The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-31


He'd been rather bad boy for two or
three weeks, so bad sometimes that his
rather and mother and Uncle Dick told
him Santa Claus wouldn't come around
at all Christmas if he didn't behave
and stop holding the cat over the ball
listers. Besides this act of indiscre-
ton, he had pasted pictures all over
the bathroom wall while nurse was
asleep, and when they came off they
left shiny spots where the mucilage
mad been. And that same day he let
the water run into the tub and then
floated the hair brush on it for a boat,
until all the wood came off the back
and the bristles fell out
Why, he even stuck pins in his faith
ers new hat just to see if he could,
and when nurse told him he was
naughty, he lay down on the floor and
kicked. And he even cried when they
combed his hair in the mornings, and
when they left it alone once to show
him how it felt, he poured his break
fast milk into nurses lap and she had
to change her dress.
Now, of course, you never do any
thing like this, but just want to show
you how bad he really was.
His mother, who was a beautiful Wo-
man, cried over him sometimes and
spanked him at other times, and the
spankings seemed to do the most good,
because he was so naughty If he
hadn't been, the crying would have had
better results. But then if he hadn't
been naughty, his mother wouldn't
have had to cry over him or spank him
either. l don't know exactly how it
would have been, but you can work it
out for yourselves.
And all this time his name was Regi-
maid. Most bad boys are named Tom
my, but all Tommies are not bad boys.
Besides being named Reginald, he had
q sister older than he. whose name
was Gladys. Gladys wasn't at all like
her brother Reginald. She never
pulled the cats tail or pasted pictures
on the bathroom walls, or laid on the
floor and kicked. She did almost ev-
erything anybody told her, except some
of the things Uncle Dick asked for. Did
you ever notice how many uncles are
named Dick? He used to ask such
queer things that no wonder she
couldn't do them. Sometimes he'd
ask her why she didn't
TAKE OUT HER TEETH LIKE HE
and then he'd laugh at her when she
tried and give her a penny One day
he told her that Reginald had lost his
temper, and asked her to find it. She
hunted all over the house, and then
Uncle Dick laughed harder than ever
and gave her whole nickel.
But it was different with Reginald.
He'd get in corner and pout when
anybody asked him to do them a favor,
and Uncle Dick used to frown and
tweak his ears, instead of giving him
pennies, and that always made Regi-
maid act worse.
Well, as I started to say, .Reginalds
father and mother told him Santa
Claus wouldn't come at all if he didn't
be good, and he said
81 don't care"
He did care though, and was good
for whole hour, but he couldn't stay
so. You see, he had got into the habit
of being bad and couldn't behave even
when he wanted to. So don't you ever
be bad, because you might get into the
habit, too, and if you read on, you'll
see how awfully dreadful it is.
He tried his very hardest to be good
the night before Christmas, and hung
up his stocking beside Gladys, and
his mother kissed him good night after
he had been tucked into his little bed,
and told him she believed Santa Claus
would come after all. Sure enough,
next morning when he woke up, there
was his stocking full of candy and
things and there was a sled and a gun
that wouldn't shoot very much but
was pretty
GOOD GUN JUST THE SAME,
and horse and wagon that you wound
up and it would go ever so far. Regi-
nald broke that first thing to see how
it worked, and the spring gave him an
ugly knock. And there were a lot of
other things and picture book
Gladyss stocking was filled too, and
besides she had new doll with yellow
hair and blue eyes, and a sled. too, and
new red hood and some mittens and
box of colored crayons and a whole
bottle of perfumery and ever so many
other things you've always wanted.
She and Reginald jumped out of bed
and ran to the fireplace in their bare
feet and sat down on the rug with
their stockings in their laps. Reginald
began to eat the candy right away
that was before he took the wagon to
pieces-but Gladys took hers out care
fully and put it to one side, and in the
very toe of the stocking she found
bright new five dollar gold piece. That