Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-01-21
I1omth' Column.
An Inverse Boy.

''Do you know, Papa" said Nam
ma Goodman, ''that in just three
weeks from to-day Christopher John
will be eight years old? Suppose we
give a birthday party for him and
invite all the fairies? If they bring
presents-and they always used to
he will be finely started in life"
s'And of all things" answered
Papa, ''Let us not forget the Bad
Fairy You know she always is for
gotten at such times, and makes it
exceedingly unpleasant for everybody
in consequence. Where does she
live now?"
As the Sphinx possibly used to re-
fleet, after she made her celebrated
riddle, it is easy enough to ask a
question, but a very different thing to
find the answer. Day after day, Papa
and Mamma Goodman did little but
search for the Bad Fairy. They be-
sieged all their friends for informa-
ton, but nobody had seen her for
years. Even the signs of her pres
ence had quite disappeared. EARN
er Aiken acknowledged that his milk
had soured dreadfully all summer,
but, ''Sakes alive ~ cried he, "we
know better now than to think the
Bad Fairy's to blame. Its jest be-
cause our dairy amt so good as some"
Mrs. Jelly said her little boy had
recently run away and got lost, but
she had no idea that he had been be-
guiled by the Bad Fairy. She was
merely inclined to think his jacket
hadn't been sufficiently warmed.
At length some one suggested that
William of the Wisp knew a great
many out of the way things, and
that, as the Bad Fairy seemed to he
decidedly out of the way, he could
perhaps give some tidings of her.
Accordingly, one damp, dark night
Mr.. Goodman and his wife set out to
find that wanderer, and, after STUN
ping over bog and nettle, discovered
him dancing about a meadow by his
own light
civilian, do you know anything
about the Bad Fairy" called Mr..
Goodman, as soon as they were with
in hailing distance.
81 don't know anything-except
dancing," answered Will, Grossly, as
he took a particularly difficult step.
"Once l did. Now I'm nothing but
a gaseous compound of phosphorus
and hydrogen. Go away, or you'll
get malaria.
"But we particularly want to know
where the Bad Fairy lives"
"Then you'd better ask her. l
saw her a minute ago over there by
the wood gathering acorns for her
fire. She has to work for a living
now, like the rest of US. I'm fitting
myself to give dancing lessons. I'll
send you my card" And he waltzed
away.
This was something. The two
crossed the meadow and neared a
grove, where an oak tree stood su-
preme. There, afraid of crushing the
little creature, they paused, and Mr..
Goodman called.
''Bad Fairy, we want to speak to you"
Then cried a tiny voice at his feet.
"For mercy's sake don't kick over
my pile of acorns! What do you
want?"
1t was the Bad Fairy. Everybody
knows how she must have looked as
she stood there scowling her portrait
may be found in almost any collect
ion of fairy tales.
81 never receive calls nowadays"
she went on. "I'm a hard working
fairy. What do you want?"
eve are planning a birthday party
for our little son, Christopher john
began Mr.. Goodman, "and we par
ticularly wish you to be present.
81 never go to parties. There
e,,1
row if was forgotten, but that's
past and gone. Let the young fairies
60, if there are any left"
"But just to oblige u.s.
Il don't want to oblige you. 1t
might give me fit Of sickness. |
get dreadfully tired of being bad, but
if l allowed myself to be good |
should die. l can't go round doing
mischief as used to, I'm so tied up
in knots with rheumatism but [
thank my stars I'm just as bad at
heart %
Unfortunately this cautious father
and mother dared not t.ust her inca
pacity for doing evil, and they con-
tinued to press their invitation upon
her until she was quite out of pa
thence.
Snow, look here, said she, stob-
ping short in her work of acorn piling,
''Fye got to take these home to keep
up the fire till my toadstools are
done. If they stop boiling for the
millionth part of a second, the flavor
IL be spoiled, and there isn't an acorn
in the house."
''But just promise US to come to
the party" insisted Mrs. Goodman.
eyes just promise, said her hus
band.
"Well, will" cried the Bad Fairy,
in rage; "and you may take the
consequences"
This uoO tho Loot word chic xyouI6