The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-23
THE NEW SCHOOL READER.


James and Henry were two boys (not
girls) living near each other and meet
Ing every day. but ali! what a differ
ence between themi While Henry was
gentle and loving, and his eyes would
MI with tears at sight of ggrasshopper
with a broken leg, James, on the con-
trary, was rough and boisterous and
would go mile out of his way to hit
& grocer'S horse in the ear with
SNOWFALL While the two boys were OF
the same size and age, James could
lck Henry with one hand tied behind
him, and there was never a week but
what he did it. When Henry would
come home with his hair all touseIed
up and one eyebrow missing his moth
er would exclaim:
It's that boy James again! He has
Deen giving you another humping.
Why do you have anything to do with
such young ruffian?"
And Henry would wipe his eyes on
the kitchen towel and reply:
I know, dear mother, that Jim is q
pad boy, and that he delights to punch
my head and make me suffer, but he
always has lump-sugar or sweet cake
In his pocket and 1 can't keep away
from him.
This thing happened over and over
again, until the gentle Henry had no
more eyebrows to lose and his nose
had been punched until it had lost all
feeling. He wanted to break away
Al Jill TIE OctAig OdQ JdIIeSs anu ne d.
ways kept trying to, but when he had
stayed home for a day James would
come around and show him five Jumps
of sugar or a big hunk of sweet cake
and make friends with him again. This
went on for two or three years. ana
then the end came
Henrys uncle John came from Wis
constn on visit, and he soon got on
20 the racket. He saw that a bad boy
was seeking to make a good boy as
had a himself and that "a would
complish his object if something was
not done, and so he took off his coat
and rolled up his sleeves and did some
thing. That is, he took the gentle and
loving Henry into the woodshed and
tanned his Jacket until the boys yells
were heard by Deacon Saunders hoeing
potatoes half a mile away. Then he
put Henry to bed and tied him fast and
piled the bureau and two trunks on top
of him and left him to eat bread and
water for a week.
Let me say to you that at the end of
O. few days Henry no longer hankered
sugar. His mind was fully made UP to
learn four hundred verses out of the
Testament and become a preacher. He
was permitted to go out and sit I'M
der the pear tree in the back yard, but
when James came to tempt him he
could no longer do SO.
AS for James, of course he became a
burglar. He had to. He had no Uncle
John to 1arTup him and make him see
the difference between right and wrong,
and after throwing a street car off the
track. stealing a box of soap from
a grocer and setting a barn afre, he
started out one night to rob the house
of a plumber. He expected to secure
81, 000,0 900 in cash, but he was disap-
pointed. The plumber had his house
defended by a burglar-alarm, and as
soon as the first tinkle sounded he got
out of bed and grabbed James by the
neck and made him prisoner. Then he
called the police, and James was lock-
ed up and later on sent to prison for
five years. That was not the end of
him, however. One day, in trying to
make his escape to burglarize the
houses of more plumbers, he was shot
and killed, and ever since then he has
reposed in a grave over which there is
no tombstone to tell the world who he
was.
1t is always so, and you can't make
it any different. The good boy, if taken
in hand and given the proper sort of a
licking by his Uncle John, always
grows up to become an ornament to So
ciety and to lend money at ten per
cent, while the bad one runs brief
career and is then brought to his sad
end by a plumber who don't make over
fifty per cent profit on any of his jobs.
M. Quad