The Jasper news., 1908-11-19

- !. F.. aff
anees and swear they would not lick
I, me, and then I let 10 OF them and be-
gan to weep again. and they were sor-
Try for me.
| Then they msde me tell them who
was, and that was going to France
to meet Pa, and monkey with air ships
and when they were sure was Peck's
Bad Boy they said 1 could have the
free run of the ship and that /. had
the right to play all the tricks on any
body that wanted to.
They made me show them how /
worked my little pocket battery and
then they wanted me to shake hands
with all the crew so they got the
whole bunch In the cabin, and the
capteiu said they had been entertain.
ing an angel unawares. and that was
the original Bad Boy, who had trav-
eled all over Europe and met the
crowned heads, and he wanted to in.
/ troduce me to each member Of the
crew personally, as distinguished
guest who honored the ship by being
on board. Then he began to pass
them up to be shook by the great and
only.
The first fellow to put out his hand
was Greek, who drew q knife on me
once because the coffee was weak,
and / gave him squeeze that sent
a shock through his system that
loosened his teeth, and when the cap.
tain alluded to me as the angel child
who was loaded for fear and who had
"a charmed life that could not be de-
stroyed by knives or guns, the Greek
looked at me in respectful way as
though he didn't want to have any
more truck with me.
Then a big Welshman came up and
| shook my hand, and when gave him
the third degree he let go and jumped
out of the window Of the cabin, on
deck, and began to use language that
was equal to Russian, and then a
Swede came bowling to me, thinking l
must be at least a crown prince, and
when 1 squeezed his hand, he looked
at his fingers and his arm and trem-
bled and squirmed and said: "Ah tank
a got YIN yams," and he lit out in a
hurry.
A small Irishman came next, and as
he was the one who promised to cut
my ears off to serve on toast, l gave
him the limit, and he curled up like g
German dachshund and laid down on
the mat making motions with his
mouth as though he was repeating
poetry, and he said: "Kape away from
me, ye hoodoo," and he crawled out
SO quick 1t almost broke the door.
The captain and mate laughed every
time l shook hands with any of the
crew, and when had paralyzed them
all, and got them SO scared they would
come to me If l whistled, and eat out
OF my hand, the captain said was
worth more toward maintaining disci.
pline on the boat than a whole police
force, and he wanted me to do some
thing every day to keep the crew from
being lonely, so that night at supper
time I charged all of the steel knives
and forks with electricity and got two
niger chasers ready for business.
1t was to be the last night before we
landed in France, and l was prepared
to make it meal long to be remem-
bered. | sat next to the captain, and
that brought me right close to the
crews table, and when the crew filed
in and took their places, they all
looked at me as though was the
devil instead of an "angel child"
/ had match all ready and when
the supper was put on and the crew
grabbed their knives and forks they
were shocked real hard. and they
dropped them and yelled something
like the swear words Of each nation
ality, and then / put my niger chas.
ers down on the floor, headed for the
crews table. and lit the fuse.
Well, you know how niger chasers
will chase. Gee. but they went under
the crews table, smoking and kissing,
the sparks flew. and the brave crew
got up and run out on deck yelling
fire" and murder" and damn that
boy" and the man In charge of the
fire hose turned 1t into the cabin and
drowned everything out, and the crew
run away and hid, and when things
cleared off the captain said: boy,
like a joke as we'll as anybody, but
you have overdone this thing, and ]
am mighty glad we land tomorrow
and you can go to your pa and his
confounded airships, and may the
Lord have mercy on him."
Then We went to bed, and / ex.
pected some of the crew would stab
me before morning, but guess they
/