The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-01-01
PECKS BAD BOY ABROAD


my blood gets thick. and my appetite
fails, when you are away from town.
and when you play some low down
! trick on me, While l seem mad at the
time it does me good, starts the cir
culation, and when you go away [
seem new man. and laugh, and feel
like had been off on a vacation, fish
ing, or something. 1t was great
mistake that l did not have family
OF boys 70 keep me mad part of the
time, because man that never has
anything to make him mad is no good.
L envy your dad in having you around
constantly to keep his blood in crcu-
lation. / suppose you are responsible
for his being, at his age, as Spry as a
| boy. He told me when he and you got
back from Yellowstone park last sum-
ner that the trip did him a world Of
good, and that he got so he could
climb tree-just shin right up like a
cat, and that you were the bravest boy
he ever saw, said that you would fight
| bear as quick as eat. Such a boy |
am proud to call my friend. What
was it about your fighting bears, sim
gle-handed, with no weapon but empty
tomato cans? You ought to be in the
history books. Your dad said bravery
runs in the family"
"Oh, get out. Did dad tell you about
that bear story?" said the bad boy, az
he sharpened his knife on his boot
We'll, you'd died right there, il you
could have seen dad He is one or
these men that is brave sort of inter-
mittent, like folks have fever. Half
the time he is a darn coward. but
when you don't expect ii, for instance
when the pancakes are burned, or the
steak is raw, and his dyspepsia seems
to work Just right, he will flare up and
sass the cook, and / don tknOW of any
~
he is meek as a lamb. | think the
stomach has a good deal to do with the
mans bravery You take a soldier in
battle, and if he is hungry he is full
IF fight but you fill him up with
baked beans and things and he is Will
ing to postpone q fight, and he don't
care whether there is any fight at all
" not. / think the trip through yell
owstone park took the tar out of dad.
Those geysers throwing up hot water,
apparently right out of the hot place
he preachers tell about. seemed to
set him to thinking that may be he
had got nearer HI on a railroad
pass, than he had ever expected to
get He told me, one day, when we
stood beside the Faithful geyser. and
the hot water belched up into the air
4 hundred feet, that all it wanted was
for the lid to be taken off. and HI
would be yawning right there. and he
was going to try to lead different
life, and if ever he got out OF that park
alive he should go home. and join
every church in town. and he should
advise ministers TO get the sinners to-
take the trip to the park, if they
wanted 10 work religion into them.
Dad would wake up in the night. AT
the hotels in the park. when gciser
went Oft suddenly. and groan, and
cross himself. as he had seen religious.
days more he would he safe out of
catch him in it again
Well there Is one hotel where a lot
of bears come out of the woods in the
evening, tn eat the garbage that is
thrown out frcm the hotel. They are
wild bears. all right. but they have
got so tame hat they come right near
folks, and don't do anything but eat
GARBAGE and growl and fight each
other. The cook told me about it, and
said there was no danger, cause YOU
could take q club and scare them into
/ he woods.
we got To the hotel in the after
noon. and dad went to our room tc say
his prayers, and take Il nap, and had
his supper taken 10 the room. and he
was so scared al the aWful surround
inss IL the park that he asked a bless
I
/ FUNNIEST supper / ever struck After
dark / told dad We better go out and
! take a walk and inspect the scenery,
cause it was all in the bill. aud if you
got 4 bum supper and didn't get the
scenery YOU We're losing money in the
deal | saw the man emptytng the
garbage and | knew the bears would
he getting In Their work pretty soon, so
/ took dad and we walked away Oft and
he talked about how God had prepared
that park as q warming to sinners of
what was to come, and [ knew his
system was sort of running down, and
] knew he needed excitement, a shock,
| or something, to make a reaction, so /
stored MIN around - the garba &c
pile
Say, before he knew ii we We're
| right in the midst of about nine bears,
grizzlies, cinnamon bears. black bears,
and all of them raised up and said.
, "Whoof." and they growied. ard. by
gosh, just as quick as / could run this
knife into your liver. | missed dad He
just yelled: "Hennery, this is the limit,
and here is where your poor old dad
spirits for tall timber" and he made
for a tree. and yelled: Hurry up,
dad" and he said: II amt walking
am =" and YOU ought to have seen his
short legs carly aim to the tree, and
help him skin up it. / have seen
S(luliT6lS CIlfID trees. W0el IL OO3 WIS
after them, but they are STOW Gem
pared to dad. When he got up to a
limb he yelled to me to come on UP.
as he wanted to give me few last in
structions about settling his estate. but
| told him ! was going to play | was
Daniel in the lions den. SO / studied
the bears for a while and let dad yell
for the police, and then | picked up an
armfGi of tomato cans and made q
rush for the bears, aud yelled and
and threw cans at them. and pretty
soon every bear went off into the
woods, growing and scrapping With
cacn other, and | told dad to come
down and would save him at the
risk Of my life. Dad came down as
quick as he went UP, and | took his
arm and led him to the hotel and
when We got to the room he would
have collapsed. only ] gave him a big
drink of whiskey, and then he braced
up and said: ''Hennery, when il comes
to big game, You and ! arc wonders
of the world. You are brave and J |
am discreet. and We make q. team
hard to beat. | told dad he covered
himself with glory. but that he left
most of his pants on the tree. but he