchief and
polished club.foot-boot, and positive
ly white neck tie!
And he frequently smiled softly to
hinlself-wandered little in his talk
but looked generally angelic.
blundered a good deal over nv ir-
regular verbs Igave single verbs to
plural nominatives and murdered my
past participles. But dominic merely
smiled and corrected me.
Went back to my seat, walking on
feathers, seemingly.
had afavorite flat mahogany ruler
and got round to my table in time
to find mischievous Davie Law burn
ing one end OF it between the bars OF
the CRATE.
My joy was turned to wrath. l
drew forth the ruler and smote Davie
with the fiery end oft, javelin fashion.
1t went half way down his throat,
suppose, and loosened some of his
teeth. Davie yelled, and the dominic
appeared and found Davie splitting
blood and cinders. But even this did
not disturb his equanimity. He mere
ly said, "You shouldn't have done
that, Gordon"
Such is love-when Chloe is kind!
We We're not a bit surprised to get
away that day two hours sooner than
usual.
We rushed pell-mell, almost break
ing each others ribs in the doorway.
We yelled and shouted tor Joy, and
flung our Highland bonnets high in air.
When the exubersnce of our ecstasy
had somewhat subsidized, Willie Jamie
son-poor lad! he was killed soon aft
or this by his fathers horse falling on
him-stood upon the top of a stone
and shouted:
''Who will go a.euddling?"
What he really did say was: "Fa'll
gag guddlin'? But you see am po.
lite enough to translate his words in
to English.
Now, Willie was the biggest boy in
our set, and we respected him accord
ingly and looked up to him almost
reverentially. Even q box on the
ears from Willie was considered an
honor and acondescension on his part.
"Who will go a-guddling?"
Fifty arms waved in the air at once;
fifty treble voices rang out "I'll gang!
III gang! l'llgang!"
But Willie had no intention of in
yiting the small-fry-the nippers from
He rushed through their ranks, DASH
ing them aside in all directions, like
sturgeon in shoal OF haddocks, and
made his way to the spot where Davie
Law and I, with our jackets off were
having it out in downright earnest.
he soon settled the business by
pitching into US both, and when we
arose from the ground
Now, will ye gang guddin'?" said
Willie.
"Gangguddlin'? Wouldn't t we, just?"
On went our jackets, and off after
Willie went Davie and I;my arm round
Davies waist; his arm round my neck;
he telling me he liked me better than
any other boy in the school, and as
+ suring Davie that had always quite
loved him.
On our way to Den burn, where we
u Intended to ,guddle. we met daft Willie
Wilson. Willie was whe.lwright-
or his brother was; for don t suppose
I he himself did agreat deal in that way.
But Willie wasn't fool, mind you.
Not q bit of it; only little daft; he