A New Casablanca.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 201, 16 September 1873, Page 7

A New Casablanca.

The man looked at his boy proudly, stcrnfully, sorrowfully. The lad looked into his father’s face sadly, exultingly, heroically. It was a living tableau no artist could reproduce. “Billy,” said the father, gravely, “1 took your mother and sister to church yesterday.” —“ Yes, sir.”—“ And left you to see to the things.”—“ Yes, sir,” replied the boy, gazing out through the window at the flicker as it hitched down the gatepost, and flu ally dropped into the grass with a shrill chirp. “ And you didn’t water the pigs “ O-o-o ! Oh sir ! Geroody ! Oh me ! Lawsy, lawsy me !” The slender scion of an apple tree rose and fell in the hand of Mr Coulter, and up from | the jacket of the lad, like incense from an I altar, rose a cloud of dust, mingled with the | nap of jean. Down in the young clover of i the meadow the lark and sparrows sang i cheerily, the gnats and flies danced up and ! down in the sunshine, the fresh soft leaves I of the vines rustled, and all was merry indeed. Billy’s eyes turned up towards the j face of his father in appealing agony, but still with a sharp hiss the switch cut the air, falling steadily and mercilessy on his shoulders. And along the green banks of the river the willows shook their shiny fingers at the rising fog, and the voices of children going to school smote the sweet May wind. “Oh pap, I’ll not forget pigs no more!”—“’Spect you won’t, neather.” The wind by a sudden puff lifted into the room a shower of white bloom petals from a sweet apple tree, letting them ! fall gracefully upon the patchwork carpet, the while a ploughman whistled plaintively in a distant field. “Ontch! Crakee! Oh, pap, pap !”—“ Shut your mouth or I’ll split you to the backbone.” How many delightful places in the wood, how many cool spots bej side the murmuring river, would have been I more pleasant to Billy than the place he j then occupied i “ Oh, me, oh, me !” yelled j the lad. Still the dust rose and danced in I the slanting jet of sunlight that fell across | the room, and the hens out in the barn j cackled and sang for joy over new eggs hidden jin choice places. At one time during the falling of the rod the girl quit washing, and thrusting her head into the kitchen said, in a subdued tone, “ Mv laud, ain’t Bill getting an awful one —“ You’re mighty right,” replied the mother solemnly. Along towards the last, Mi* Coulter tiptoed at every stroke. The switch actually sccamed through the air as it fell, Billy danced. “ How go, sir ?” cried the man, tossing the frizzled stump of the gad out of the window ; “go now, and the next time, you water them pigs.” And, while the finch poured out a cataract of melody, he went. Poor bov ! that was a terrible thrashing ; and to make it worse it had been promised to him the evening before, so he had been dreading it and shivering over it all night. Now, as he walked through the breakfast-room, his sister looked at him in a commiserating way, hut on passing through the kitchen, he could not catch the eye of his mother. Finally he stood in the free, open air, in front of the saddle-closets. It was just thou a speckled rooster on the barn-yard fence flopped his wings and crowed vociferously. A turkey cock was strutting noon the grass by the old cherry tree. Billy opened the door of the closets. “ A hoy’s will is the wind’s will, and the thoughts of vouth are long, long thoughts.” Billy peeped into the closet, and then cast a glance about him, as if to see if any one was near. At length, ! during a pleasant lull in the morning wind, | and while the low tondorlv-mellow flow of | the river was distinctly audible, and the song ;of the finch increased in volume, and the 1 bleating of new iambs in the meadow died in ! fluttering echoes under the barn, and while | the fragrance of apple blooms grew fainter, ' and wlide the sun, now flaming just above ' the eastern tree tops, launched a shower over him from head to font, ho took from under I his jacket, behind, a double sheepskin, which, | with an ineffable smile, he tossed into the ; closet. Then, as the yellow flicker rose 'rapidly from the grass, Billy walked off, 1 whistling the air of that once popular tunc : I “ Oh, give me back my iiltoen cents.”