Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-10-06
Girl. W .A\TL.D
TO COOK.
CHAPTER NXI.

CHAPTER XXI.
Ills IA STABBED.
Il hear you had burglars over to your
house last night" said the grocery man
to the bad boy as he came in and sat ON
the counter right over little gimlet
hole, where the grocery man had fixed
darning needle so that by pulling string
the needle would fly up through the hole
and run into the boy about an inch. The
grocery man had been laying for the boy
about two days, and now that he had
got him right over the hole the first time
it made him laugh to think how he would
make him jump and yell, and as he
edged off and got hold of the string the
boy looked unconscious of impending
danger. The grocery man pulled and the
boy sat still. He pulled again and again,
and finally the boy said:
Yes. it is reported that we had bur-
glars over there. Oh, you needn't pull
that string any more. l heard you was
setting trap for me, and put piece
of board inside my pants and thought l
would let you exercise yourself. Go
ahead if it amuses you. 1t don't hurt
me-"
The grocery man looked sad, and then
smiled a sickly sort of smile at the
failure Of his plan to puncture the boy,
and then he said: "Well, how was it?
The policeman didn't seem to know
much about the particulars. He said
there was so much deviltry going on at
your house that nobody could tell when
anything was serious, and he was in
clined to think it was a put up job"
''Now let's have an understanding"
said the boy. Whatever say, YOU are
not to give me away. It's 90, is it?
have always been afraid of you, because
you have a sort of decayed egg look
about you. You are like peck of pota-
toes with the big ones on top, sort of a
strawberry box with the bottom raised
up, so have thought you would go back
on fellow. But if you won't give this
away, here goes. You see, heard Ma
tell Pa to bring up another bottle of lini-
ment last night. When Ma has pain
anywhere, she just uses liniment for all
that is out, and a pint bottle don't last
moro than a week. Well, l told my
chum, and we laid for Pa. This liniment
Ma uses is offul hot and almost blisters.
Pa went to the Langtry show and did
not get home till II o'clock, and me and
my chum decided to teach Pa a lesson.
don't think it is right for a man to go
to the theaters and not take his wife or
his little boy.
$50 we concluded to burgle Pa. We
agreed to lay on the stairs, and when he
came up my chum was to hit him on the
head with dried bladder, and l was to
stab him on his breast pocket with a
stick and break the liniment bottle and
make him think he was killed.
at couldn't have worked better if we
had rehearsed it. We had talked about
burglars at supper time and got Pa nerv-
Gus, so when he came up stairs and was
hit on the head with the bladder the
first thing he said was Burglars, by
mighty and he started to go back, and
l hit him on the breast pocket, where
the bottle was, and then we rushed by
him down stairs, and l said in a stage
whisper, Guess he's dead man, and we
went down cellar and up the back stairs
to my room and undressed. Pa hollered
to Ma that he was murdered, and Ma
called me, and came down in my night
shirt, and the hired girl she came down,
and Pa was on the lounge, and he said
his life blood was fast ebbing away. He
held his hand on the wound and said he
could feel the warm blood trickling clear
down to his boots.
81 told Pa to stuff some tar into the
wound, such as he told me to put on my
lip to make my mustache grow, and Pa
said: My boy, this is no time for tri-
fling. Your Pa is on his last legs. When
came up stairs, met six burglars, and
/ attacked them and forced four of them
down and was going to hold them and
send for the police when two more that
l did not know about jumped on me,
and was getting the best of them when
one of them struck me over the head
with a crowbar and the other stabbed
me to the heart with a butcher knife.
have received my death wound, my boy,
and my hot southern blood, that offered
up SO freely for my country in her time
of need, is passing from my body, and
soon your Pa will be only piece of poor
clay. Get some ice and put on my
stomach and all the way down, for am
burning up
Il went to the water pitcher and got a
chunk of ice and put inside Pas shirt,
and while Ma was tearing up an old skirt
to stop the flow of blood l asked Pa if
he felt better and if he could describe
the villains who had murdered him. Pa
gasped and moved his legs to get them
cool from the clotted blood, he said, and
he went on: One Of them was about
foot high and had sandy mustache. /
got him down and hit him OH the nose,
and if the police find him his nose will
be broke. The second one was thick
set and weighed about 200. l had him
down, and my boot was on his neck, and
l was knocking two more down when l
was hit. The thickset one will have the
mark of boot heels on his throat. Tell
the police when I'm gone about the boot
heel marks
by this time Ma had got the skirt
tore up, and she stuffed it under Pas
shirt right where he said he was hit, and
Pa was telling us what to do to settle his
estate, when Ma began to smell the lini-
ment, and she found the broken bottle in
his pocket and searched Pa for the place
where he was stabbed, and then she be-
gan to laugh. and Pa got mad and said
he didn't see as deathbed scene was
such an almighty funny affair, and then
she told him he was not hurt, but that
he had fallen on the stairs and broke his
bottle and that there was no blood on
him, and he said, DO you mean to tell
me my body and legs are not bathed in
human gore? And then Pa got up and
found it was only the liniment.
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