The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-02

mind that the country got along very
we'll without you for two hundred
years, and could do it again at a pinch,
the better it will be for all of US.
I'm not agin a boys whistle. If he
didn't whistle he'd want to drum, and
if he didn't drum he'd turn to a bugIe.
There's sunthin' soft and soothin' about
a boys whistle, and when he FUCKERS
his mouth and blows with all his might
he can do fairly well again a bag-pipe,
but I like to hear it best a mile away.
A man who is tryin to fgger out the
value of II calves at 1913 apiece
shouldn't begrudge a boy whistle or
two, but don't keep it up on him all the
afternoon.
AS a boy, 1 was told that our mill
pond was ten feet deep. I might hev
accepted the figgers and kept a dry
jacket, but 1 went pokin' around with
an eleven-foot pole and was brought
| home with a barrel of water inside of
me. It's just as well to take some
! things for granted, especially if you
don't own the mill pound.
The boy who starts out in life under
the idea that natural philosophy don't
apply to his Individual case has only
| got to put his tongue to the blade of an
axe on a frosty mornin'. BY the time
| his tongue has been thawed loose with
| hot water he will hev undergone a
| change of opinion. One of my earliest
| experiences was steppin on the blade of
a hoe to see what the handle would do.
L.
to, and my head aches yet at the
| thought.
I amt sayin' that it's wise to get a
| boy up at o'clock in the mornin' and
| keep him up till midnight that he may
| learn all about cube root and be able to
tell it from other roots lynn around
but If the slidin' down hill hadn't been
| so good in winter, and the ffshin' hadn't
been so good in summer, When I was a
boy, might hev knowed enough by this
| time to figger out that when N. o. mo-
| lasSeS is 20 cents a gallon no drafted
storekeeper has a right to pocket &c
cents Of my money for quart
| EddleScaShum is a good thing nv
soma very good thing-but don't get
the idea that because you can trot
around the spellin' book and gallop
over the geography that us old ones
don't know the tracks of muskrat from
those of a pig. We licked thABritishand
gained our independence when half of
US couldn't spell cat unless she was a
black one, and we carried things along
for the next hundred years without
hevin' any particular grammar to
swear by when we got up in the morn
in. "a 3
Another. thing, my son. You won't
pass the age of sixteen without fallin'
in love. The disease somes on as sud
den as the swelI-head and lasts longer
lof bed some mornin' to find your
heart palpitatin' and your tongue coat
led,and don't let your family doctor
scare you into believin' that it's chick
lenpox for the second time.
You won't be two hours older before
you'll be able to name the girl in the
case and be huntin' around for blue
ribbons and gum drops. The thing
will grow on you for two or three
weeks, and there'Il be more corn beet
left for the rest of the family. You'll
lose your appetite and sigh and stand
laround on one leg, and you must be
careful to avoid mistakes. That is
Idon't lay around in any romantic dells
in the woods and get case of catarrh