Peck's Compendium of Fun: Comprising the Choicest Gems of Wit, Humor, Sarcasm and Pathos of America's Favorite HumoristPeck, George W. (George Wilbur)
General
Peck's Compendium of Fun: Comprising the Choicest Gems of Wit, Humor, Sarcasm and Pathos of America's Favorite Humorist
Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
American wit and humor
"Well, sir, before the sermon was over everybody in that part of the
church had their handkerchiefs to their noses, and they looked at Pa and
Ma scandalous, and the two ushers they came around in the pews looking for
a dog, and when the minister got over his sermon, and wiped the
prespiration off his face, he said he would like to have the trustees of
the church stay after meeting, as there was some business of importance to
transact. He said the question of proper ventilation and sewerage for the
church would be brought up, and that he presumed the congregation had
noticed this morning that the church was unusually full of sewer gas. He
said he had spoken of the matter before, and expected it would be attended
to before this. He said he was a meek and humble follower of the lamb, and
was willing to cast his lot wherever the Master decided, but he would be
blessed if he would preach any longer in a church that smelled like a bone
boiling establishment. He said religion was a good thing, but no person
could enjoy religion as well in a fat rendering establishment as he could
in a flower garden, and as far as he was concerned he had got enough.
Everybody looked at everybody else, and Pa looked at Ma as though he knew
where the sewer gas came from, and Ma looked at Pa real mad, and me and my
chum lit out, and I went home and distributed my cheese all around. I put
a slice in Ma's bureau drawer, down under her underclothes, and a piece in
the spare room, under the bed, and a piece in the bath-room in the soap
dish, and a slice in the album on the parlor table, and a piece in the
library in a book, and I went to the dining room and put some under the
table, and dropped a piece under the range in the kitchen. I tell you the
house was loaded for bear. Ma came home from church first, and when I
asked where Pa was, she said she hoped he had gone to walk around the
block to air hisself. Pa came home to dinner and when he got a smell of
the house he opened all the doors, and Ma put a comfortable around her
shoulders, and told Pa he was a disgrace to civilization. She tried to get
Pa to drink some carbolic acid. Pa finally convinced Ma that it was not
him, and then they decided it was the house that smelled so, as well as
the church, and all Sunday afternoon they went visiting, and this morning
Pa went down to the health office and got the inspector of nuisances to
come up to the house, and when he smelled around a spell he said there was
dead rats in the main sewer pipe, and they sent for plumbers, and Ma went
out to a neighbors to borry some fresh air, and when the plumbers began to
dig up the floor in the basement I came over here. If they find any of
that limberger cheese it will go hard with me. The hired girls have both
quit, and Ma says she is going to break up keeping house and board. That
is just into my hand. I want to board at a hotel, where you can have a
bill-of-fare, and tooth picks, and billiards, and everything. Well I guess
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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