Peck's Uncle Ike and The Red Headed Boy: 1899Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
General
Peck's Uncle Ike and The Red Headed Boy: 1899
Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
American wit and humor; Boys -- Fiction; Uncles -- Fiction
“But you go all the same,” said Uncle Ike, taking down a leather strap
that he sharpened his razor on, and driving the boy outdoors. “Bring
back this boy's clothes, also,” and he sat down and waited for the boy
to return. He came back after awhile with the tobacco and the clothes,
followed by a lot of other boys, and after the two had changed clothes,
and all had enjoyed a good laugh, Uncle Ike said: “Boys, playing
practical jokes is a good deal like jumping on a man when he is down.
You will notice that the weaker boy always has the joke played on him.
Boys always combine against the weak boy. The boy that can whip any of
you never has to wear a flour sack home from the swimming hole, does he?
Any joke that you can take turns at having played on you is fair, but
when you combine against the weak, you become a monopoly, or a trust.
When I was a boy we used to tie the clothes of the biggest and meanest
boy in knots, and if he couldn't take a joke we all turned in and mauled
him. After this, if there is to be any jokes, let the biggest boy take
his turn first, and then I don't care how soon the others take their
dose, but this trust business has got to be broke up,” and Uncle Ike
patted the boys, on the head and said they could go and have all the fun
they wanted to.
“Speaking of trusts, Uncle Ike, I thought you said, a spell ago, that
the trusts would be brought up with a round turn,” said the red-headed
boy, reading, as he glanced at a heading in a morning paper, “but here
is an article says that a thousand million billion dollars have been
invested in trusts in New Jersey, and the manager of one of the biggest
trusts says nobody can do anything to stop them. He says: 'What are you
going to do about it?'”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account