A District Messenger Boy, and A Necktie Party — John Shaqi
A District Messenger Boy, and A Necktie PartyOtis, James
General
A District Messenger Boy, and A Necktie Party
Otis, James
Adventure stories; Boys -- Juvenile fiction
Dan felt more lonely than ever after this new-made friend had gone,
and, with Crippy in his arms, he started wearily out in search of uncle
Robert, hardly knowing where he was going. In his bewilderment he had
walked entirely around the same block four times, and an observant
policeman asked him where he was going.
Under the circumstances, Dan did not require much urging to induce him
to tell the man his story.
"Do you know your uncle's name?" asked the officer.
"Uncle Robert Hardy."
"What is his business - I mean, what kind of work does he do ? "
" He keeps store."
The officer led Dan to the nearest drug store, and there, after
consulting the directory, told him there were several Robert Hardys
mentioned, at the same time giving him a list of the names.
Dan took the paper with the written directions upon it, feeling more
completely at a loss
to know how to proceed than he had before, and it was in a dazed way
that he listened to the instructions as to how he should find the
nearest Hardy.
But he started bravely off, still carrying Crippy, who seemed to have'
doubled in weight,
and when he had walked half an hour in the direction pointed out by the
policeman, he appeared to be no nearer his destination than when he
started.
"What can we do, Crippy?" he cried, as again he took refuge on a
doorstep, weary,
hungry, and footsore. He had seen no opportunity to buy a breakfast
with his six cents; it
was then long past his usual time for dinner, and his hunger did not
tend to make him more cheerful.
The goose was as unable to answer this question as he had been the ones
Dan had previously asked, and the only reply he made was a loud
cackling, which, in his language, signified that he thought it quite
time that he had some dinner.
By this time, and Dan had not been on the doorstep more than five
minutes, a crowd of
boys gathered around, all disposed to make sport of the goose, and to
annoy the boy.
.
"Say, country, why don't you sell your . goose? "
" Where did the bird find you? "
"Does yer mother know you're so far away from home? "
These and other equally annoying questions Dan listened to, until he
could no longer control himself, and he cried to his tormentors:
"See here, boys, if you had somethin' you thought a good deal of, an'
it was goin' to be
killed an' roasted for dinner, what would you do?"
The boys were too much surprised by the question to reply, and Dan
continued, earnestly:
"This goose is Crippy, an' I've had him ever since he was a baby, an'
got his leg broke. We come in here to find uncle Robert so's he could
tell mother not to kill poor Crip, an' now we can't find him, an'-an'-
well, we're jest two as lonesome fellers as you ever saw, an if you
knew jest how we did feel you wouldn't stand there, pokin' fun at us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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