Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa: 1883Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
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Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa: 1883
Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
American wit and humor; Boys -- Fiction; Practical jokes -- Fiction
“Well, this morning the minister and two of the deacons called on
Pa, to have a talk with him about his actions in church, on two or three
occasions, when he pulled out the pack of cards with his handkerchief,
and played the music box, and they had a pretty hot time in the back
parlor, and finally they settled it, and were going to sing a hymn, when
Pa handed them a little hymn book, and the minister opened it and turned
pale and said, 'what's this?' and they looked at it, and it was a book
of Hoyle's games instead of a hymn book. Gosh, wasn't the minister mad!
He had started to read a hymn and he quit after he read two lines where
it said, 'In a game of four-handed euchre, never trump your partner's
ace, but rely on the ace to take the trick on suit.' Pa was trying to
explain how the book came to be there, when the minister and the deacons
started out, and then I poured the two quart tin pail full of soft soap
on the front step. It was this white soap, just the color of the step,
and when I got it spread I went down in the basement. The visitors came
out and Pa was trying to explain to them, about Hoyle, when one of the
deacons stepped in the soap, and his feet flew up and he struck on his
pants and slid down the steps. The minister said 'great heavens, deacon,
are you hurt? let me assist you,' and he took two quick steps, and you
have seen these fellows in a nigger show that kick each other head over
heels and fall on their ears, and stand on their heads and turn around
like a top. The minister's feet slipped and the next I saw he was
standing on his head in his hat, and his legs were sort of wilted and
fell limp by his side, and he fell over on his stomach. You talk about
spreading the gospel in heathen lands. It is nothing to the way you can
spread it with two quarts of soft soap. The minister didn't look pious
a bit, when he was trying to catch the railing he looked as though he
wanted to murder every man on earth, but it may be he was tired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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