Dave Ranney: Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An AutobiographyRanney, Dave
Religion
Dave Ranney: Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An Autobiography
Ranney, Dave
American Tract Society
After a while Mike said, "I guess we had better go to bed." Off we
started across the lots until we came to a big haystack, and Mike
stooped down and began to pull hay out of the stack and work his way
inside. Remember I was green at the business; I had never been away from
home before; and Mike, though only a little older, was used to this kind
of life. Well, I pulled out hay enough, as I thought, and crawled in,
but there was no sleep for me. I kept thinking and thinking. I would
call Mike and ask him if he was asleep, and he would say, "Oh, shut up
and let a fellow sleep!"
I am no coward, never was, but I was scared that night for fair. About
midnight I must have dozed off to sleep when something seemed to be
pushing at my feet. I was wide awake now, and shook Mike, but he only
turned over and seemed to sleep all the sounder. I could hear the
grunting and pushing outside all the time. My head was under and my feet
covered with the hay, when something took hold of my foot and began to
chew. My hair stood on end, and I gave a yell that would have awakened
"The Seven Sleepers." It woke Mike, and the last I heard of him that
night he was laughing as though he would split his sides, and all he
could shout was, "Pigs, pigs!" as I went flying toward home. I got there
as soon as my feet would carry me. I found the house up and mother and
sister crying, while father was trying to make them stop. When I shook
the door it opened and I was home again, and I was mighty glad.
The reason for the crying was that when it got late and the folks began
to look for me, one of the boys said that the last time he saw me I was
swimming with Mike ----. When I did not come home they thought surely I
was drowned, but I was born for a different fate. Sometimes in my years
of roaming afterwards I wished I had been drowned as they thought. They
were so glad to see me again that there was no whipping, and I went to
school next morning promising to be a better boy.
A BASEBALL GAME
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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