THE BAD BOY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1440, 26 July 1883, Page 2

THE BAD BOY.

' ! See here you coon, getoufc of here,' said the grocery man to the bad boy, as ho come in the store with his face black and shmey, ' I don't want any colored boys around here. White boys break me up bad enough'.' ' 0, philopene,' said tho bad boy, as he put his hands on his knees and laughed so the candy jars rattled on tho shelves,. & You don't know me. I'm the same boy that comes in hero and takes your arm off,' and the bad boy opened tho cheese box and out off a piece of oheese so natural that the grocery man had no difficulty in recognizing him.

; 'What in the name of the'seven sleeping sisters have you got on your hands and face,' said the grocery man, as he took the boy by tho ear and turned him around. ' You would pass in ; a colored prayer meeting, and no one would think you were galvernized, What you got up in such an outlandish rig for f " Well, I'll tell you, if you will keep watch at the door. If you see a baldheaded colored man coming along the street' with a club, you whistle, and I will fall down cellar. The baldheaded colored mart will be pa.' 'You see we moved yesterday. Pa told me to get a vacation from the livery stable, and we would have fun moving. But I don't want any more.fun, I. know when I have got enough fun. Pa carried all the light things, and when it come to lifting, he-had a crick in the back. Gosh, I never was so tired as I was last night, and I hope we havo got settled,.only some of the goods haven't turned up yet. A drayman took one bad over on the west>side, and delivered them.to.ajhouse that seemed to be expecting a load of household furniture. He thought it was all right, if everybody that was moving got a load of goods.,, Well, after we. got moved pa said we must make a garden, and he said we would go out and'spade up the ground,and bow peas, and radishes, and beets.-": 'llere:'. was', some:! neighbors lived in the' next house to our hew One, • that was all wimmen, and pa didn't like to have thera;th]nXhe had *° ?° he said it would, be a good joke to disguise ourselves as tramps, and the nighbore would think wo. had hired, some. tratmpßjtd dig;in. thej{srden..' I' told pa of a boss scheme to. fool thtm.', I suggested the we take somo of this shoe blacking that ia-put on/with a

sponge, and|black our faces, and the neighbors would think we hud hired an old colored man and his boy to Tvork in the garden, Pa said it was immense, and he told me to go and black up, and if it worked he would black hissolf. So I went and put this burnt cork on my face, 'cause it would wash off, and pa looked at me and said it was a whack, and for me to fix.him .. lip too. So I got the bottle of ; shoe,'. blacking nnd painted'pa so he looked 1 " like' a colored coal-heaver. Actually, when masawbim.fiheprdered him off he luffed at heir amtacted sassy, she was going Jto, ;C> throw biling water on pa, but' I told ' »her:theicheme. and sho let up on pa. Oj'yoti'd'a'dido to see us out in the garden. Pa looked liko Uncle Tom, and'! looked like fop»y, only. I ain't that kind of a colored person,; :j s worked till t a boy throOTdsotnetomarj;" • cans Over the alley fence and hit met. and;l,piled over the fence afterm'mf> abdljeftpa.' It wasiuychiim,'and when I had caught him we put up a > ?, job to get pa to chase us. Wo throwed i l : some more cans, and pa came out and ;; '' my-chum started to run and I aftor' him, and pari after both of us. ; He chased us two blocks and then we; got' ■= behind a policeman, and my chum told '!,. the policeman it was a crazy old colored ■ • man that wanted to kidnap us, and the " policeman,took pa ty the neck and was going to club him, bub pa.said he would go homo and behave. He was offul mad, and he went home and : we looked through the alley fence and saw pa trying to. wash: off tho blacking. ; .You see that blacking won't wash off. ; : You have to wear it off.,< Pa would ."..', wash his face with soap suds, and then look in the glass, and he. was blacker every time he washed, and when ma laffed at him he said the offulest words, something like ,'Bwoet spirit ;hear my ~ prayer,' then he washed himself again. I am going to leave by burnt cork on, cause if.l washed it off pa would bow there had been some smouging somewhere, I asked the shoe store man how long it would take the blacking to ' ; wearoßiandhesaidinaweek, Pa won't ! go out doors much, unless it is in the night, I am going to igefc him to let me go off in the country fishing, till" mine wears off, and when I get out of .- townlwilhviish up. Say, you. don't;' think a little blacking hurts a man's complexion do yon, and you don't think a man ought to get. mad because it won't wash off do yon t'-. "0, probably it don't -hurt the oom- . plexion," said the grocery man as he ■ sprinkled some freshwater on the ' wilted lettuce, so it would look fresh while the hired girl was buying some, . " and yet it is mighty unpleasant, where a' man has got an engagement to go to a card party, as I know your, . pa has to-night. As to getting mad; about it, if I was your pa I would take ' a barrel stave and shatter your castle ' scandalous. What kind of fate do. you . think awaits you when you die, any-. • wav?"

" Well, I am mixed on tho fato thatawaits me when I die, If I nhould go off sudden, with all my sins on -my head, and this burnt cork on my face, I should probably be a/neighbor to you, way down below, and they would givo be a job as fireman, and I should feel bad for you every time I chuoked in a nuther chunk of brimstone, and thought of you trying to swim dog fdiion in a lako of fire, and straining your eyes to find. an iceberg that you could crawl up to cool your parched hind legs, If I don't dio slow, I will ht>ve time to repehtj and be' saved,;!:. shall be toasted brown, That's what,' the minister says, and they wouldn't pay him two thousand dollars a year and gjve him a vacation to tell anything that was not sol I.tejl you it-js; painful to think of that, place that so many pivttyfair average people hero are going to when they' die. Just think of it, a man t]mt„ swoavs ju»t once, if he don't hedge and take it back, will go to the bad place. If a person steals a pin, just a small, no account pin, he is as bad as if ho stole all there was in a bank, and ho stands a chance of going to. the bad- place. l !' i'ou see, if a fellow steals a little thing like a pin, he forgets to repent, cause it don't seem to be worth while to make; so much fuss about. But if a fellow robs a bank, or steals a whole lot of money from orphans, he knows it is a mighty' BeribuH. matter, and he gets in his work repenting, too, quick, and he is liable to get to the good place, while you, who have only stole a few potatoes,out of a bushel that you sold to the orphan asylum, will forget to repent, and you wills igzle; ■ I tell you, tho more T read about being good, and going to Heaven, the more I; think a feller can't be too careful, and from this out you won't find a better boy than I am. When I come in here after this and take a few dried peaches or crackers and -cheese, you right up to pa,and then I won't jhjgy it on my mind arid have to anawcrw \ it at the great judgment day, I going to shake ray chum, cause he chews tobacco, which is wicked, though I don't see how that can be, when tho minister smokes, but I want to be on the safe side, lam going to be good or bust a suspender, and hereafter you can point to me as a boy who hasseetf. the folly of an ill-spent life, and if there is such a thing as a fifteen year old boy, who hasten a terror, getting to heaven, I am (he hairpin, I tell you. When I listen to the minister tell about the angels flying around there, and I see pictures of tbem purtier than any: girl iii this totfh| with Jljubby arms with dirnpUs in the elbows and shoulders, and long golden hair, and think of myself here cleaning off horses in alivery stable and smelling like m old harness, it makes me : tired, v '|' wouldn't miss going there for ten dollars, Say, you would make a healthy angel, for a back 'street of the new Jerusalem, bat you would give the whole crowd away unless you washed up, and Boat that shirt to the Chinese laundry. Yes,.sir, hereafter _you.will find me..as- goodvas'lii know how to be, Now! am going to wash up and go and help the minuter ; move."'•. •t | -'"\j' 0 >■/.• ; 0 the boy wejt out the grocery man sat for several minutes'thinking of of the change that had come over tho bad and iwpn!dered.jwl'atl;liad ■* brought it about, and then he went to the'door to watch him as he wended

his way'across the street with his head down, as though iii deep thought, and the grocery man said to himself, "that boy ishotso bad as some people think he is," and then he looked around and saw a sign hanging up in. the front in tho storfy.writto'n.' on : a- piece, of box cover,-.-with blue pencil, "Spoiled' canned 'lttint- and tongue, rgood-enmyi for ch{irch picnics," and he looked after the boy who was slipping down an alley and said, "The condemn little whelp. Wait till I catch him.