“O, I don't know about that, I think when a man is in trouble, if he has a good little boy to take his mind from his troubles and get him mad at something else, it rests him. Last night we had hot maple syrup and biscuit for supper, and Pa had a saucer full in front of him, just a steaming. I could see he was thinking too much about his mining stock, and I thought if there was anything I could do to take his mind off of it and place it on something else, I would be doing a kindness that would be appreciated. I sat on the right of Pa, and when he wasn't looking I pulled the table cloth so the saucer of red hot maple syrup dropped off in his lap.” [Illustration: Maple syrup for one 042] “Well, you'd a dide to see how quick his thoughts turned from his financial troubles to his physical misfortunes. There was about a pint of hot syrup, and it went all over his lap, and you know how hot melted maple sugar is, and how it sort of clings to anything. Pa jumped up and grabbed hold of his pants legs to pull them away from hisself, and he danced around and told Ma to turn the hose on him, and then he took a pitcher of ice water and poured it down his pants, and he said the condemned old table was getting so ricketty that a saucer wouldn't stay on it, and I told Pa if he would put some tar on his legs, the same kind that he told me to put on my lip to make my moustache grow, the syrup wouldn't burn so; and then he cuffed me, and I think he felt better It is a great thing to get a man's mind off of his troubles, but where a man hasn't got any mind like you, for instance--” At this point the grocery man picked up a fire poker, and the boy went out in a hurry and hung up a sign in front of the grocery: CASH PAID FOR FAT DOGS. CHAPTER V. HIS PA AND DYNAMITE--THE OLD MAN SELLING SILVER STOCK-- FENIAN SCARE--“DYNAMITE” IN MILWAUKEE--THE FENIAN BOOM-- “GREAT GOD HANNER WE ARE BLOWED UP!”--HIS MA HAS LOTS OF SAND--THE OLD MAN USELESS IN TROUBLE. THE DOG AND THE FALSE TEETH. “I guess your Pa's losses in the silver mine have made him crazy, haven't they?” said the grocery man to the bad boy, as he came in the store with his eye winkers singed off, and powder marks on his face, and began to play on the harmonica, as he sat down on the end of a stick of stove wood, and balanced himself.