The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-04-06

L
A "Short and stupid' Little Story Tha
Points n Moral.

A "Short and Stupid" Little Story That
Points n Moral.
There is a very old story of n woman
who cured her husband of the habit of
profane swearing by taking to swear
ing herself. On just the same princi-
pie / am going to ask you to listen to a
stupid little story that shall point q
moral, in order to disgust you, as far
as my skill permits me with all stories
that point to morals-and that don't
bear a sign of warning posted conspic-
uously at the entrance.
Here is the story. and ] will only say
for it that | will try To make il as short
as it is stupid:
The little boy had had a pretty hard
day of it. lie had worked hard at
school, and then he had gone on sever
al errands for his mother, and he had
mended some toys for his youngest Sis
ter. After dinner he had studied hard
for an hour; and then, looking at the
clock, he had found that it was Just
eight o'clock, and he made up his mind
hat he would read for the half hour
that lay between him and bedtime.
He had a new book with pirates in it.
/ think they were some of Mr.. Howard
Pyle's pirates-and ! never SO earnest
ly wish that l could be a boy again as
when ! encounter Mr.. Pyle's pirates. l
know of no more satisfactory pirates.
They have black, curling boards, and
rings in their ears, and their foreheads
are done up up in CORY handkerchiefs.
l never had any such pirates when 1
was a b~oy-nothing half so good-and
whenever l run across them they wake
the boy in me to such an extent that
could lick any quantity of them. Deep
in my heart l know hat i couldn't. l
know that any one of them would be
too much for me; but they bring with
them the smell of gunpowder and
blood, which rouses the fighting in
stinct, and l sigh as l think of the
slaughter Icould have done among them
in the days of my imaginative youth.
Well, the boy had such a book as
this, and meant to read n chapter in it,
and then to go to bed to dream OF
decks slippery with blood, and of belch-
ing amor and broken rigging and all
the rest of it.
But just then a grown-up came in,
The grown-up was an uncle who had
just returned to this country after 9
long absence in Europe. From what
he did on this occasion / think that he
must have been living in England, and
had not got over it. He said to the lit
tie boy:
Charles, l see you are about to read
II you will give me a nice stamp GU
Of your album, I will tell you a story in
stead. Now this was a great temptation
to the little boy. Any boy might buy
a book n read a story out of it, bu'
here was an offer of an original story
told all for himself.
Need 1 tell you what the story wa
that the little boys uncle told him aft
err the stamp had been delivered? ID,
you want to hear the tale of a supposi
tious little boy of course of just tn,
age OF the little boy who is listening t.
the story, who entertained doubt
about revealed religion. or carried an
gleworms in his vest pocket, or di,
something else that he shouldn't hav,
done, SO that there was no health il
him, and he was properly punished il
the end? l don't think you'd care t.
hear it. l know the little boy didn't
When the clock struck half-past eigh
he went up to his little room over tn
hallway, and went to bed. He wa
tired and low in his mind. He gener
ally went to sleep as soon as he go
his head on the pillow, and dreame,
of anything he wanted to dream about
But this night he lay awake a Ion,
time, and thought a great deal. ii,
had n stamp less in his collection
and he had no pirates to dream about
and he wondered why his uncle ha,
told him such n depressing story. A
l say, 1 don't know whether it wa
about religious doubt or the imprope
bestowal of a~ngleworms, but it Ger
tainly was not about this particula
little boys particular ~favorite sin, an
he didn'tNsee, as he said to himself, VIII,
it was "heaved at him." And whel
he awoke the mex morning he wa
still thinking of it and wondering
about it, and he still felt tired.-H. {
Bunner, in Century.