A BOY WITH LAME BACK.

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 1, 24 October 1887, Page 4

A BOY WITH LAME BACK.

A voting feffnw, who is pi city .‘••mar ton gene.-a! principles. and who lu .good hcinour. went into a store the other morning, limping, and seemed to be broke up genera: I} - . The prupnetur asked him if ho wouldn’t nit down, ami ho said lie couldn’t vny well, as his back was lame. lie «< emed discouraged, and the proprietor askul him what was tho matter. “Well,” say-! he, as he put his hand on bis pistol-pocket and groaned, “ there is no encouragement for a boy to have nti> inn i ow-n-dnys. If a boy tries to play an innocent joke lie gets kicked all over the lu.use,” The shopkeeper asked him what had happened to disturb his hilarity. He said ho had played a joke on his father, and had been limping ever since. You soo J thought the old man was a tittle sprj’. You Ikuo ho is not a spring chicken yourself ; and though his eyes are not what they used to he, yet ho can see api city girl further than I can. Tho other day I wrote a note in a fine hand, and addressed it to him, asking him to unci urn on the corner of Wisconsin and Milwaukee streets at 7.30 on Saturday evening, and signed the name of ‘ Daisy ’ toil. At. suppeijiime pa ivas all shaved up, and li.vl his hair plastered over his bald spot, and ho got on some clean < tiffs, and said he was going to tho lodgo to initiate s me candidates from tho country, and he might not bo in till late. lie didn’t eat much supper, and hurried off with my umbrella. 1 winked at mn, but didn’t say anything. At 7.30 I went down town, and he was standing there by the Post office corner, in a dalle place. I went by him and said, ‘Hello! pa. what are you don g there?’ He said ho was waiting for a man. I went down the Bticel.and ptctly soon I went up on tho other comer by Chapman's and lie was standing there. You see, ho didn’t know wind corner ‘ Dairy ’ was going to be o». and had to cover all fpur cotneis. I saluted him ami asked him if ho hadn't found his man yet, and ho said no tho man was a little lute. It is a mean boy that wont speak to bis pa when bo sees bun standing on a corner. 1 went up sm et and I saw pa cross over by tho drug sto;e in a sort of hurry, and I could see a lady going by with a waterproof on. but she f-ki'ed right along, and pa looked a kind of solemn, the way ho does when J ask him for new c’othes. I turned and catno back, and lies was standing them in the doorway, and, I said, 1 Pa, yon will catch cold if yon Miami around waiting for a man You go down to the consistory, and Id nm lay for the man.’ Pa said, ‘ Never you mind ; you go about your businass, ami I will attend to the man.’

“ Well. when a hoy’s pa tolls him never yon mind, my ospenence is that a boy winds to go light a way from tlj.'ie, and J wont down sliced. 1 thought I would over and go up the other side and i-ce how l< ng ho would slay. There was a girl or two going up ahead of me, and I am a man liurtying across from the drug store to Van Pelt’s comer. It was pa; dll I ns the girls wem along and never look' (1 around, pa looked mad, and stepped into the doorway. It was about l ight o’clock ilicu, and pa was tired, and I foil son}’ for him ; ami I went up to him and asked him for a half-dollar to go io the Academy. I never knew him to shell cut so freely and bo quick. He gave me a dollar, nml I told him I would go and get it changed and bring him hack the half-dollar, but lie said I needn’t mind the change. It moan of a boy that has (T"'been treated well, to play on his pn that way, at cl I felt ashamed. As I turned the comer and saw him standing there whiveiing, waiting for Ihe man, my conscience tumbled mo, and I (ohl a policeman to go and tell pa that 1 Daisy ’ had been siuid.niy taken bad, and would not ho’hero ihat tvtning I peeped around the corner and pa and tlm policeman went off to get a drink. I was glad they did, cau-c pn needed it, after standing around so long. Well, when I went, home, the joke was so gc.-od, I told nn about it, ami she «rs na i. I guess she was mad at me fur treeling pa in that way, I heard pa come home about eleven o’cloclwnnd m; was real kind to him. *Bho told him to warm his feet. Vans ' they were just like ebooks of ice. Then she asked him how many they initiated into the lodge, and he said six, and then she asked him if they initialed ‘ Daisy ’ in the lodge, and pretty soon I heard pa snoring'. “ In i lie morning he took mo into the hn-eim id, and gave mo the hardest talking lo tin.t I ever iiad, with a bed slat. He said he km w 1 wiote tint note all the time, and ho thought ho would pretend that lie was looking for Daisy just to fool me. It d( n’t look reasonable that a man would catch epizootic and rheumatism just to fool bivS hoy, ■o<« it ? What did he give me the dollar for? Ma and pa don’t set in to call each other ‘ Pet ’ any more ; and as for me, they both look at me ns th ugh I was a hard citizen. lam going t<> Mi »o»m. Tlm.o is no encouragement for ft buy here. Weil, good morning. If Pa conus inhere asking for me, tell him that you saw an express waggon going to the morgue wiih the remains of a pretty boy, who acted as though he died from concussion of a bed-.-tlat on the pistolpocket. That will make pa feel sorry. Oh, ho ban gut the awfullest cold though. And tin* I oy limped out to separate a tonph' of •' ps that Welt Ugh dig