PECK'S BAD BOY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1418, 30 June 1883, Page 4

PECK'S BAD BOY.

; HIS MA DECEIVES illit, " Give' ihe ten cents worth of saffron] quick," said the bad boy to the grocery! ■' 'man, us he came in;the grocery store, o»i ; a gKllbo, early ono; with , 'collar on, and nn vnst. : He'looked. as| though he hail U- 11 routed out of bed; Jn a hurry, and had jumped'into hisj .pants and boots, and put ori..his ;'coat ... and hat on die run. ; " I don't keep, saffron," said the!

grocery man, as lie pickeil up, a barrel v e||v ( Of axehandles the boy; had tipped over hurry. " You want:to go ov(T to tho drug store on the corner, if ; you ' i' 1 * want saffron, But what on. earth is the mat—" ■ ! 4. A t this point tho boy shot out of the v door, tipping over a basket of white beans, and disappeared in the drug store' The grocery man got down on his knees on the sidewalk and scooped up the beans, occasionally looking over to the drug store; and just as ho got them picked up tho boy came, out of tho drug store, "and walked deliberately towards his home, as though thero was .no-partioular hurry. ■ Tho grocery man looked after him, took up an ax-handle, spit on his .hands and shouted to the boy to come over pretty soon as he wanted to talk with him. The boy did not come to tho grocery till towards I night, but the grocery man had seen him running down town a dozen times during'the day, and once ho rode up to "the house with tho doctor, and the grocer surmised what was the trouble. Along towards night the boy . came in a dejected sort of a tired way, sat down on a barrel of sugar, and never spoke. " What is it, a boy or a girl," said the grocery man, winking at an old lady with a shawl over her head, who was trying to hold a paper over a pitcher of yeast with her thumb, "How in blazes did you know any- *. thing about it," said the boy as he looked around with astonishment, and with sopie indignation. " Well, its a girl, if you must' know, and that's enough," and he looked down at the cat playing on tho floor with a potato, his face a picture of dejection. "0, don't feel bad about it," said the grocery man, as he opened the door for the old lady. "Such things al'e bound to occur. But you take my word for it, that young one is going to have a hard life, unless you mend your ways. You will bo using it for a cork to a jug, or to wad a. gun with, the first thing your ma knows," " I wouldn't touch the darn thing with the tongs," said the boy as he rallied enough to eat some crackers and cheeeji. " Gosh, this cheese tastes good, £ haint had nothing to eat since motoring. I have been all over tlih town: trolling for nurses. They think a boy hasn't got any feelings. But I wouldn't care a gol darn, if ma hadn't been sending me for neuralgia n:e:lioine, and hay fever snuff all winter, when she wanted to get rid o( me. I have come in the room lots of k times when ma and the sewing girl V. .. were at work on some flannel things, ' and ma would hide them in a. basket aud sond me off after medicine. I was deceived up to about four o'clock this morning, when pa came to my room and pulled me out of bed to go over on the West Side after some old woman that knew ma, and they have kept me whooping ever since. What does a boy want of a sister, unless its a big sister. I don't want no sister that I have got to hold, and rock and hold a bottle for. This affair breaks me all up," and the boy picked tho cheese out of his teeth with a silver he cut off the counter. "Woll, ; how does your pa take it," said the groceryman, as he charged the boy's pa with cheese, and saffron, and a tiumber.of such things. 0, pa will pull through. He wanted to boss the.: whole'concern until ma's chum, an old "woman that takes snuff, fired hira out into the hall. Pa sat there on my hand-sled, a perfect picture of despair, and I thought it would be a kindnesss to play it on him. 4 I found the cat asleep in the bath-rootr ' and I rolled the oat up in a shawl and brought it out to pa and told him the nurae wanted him to hold the baby.' It seemed to do pa good to feel that ho was indispensable around the house, and he took tho; cat. on his lap as tenderly as you a mother hold an infant. Weltfl§p ;, intlie baok hall, where' see me, and pretty soon ; the cat began .to wake up and stretch, himself, and' pa said, " s-h-h-tootay' go to sleep now' and, let iss pa hold it,". and pa he rocked back and forth on the'Jiandsled and began tp sing " by, low, baby." That settled it with the cat. Well, .some cats can't stand music, anyway,.and the more the cat wanted to getof.the shawl the louder pa sang, and bimeb'yl heard something rip, and pa yelled, " scat you brute," and when 1 looked around the corner ■| 0f the hall the, cat was bracing hisself against pa's vest; with his tos nails, and, and yowing, and pa fell over tho sled and began to talk about the hereafjer like the: minister does when he gets, excited in cbureh, and then pa pioked'up/the sled and seemed to be looking;for.me or tho cat, but 'both of us was'awful scarce, Don't you think there are times when boys and i'ats are Ifijwifbf around their accustomed hauntil' Pa don't look as though he •. . wa&yery smart, but he can hold a cat % about as welUs the next man. But I . ' V; ' am sorry for ma. She was just gatting ready to go to Florida for her neuralgia, and this put . a stop to it, . ciflse she has to stay and take care of tho baby, Pasays I will have a nice time " ' this summer pushing tho baby wagon. ' By the great horn-spoons, there ■ ' has got to, be a dividing line somewhere, between and pleasure, and I strike the line at wheeling a baby. I had rather a string of perch than to-wheel all the babies ever was. They needn't procure no baby on my fcocount if it is to amuse me, I don't see why babies can't he sawed off unto people that need them iii their business. Our folks don't need a baby any more than you need a safe, .and thore are people just suffering- for . , babies, Sajr, how would it be to take ! the baby sotae night and leawit oil someC- old bachelor's door, step. If it I had been a bicycle, or a breechloading shot-gun,! wouldn't have cared 'but -a baby;! Bah It makes I'd druther have a prize package

:^^ ; am':son'y pa allowed ■ nieV'iq come homo,after ho d cove -last '.waski'". I "giiessall to come back foi' was to ; h'tilmiliat»' : and send;tne' : on must gp and see if he and the cat haVe' made up." v , [ And th eboy wont ouf and put ' up W paper >. sign ; in' front of:: thd : • store,j ''Leave your measure, foi-saffron "tea,";