The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-05-25
Johns Long Excuse.

When John came home late from school one
spring afternoon, his mother asked him what had
kept him so late.
Teacher did," John replied, for he was truth
full boy.
"Why, john" said his mother what did you do
to be kept in p
Nothing" said John. II only looked out of
the window"
But you know you must not look out of the
window In school; you must be attentive TO your
lessons" said his mother.
"But, mother, you would have looked out of
the window yourself if you had heard Fido bark
He was barking at cat. | could tell. And want
ed to see what kind of cat it was"
"John," said his mother, 81 told you before yon
left to put Fido In the cellar and shut the cellar
door"
II did do it, mother; but, after [ had gone
little way / went back to see if he was SAFE and
when l opened the door just little he popped out
and then [ could not catch him without being late
at school, and he would not come when | called
him. He thought he saw a rat I'm sure, from the
way he ran about and barked. Or else he was glad
to get out of the cellar Wouldn't you be? prom
ised him of my lunch, but he would not go
back, and / threw stone at him, and it only made
him jump and bark more; and then / had to run
all the way to school, and, of course he ran after
then, and / caught him easily. I was afraid he
would make some trouble, so put him in the cloak
ROOM where the teacher keeps her hat and UNI
brella and told him to be very quiet, and he said
he would"
"Why, John" exclaimed his mother.
"Oh, he did not just say So" said John, "but
could see plainly that that was what he meant; and
it nice and dark in there, so he could go to
sleep; and it smet mousy, which YOU know dogs
like He just quiet all morning as could
be- but at recess teacher went to get her hat and
she did not know Fido was there, and Fido tried
to jump up and kiss her, and teacher just yelled.
1t frightened Fido terribly to hear her and he ran
out into the room and all the children laughed at
him, and teacher said / bad boy and Fido
was horrid dog. But l told her why I had put
him in the closet, and | made him sit up on his hind
legs and bark when | spoke to him. and lie down;
and then teacher let him kiss her, and said | must
not do it again So | put him out in the yard
But when spelling, teacher said to spell
dog and | forgot and spelled 'Fido.' Teacher
made me stand in the corner, and / think F-i-d-o
is much harder to spell than dog. At lunch time
teacher let me go out in the yard with the Others
and we had fine time playing with Fido. We
gave him most all of Jimmie Saith's lunch and
some of Jimmie's sisters lunch; and when Jimmie
cried we gave him some of ours Then we played
circus and Jimmie said he would turn double
summersault over ten elephants Fido was the ele-
plants, and Jimmie stepped on his tail when he
was getting ready to turn double summersauIt,
and Fido bit him in the foot Jimmie made an aw-
full noise Teacher made us all come in, and jim
ME found out that Fidos teeth hadn't even cut his
shoe | said he cry baby to be frightened at
a little bit of dog like t1do, and he said teacher
was frightened too, an then teacher made US both
stand in corner for talking in school Then jim
ME Smiths sister commenced to cry, and teacher
asked her why, and she said we'd stolen all her
lunch for Fido 1t wasn't so, for we had told her
we were going to take it, and we didn't take near
all of it. and we gave her some more anyhow. [
don't think Fido liked her lunch very much, she
always has pickles. Teacher commenced to scold
me about it, and just then / heard Fdo barking at
a cat and looked out the window just once. And
that's why teacher kept me in."-Arthur Dillon in
the Leader.