Year: 1876

The minister gave out his text and
droned along mOnot0nously through an
argument which was so prosy that many
+ cad by and by began to nod; and yet
it was an argument that dealt in limit
less fire and birthstone, and thinned the
p destined elect down to a company so
small as to be hardly worth the saving.
Tom counted the pages of the sermon |;
after church he always knew how many
pages there had been, but he seldom
knew anything else about the discourse.
However, this time he was really inter-
ested for a little while. The minister
made grand and moving picture of the
assembling together of the worlds hosts
at the millennium, when the lion and the
lamb should lie down together and ALT
tie child should lead them. But the
pathos, the lesson, the moral of the great
spectacle was lost upon the boy; he only
thought of the conspicuOusness of the
principal character before the On-looking
nations his face lit up with the thought,
and he said to himself that he wished he
could be that child, if it was tame
lion.


Now he lapsed into suffering again as
the dry argument was resumed. Pres
enly he bethought himself of treasure
he had, and got it out. 1t was large
black beetle, with formidable jaws-a
"pinch bug" he called it. 1t was in a
percussion cap box. The first thing the
beetle did was to take him by the finger.
A natu i flip followed, the beetle went
found ing into the aisle and Lit on.its
back, and the hurt finger went into the
boys mouth. The beetle lay there work.
ing its helpless legs, unable to turn over.
Tom eyed it and longed for it, but it was
safe out of his reach. Other people, un-
interested in the sermon, found reliefin
the beetle, and they eyed it too.


Presently vagrant poodle dog came
idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the
summers sOftness and the quiet, weary
of captivity, sighing for change. He
spied the beetle; the dropping tail lifted
and wagged. He surveyed the prize;
walked around it; smelt it from safe
distance; walked around it again; grew
bolder and took closer smell then
lifted his lip and made gingerly snatch
at it, just missing it; made another. and
another; began to enjoy the diversion |;
subsidized to his stomach with the beetle be-
tween his paws, and continued his exper-
iments; grew weary at last, and then
Indifferent and absent-minded. His
head nodded, and little by little his chin
descended and touched the enemy who
seized it. There was sharp yell, a flirt
of the poodle's head, and the beetle fell
couple of yards away, and lit on its
back once more. The neighboring spec
tatOrs shook with gentle inward Joy,
several faces went behind fans and hand
kerchieis, and Tom was entirely happy.
The dog looked foolish ard probably felt
so; but there was resentment in his heart
and craving for revenge. So he went
to the beetle and began wary attack on
it again, jumping at 1t from every point
of a circle, lighting with his forepaws
within an inch of the creature, max
ing even closer snatches at it with his
teeth, and jerking his head till his ears
tapped again. But he grew tired once
more, after while; tried to amuse him
self with fly, but found no relief; fol-
lowed an ant around with his nose close
to the floor, and quickly wearied of that;
yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle entirely
and sat down on it. Then there was
wild yelp of anger, and the poodle went
sailing up the aisle; the yelps continued
and so did the dog; he crossed the house
in front of the altar; he flew down the
other aisle; he crossed before the doors !;
he clambered up the home-stretch his
anguish grew with his progress, till pres
emily he was a woolly comet mo wing in
its orbit with the CLEAN and speed of
light. At last the frantic sufferer sheered
from its course, and sprang into its mas
te slap; he flung it out of the window,
ana the voice of distre quickly thinued
away and died in the distance. Tom
Sawyer went home quite cheerful, think
ing to him self that there was some sat
isfaction about divine service when there
was bit of variety in it. He had but
one marring thought; he was willing
that the dog should play with his pinch
bug, but he did not think it was upright
to carry it of.