The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-10-30
HE DIDN'T GO WEST.

How Chicago Boys Plans About wild
Life on the Plains Came to Nothing.
Billy lived in Chicago. / dare say
you may have heard of Chicago,
though perhaps you have never heard
of my friend Billy, the buffalo-hunter,
who lived in Chicago, away down on
the South side, where he could hear
the waves of Lake Michigan breaking
upon the gravelly beach. In the win
ter these same waves piled up a curl
GUS ice-wall against the break waters
But Billy got tired of listening to this
thunder of the waves winter and sum-
mer. He did not care for the ice wall
on the break-water. He Just thought
Chicago was the most uninteresting
town fellow ever lived in. Many
country boy would have been delighted
to see what Billy saw every day, but
Billy didn't care for it. We all of us
incline to think our own surroundings
the dullest of all, and to wish we
were somebody else, or that we were
somewhere else, or that we did some
thing else, or knew somebody else, or
had something else, or that somehow
we could kick this world about us into
cooked hat, and have things different
from what they are.
Billy thought he would like to 90 to
Colorado and hunt buffaloes, or do any
other wonderful thing that offered it.
self. He never stopped to think how
much easier it is for q boy to build a
railroad, or command a canal-boat. or
go to sea, or kill an elk in a story. than
it is for real boy to build real rail
road. We folks who write stories do
not often feel sorry for our boys when
we get them into scrapes. We know
how easy it is to get a boy out of
scrape, if the boy is only story boy
But when real boy gets into q real
scrape, it is quite another thing.
But Billy was bound to go to the
plains and shoot a buffalo. He had
saved his small change until he got
quarter. So one day it was made up
between him and Ben Clark and Tom
my Oates that they would go to Colo
RADIO. They were in the loft of Billy's
fathers stable when the plan was fixed
upon. Then they told all the wonder
full Indian stories and robber stories
they could think of. and when these
gave out, they came to ghost stories.
Poor Billy got his head so full of these
things that he was afraid to blow out
the lamp when it came to be time.
He awoke in fright, sure that burg
lars were climbing in at the window,
and he covered up his head, and kept
it covered for several hours; and when
atlast he peeped timidly out, he found
that it had been daylight for an hour
The sun was blazing down on the
waves of Lake Michigan, and making
it look like sea of gold
But Billy was bent on his "expedi-
ton" Ben Clark had some money in
the bank, and it would not cost much
to 90 in an emigrant train. Billy had
a watch which his uncle had given him
because Billy was named for him. Ee
could pawn that for money.
Tommy had good many plans for
raising money, but they never came to
any thing. He read over all the stories
about boys who had become sailors
and buffalo-hunters and railway-build-
ers, and money always seemed to come
to the boys IN the stories just in the
nick of time. Tommy did not doubt
that he also would find some old uncle
that he had never heard of, or some
benevolent robber, or some doting
aunt, or somebody who would put the
money in his pocket before the APP
pointed time should arrive.
But when the first day of April came
the time appointed for setting forth
Tommy had no money. Billy, who
had talked so much about buffaloes and
hunters that the boys called MIN al
ready 'the buffalo-hunter, was all
ready to go. Poor Tommy could not
gol But never mind; the others would
ship their buffalo-skins to Tommy, who
could sell them and come to Colorado
on the proceeds Then the three friends
would form an invincible band, which
no Indian or buffalo could resist or
evade.
Billy and his friend Ben were to go
on the midnight train. Tommy was
coming down to see them off. Billy
got an old revolver out of the drawer,
where the harmless thing was kept,
and put it under the head of his bed.
He went to bed early. But when his
mother kissed him gentle goodnight,
a lump came in his throat How
could he give her so much painp Never
mind, he thought he would write to
her; and then she would be so glad
when he should come back, in three
years, and tell her all his adventures.
Women never could understand boys.
anyhow. They were such towards! If
boy were to stay by his mother al
ways, he might as well be fool at
once or girl
But it was an unlucky night for Billy.
The more he thought of it, the worse
he felt about leaving his mother, and
the more he thought of how she would
feel when he was gone. He turned
over restlessly on his bed so often that