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
"My chum got a piece of ice out of the water cooler, and just as he
clapped it on Pa's back I burned a piece of horses hoof in the candle, and
held it to Pa's nose, and I guess Pa actually thought it was his burning
skin that he smelled. He jumped about six feet and said, 'Great heavens,
what you dewin,' and then he began to roll over a barrel which I had
arranged for him. Pa thought he was going down cellar, and he hung to the
barrel, but he was on top half the time. When Pa and the barrel got
through fighting I was beside him, and I said, 'Calm yourself, and be
prepared for the ordeal that is to follow.' Pa asked how much of this dum
fooling there was, and said he was sorry he joined. He said he could let
licker alone without having the skin all burned off his back. I told Pa to
be brave and not weaken, and all would-be well. He wiped the prespiration
off his face on the end of his shirt, and we put a belt around his body
and hitched it to a tackle, and pulled him up so his feet just
off the floor, and then we talked as though we were away off, and I told
my chum to look out that Pa did not hit the gas fixtures, and Pa actually
thought he was being hauled clear up to the roof. I could see he was
scared by the complexion of his hands and feet, as they clawed the air. He
actually sweat so the drops fell on the floor. Bime-by we let him down,
and he was awfully relieved though his feet were not more than two inches
from the floor any of the time. We were just going to slip Pa down a board
with slivers in to give him a realizing sense of the rough road a reformed
man has to travel, and got him straddle of the board, when the Dutchman
came home from the dance fullern a goose, and he drove us boys out, and we
left Pa, and the Dutchman said, 'Vot you vas doing here mit dose boys, you
old duffer, and vere vas your pants?' and Pa pulled off the handkerchief
from his eyes, and the Dutchman said if he didn't get out in a holy minute
he would kick the stuffing out of him, and Pa got out. He took his pants
and put them, on in the alley, and then we came up to Pa and told him that
was the third time the drunken Dutchman had broke up our lodge, but we
should keep on doing good until we had reformed every drunkard in
Milwaukee, and Pa said that was right, and he would see us through, if it
cost every dollar he had. Then we took him home, and when Ma asked if she
couldn't join the lodge, too, Pa said, 'Now you take my advice, and don't
you ever join no Good Templars. Your system could not stand the racket.
Say, I want you to put some cold cream on my back.' I think Pa will be a
different man now, don't you?"
The grocery man said if he was that boy's pa for fifteen minutes he would
be a different boy or there would be a funeral, and the boy took a handful
of soft-shelled almonds and a few layer raisins and skipped out.
THE WAY WOMEN BOSS A PILLOW.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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