Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-18

choked till Bennie had to pound me
on the back with all his might.
81 didn't give in, though, with
Bonnie watchin' me. / Jest handed
the see-gar to him, an he took two
puffs. Then I took two puffs,
an then he took two more,
an then me, an then him, till we
smoked that old butt clear down to
the very end" And Henry leaned
back and sighed, as the picture
came back to him, of two small
straw-hatted. overal,ed, freckled
boys, trying, with the aid of q dis
carded cigar end, to pretend that
they were grown men.
what did you do when it was
all smoked up?" demanded DaVie,
his face aglow; II wish I'd been
there. l bet I'd have taken lot
of big puffs."
You would, would you? Ho, no,
ha, ha," roared Henry, well,
when I git to the end O. my story
maybe you'll be purity glad you
didn't happen to be there.
Il leaned against the barn and
says TO Bennie: 1T was grand,
wasn't it?' An Bonnie. he grinned an
said he wished he had another.
" Craclkey,' he says, when I'm q
man [ amt never goin' to smoke
nothin' but ssee-gars. I'll smoke
'em all the time, too. 1 wish we had
another, SOS we could show the boys
how easy we can smoke 'em.
An I said I'd give the sixty
three cents l was savin' up to go
to the circus if the boys could a
seen us. An then"-Henry paused
impressively, fright while l was
tallIin', almost in the middle of q
word, you might say, saw Bennies
face turn as green as grass, an the
next thing l knew I couldn't see
him at all. Everything I looked at
seemed upside down. What's the
matter, Bennie?' asks I, and Bennie,
he says, oh, nothin', only 1 guess
I'll sit down.
which he did that very minute
that very second, to be exact, and
I sat down, too.
AN two minutes after that I
laid down, an so did Bonnie. An
if ever two boys wished they was
dead. an even went so far as to
pray to die, we was them two.
Sick! We was SO sick, both of
us, that we couldn't even wiggle
our little fingers"
Henry paused for a moment, dur
ing which Davie wiggled his little
finger. ITS awful easy to do he
told Henry. You must have been
pretty sick when you couldn't do
that"
I'VE was" said Henry, seriously.
Dorothy wanted to tell Henry that
I'VE were" was the correct thing to
say. She usually did want to cor
I.s4 ,otI
Dear had told her a long, long time
before that Henry was an old man
and that Dorothy was just a little
girl. So she just said: at must
have been very dreadful, Henry"
Upon which Henry promptly said
again:
1T were.
After a long time 1 went to
sleep" he continued moment later,
IAN Bonnie did, too. 1t was dark
when I woke up, hearin' somebody
calm an calm, first my name an
then Bennie's. I tried to lift my
head, but it went swimmin' around
SO fast that I gave up tryin' most
before [ began. An I wished
more'n ever that l was dead.
"Bennie,' he says, are you there,
Henry? An I says I was. An
then he says we'd better try to git
up and git to the house fore father
found us an gave us a 'ickin'."
What is that?" asked Davie, my
father never gave me one"
well. I've known him to give you
what seemed mightyil Ike one said
Henry, with a chuckle, only he
called it a spankin'. A lickin' is
the same as a spankin', only more
So"
obi" said Davie land did your
father lick you?"
HE was aeoin' to, all right"
Henry told him. but when he saw
our two bleached faces. he jest
grinned and said L saw you two
make off with that butt, an knew
it was agoin' to make you sick
Now. git TO bed! You've been pun
ished enough to last you. I guess.
An If I catch YOU at it agin. III
HE never did tell us what he'd
a. done" ended Henry, "he jest gave
us a quick shove out o the room.
An we knew enough to keen on go
in till we struck our little room, up
in the attic"