Produced by David Widger PECK'S BAD BOY AND HIS PA. By Geo. W. Peck With Illustrations by Gean Smith. Belford, Clarke & Co. - 1883. [Illustration: cover] [Illustration: frontispiece] [Illustration: titlepage] [Transcriber's Note: The variable grammar and punctuation in this file make it difficult to decide which errors are archaic usage and which the printer's fault. I have made corrections only of what appeared obvious printer's errors. This eBook is taken from the 1883 1st edition.] A CARD FROM THE AUTHOR. Office of “Peck's Sun,” Milwaukee, Feb., 1883. Belford, Clarke & Co.: Gents--If you have made up your minds that the world will cease to move unless these “Bad Boy” articles are given to the public in book form, why go ahead, and peace to your ashes. The “Bad Boy” is not a “myth,” though there may be some stretches of imagination in the articles. The counterpart of this boy is located in every city, village and country hamlet throughout the land. He is wide awake, full of vinegar, and is ready to crawl under the canvas of a circus or repeat a hundred verses of the New Testament in Sunday School. He knows where every melon patch in the neighborhood is located, and at what hours the dog is chained up. He will tie an oyster can to a dog's tail to give the dog exercise, or will fight at the drop of the hat to protect the smaller boy or a school girl. He gets in his work everywhere there is a fair prospect of fun, and his heart is easily touched by an appeal in the right way, though his coat-tail is oftener touched with a boot than his heart is by kindness. But he shuffles through life until the time comes for him to make a mark in the world, and then he buckles on the harness and goes to the front, and becomes successful, and then those who said he would bring up in State Prison, remember that he always _was_ a mighty smart lad, and they never tire of telling of some of his deviltry when he was a boy, though they thought he was pretty tough at the time. This book is respectfully dedicated to boys, to the men who have been boys themselves, to the girls who like the boys, and to the mothers, bless them, who like both the boys and the girls, Very respectfully, GEO. W. PECK, CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE BOY WITH A LAME BACK--THE BOY COULDN'T SIT DOWN--A PRACTICAL JOKE ON THE OLD MAN--A LETTER FROM “DAISY “--GUARDING THE FOUR CORNERS--THE OLD MAN IS UNUSUALLY GENEROUS--MA ASKS AWKWARD QUESTIONS--THE BOY TALKED TO WITH A BED SLAT--NO ENCOURAGEMENT FOR A BOY CHAPTER II. THE BOY AT WORK AGAIN--THE BEST BOYS FULL OF TRICKS--THE OLD MAN LAYS DOWN THE LAW ABOUT JOKES--RUBBER HOSE MACARONI--THE OLD MAS's STRUGGLES--CHEWING VIGOROUSLY BUT IN VAIN--AN INQUEST HELD--REVELRY BY NIGHT--MUSIC IN THE WOODSHED--“'twas ever thus.” CHAPTER III.