"THE BAD BOY" CONVERTS HIS IMMORAL PARENT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3673, 23 April 1883, Page 4

"THE BAD BOY" CONVERTS HIS IMMORAL PARENT.

You see, I Avnnied to get pa into the church again, and get him to stop drinking, so I got a boy to write a letter to him in a fcmafe hand, and sign tlie name of a choirsinger pa was mashed on, and tell him shewas yearning for him to come back to the ehun-h, and'that the church seemed a blankwithout his smiling face and benevolent heart, aud to please'come back for her sake. Pa got the letter ou Saturday night, and he seemed tickled, but I guess he dreamed about it all night, and Sunday morning he was mad, and he took me by the ear and said 1 couldn't come no " Daisy " business ou him the second time. He said he knew 1 wrote the letter, and told me to go up in the store room and prepare for the almightiest licking a boy ever had, and he went

doAvnstairs and broke up an apple barrel and got a stave to Avhip mo with. AVcll, I had to think mighty quick, but I avus enough for him. I got a dried bladder in my room and I bloAvod it partly up, so it Avould bo sort of flat-like, and I put it cloavii inside the back part of my pants, right about Avhorc pa hits Avhen ho punishes mo. I knoAved Avhen the barrel stave hit the bladder it Avould explode. AVell. pa bo camo up and found mo crying. I can cry just as easy as you can turn on the Avater at a faucet, and pa took off his coat and looked sorry. I was afraid he AVollld give up Avhipping mo Avhcn he sec me cry. and I wanted to go on Avith the experiment, so I looked kind of hard, as if I was defying him to do his Avorst, and then he took me hy the neck and laid me across a trunk. I didn't dare struggle much for fear the bladder would lose itself, and pa said: " Now, Ilencrv, I am going to break you of this damned foolishness, or I Avill break your back," and he spit on his hands and brought the barrel stave down on my best pants. AVellyou'da diedif yuulmdheardthe explosion. It almost knocked me off the trunk. It sounded like firing a fire-cracker aAvay cloavii cellar in a barrel, and pa looked scared. I rolled off the frank, on the floor, and put some flour on my face to make me look pale, aud then I kind of kicked my legs like a fellow who is dying ou the stage", after being stabbed with a lath, aud groaned and said, "Pa, you have killed mo, but I forgive yon," and then I rolled around and frothed at tho mouth, cause I had a, piece of soap in my month to makefoam. AVell, pa Avas all broke up. He said " Groat Scott, Avhat have I doner I have broke the spinal column. 0, my poor boy, do not die ?" I kept chcAving the soap and foaming at tho mouth, and 1 dreAv my logs up rind kicked thorn out, and clutched my hair, and rolled my eves, then kicked pa in the stumniick as he bent over me, and knocked his breath out of him : and then my limbs began to get rigid, and I said "Too late, pa; I die at the hands ot_an assassin. Go for a doctor." Pa throAvod his coat over mo, aud started down stairs on a run, saying " I have murdered my braveboy, " and lie told ma to go up stairs and stay Avith me, cause 1 had fallen off a trunk and riqiturcd a blood A'csscl, and he Avent after tho doctor. AVJic-n he Avont out the front door, I sat up and lit a cigarette, and ma came up aud I told her all about how I fooled pa, and if sho Avould take on and cry Avhen pa got back I Avould get him logo to church again, and swear off drinking, and she killed and said she would. So when pa and the doctor camo back, ma avms sitting- on a velocipede 1 used to ride, Avhich Avas in tho storeroom, and she had her apron over her face, and she just more than bellowed. Pa he av;is pale, aud lie told the doc. that ho Avas just a playing with me Avitli a little piece of board, and he heard something crack, and lie guessed my spine got broke falling off the trunk. The doctor Avautod to feel Avhere my spine avus broke, but I opened my eyes and had a vacant sort of stare, like a Avoinan avlio leads a dug by a string, and looked as though my mind Avas Avandering, and I told tho doctor there Avas no use setting my spine, as it avus broke in several places, and I Avoukln't lot him feel the dried bladder. I told pa that I Avas going- to die, and I wanted him to promise mo two things on my dying bod. lie cried, and said ho Avould : and I told him to promise mo he Avouldquit drinking and attend church regularly, and he said he Avould never drink another drop, and Avould go church every Sunday. I made him get down on his knees beside mo and awearit, and the doc he witnessed it, and ma. said sho Avas so glad : and ma called the doctor out in the hall and told him tho j*ke, and the doc camo in the room and told pa he Avas afraid pa's presence would excite patient, and for him to put on his coat and Avalk around a block, or go to church, and ma and ho Avould remove mo to another room, and do all that avus possible to make my last hours pleasant. Pa lie cried and said lie would jiut on his plug hat and go to church, and he- kissed me, and got flour on lv's nose, and I came near laughing right out, tv sec the- white flour on his red nose, Avhen I thought lioav the people in church Avould laugh at pa. But he Avent out fooling mighty bad, and then I got up and pulled tin: busted bladder out of my pants, and ma and the doc they laughed awful. AVhon pa got back from church and asked for mo, ma said that I had gone down toAvn. She said the doctor found my spine avus only uncoupled and he coupled it together, and I Avas all right. Pa said it was "tihiug-hty strange, cause I heard flu- .spine break, Avhen I struck him with the barrel stave." Pa Avas nervous «ll the afternoon, and ma think' he suspects that Aye played it on him. Say, you don't think there is any harm in playing it on an old man a little, for a good cause, do your Tlie .grocer man said lie supposed in the interest of reform it aams all right, but if it Avas his boy that played such tricks he Avould take an axe to him: and tho boy went out, apparently encouraged, saying lie hadn't seen tho old man since the day before, and ho was almost afraid to moot him.