Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa: 1883Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
General
Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa: 1883
Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
American wit and humor; Boys -- Fiction; Practical jokes -- Fiction
HIS PA HAS GOT 'EM AGAIN! HIS PA IS DRINKING HARD--HE HAS
BECOME A TERROR--A JUMPING DOG--THE OLD MAN IS SHAMEFULLY
ASSAULTED--“THIS IS A HELLISH CLIMATE MY BOY!”--HIS PA
SWEARS OFF--HIS MA STILL SNEEZING AT LAKE SUPERIOR.
'“If the dogs in our neighborhood hold out I guess I can do something
that all the temperance societies in this town have failed to do,” says
the bad boy to the grocery man, as he cut off a piece of cheese and took
a handful of crackers out of a box.
“Well for Heaven's sake, what have you been doing now, you little
reprobate,” asked the grocery man, as he went to the desk and charged
the boy's father with a pound and four ounces of cheese and two pounds
of crackers. “If you was my boy and played any of your tricks on me I
would maul the everlasting life out of you. Your father is a cussed fool
that he dont send you to the reform school. The hired girl was over this
morning and says your father is sick, and I should think he would be.
What you done? Poisoned him I suppose.”
“No, I didn't poison him; I just scared the liver out of him that's
all.”
“How was it,” asked the groceryman, as he charged up a pound of prunes
to the boy's father.
“Well, I'll tell you, but if you ever tell Pa I wont trade here any
more. You see, Pa belongs to all the secret societies, and when there is
a grand lodge or anything here, he drinks awfully. There was something
last week, some sort of a leather apron affair, or a sash over the
shoulder, and every night he was out till the next day, and his breath
smelled all the time like in front of a vinegar store, where they keep
yeast. Ever since Ma took her hay fever with her up to Lake Superior, Pa
has been a terror, and I thought something ought to be done. Since that
variegated dog trick was played on him he has been pretty sober till Ma
went away, and I happened to think of a dog a boy in the Third Ward has
got, that will do tricks. He will jump up and take a man's hat off, and
bring a handkerchief, and all that. So I got the boy to come up on our
street, and Monday night, about dark, I got in the house and told
the boy when Pa came along to make the dog take his hat, and to pin a
handkerchief to Pa's coat tail and make the dog take that, and then for
him and the dog to lite out for home. Well, you'd a dide. Pa came up
the street as dignified and important as though he had gone through
bankruptcy, and tried to walk straight, and just as he got near the
door the boy pointed to Pa's hat and said, “Fetch it!” The dog is a big
Newfoundland, but he is a jumper, and don't you forget it. Pa is short
and thick, and when the dog struck him on the shoulder and took his hat
Pa almost fell over, and then he said get out, and he kicked and backed
up toward the step, and then turned around and the boy pointed to the
handkerchief and said, “fetch it,” and the dog gave one bark and went
for it, and got hold of it and a part of Pa's duster, and Pa tried to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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