'''''r::^^'^^'^ "- X f /flMuXAA^ iO- >''^' / / Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2011 witii funding from University of Nortii Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.archive.org/details/weboys1876brown We Boys. Written by One of Us for the Amusejient of Pa's and Ma's in General, Aunt LoviSA IN Particular. BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1876. copteight, 1s76. By Eobekts Beotiieks. Stcreotin" :ers. He said that his father had given him the sugar, and he was going to melt it into syrup, and sell it back to him. "Run home with your jug, Bobberty, and then come back and help mc," said he. 1 ran home so fast that the molasses slopped up and down, and out around the cork of my jug. Mother gave me permission to return. ''I should not think you would allow it, Almira. He and that Bradley boy run the 26 WE BOYS. streets altogother too much already," said my Auut Lovisa. " He is n't going to run the streets, Lovisa," replied my mother. I wish Auut Lovisa would n't meddle with my auairs quite so much as she does ; she is n't my mother nor my father either. When I got back to the store Will had taken out two pailfuls of sugar, and was in the hogs- head still scraping. He invited me in, but said I must bo careful about sittbig down. When we went up to the house with the suGrar, and Will told his mother he was going to melt it over, she scowled, but on looking at him, she began laughing. " Are you going to boil yourself up ? " " Xo, I 'm not. But you just help us a little, — get us going straight, you know, won't you? " She said she supposed she should, but she had better send for Mrs. Donovan to follow us up with the scrubbing cloth. Will promised to be Very, rcry careful. "Yes, I know; boys always are careful," said she. A SWEET SATURDAY. 27 She put the sugar melting, cautioned us ao:ainst cominij into the sittinsr-room, because we should stick to everything there, and went off. AVe stuffed the wood into the stove, and the room grew so hot and steamy thit we c(/ald hardly breathe. Will thrust his head into the sitting-room, and begged to go in there ; but his mother said, no, we must stay and watch our syrup ; it was liable to run over. It didn't look much like running over; it was n't half-way up to the top of the kettle. "Run over? No!" said Will. "I'm more afraid you and I shall run down. I feel like a tallow candle set in an oven. Just throw up that north window, will you ? " We sat down by the window and began play- ing backgammon. As soon as we were fairly playing, the sirup began to sizzle over. Will flew at it, aud dropped in a chunk of butter to break the bubbles. Then he seized the stove- hook and tried to poke off the sugar that was boilino- and smoking; on the stove. He daubed it all over the hook, all over his hands, and got a little on his fiice. 28 WE BOYS. " Oil, dear, Bob ! " exclaimccl ho, throwing down the hook and blowing his burnt hands. " I wish the stuff was all in ' Greenland's icy mountains ' ! " So did I. The room was blue with smoke, and more smoke was all the time rising from the stove. "Will brought from the wood-shed one of his mother's scrubi)ing cloths, and tried wiping off the syrup with that. lie burnt his fingers, and then I tried, and burnt my fingers. The rag was tender, and pieces of it stuck to the stove. We both stepped in the sugar that had drizzled on to the floor, and tracked that out into the wood-shed. Just then the door opened, and Will's mother came out. "O bo^sf" exclaimed she. " I did n"t expect it was going to act like this, mother," said Will, fingering his burns and not looking up. "I suppose you didn't expect it," said she, fixing her eyes on the backgammon board. " Well, you see, mother — " began Will. " Yes, I see," said she. A SWEET SATURDAY. 29 Will put-his fingers to his mouth, and blew on them fiercely. His mother stood and looked at him. I felt as if 1 should like to run out at the back door, and home. After it all. Will had the boldness to ask her if he might invite two or three boys, and have a candy pull in the afternoon. She talked to him a while because he had been so careless, then gave the permission, and we left to look up the boys. We came upon Homer in the street. Mr. Sharpe owns a tin-shop, and Homer, when he is n't in school, is errand-boy. He was carrying a gridiron and a dozen tin pans up to Deacon Clapp's. He said he would come. We went on to Charlie Pay son's. Mr. Payson is wealthy, and keeps a gardener and a groom, and Charlie don't need to work at all unless he chooses, but he is always busy. We found him in the carriage-house, with his carpenter's tools, making the side-pieces for a wheelbarrow. Mike Flaherty, the gardener, who lay stretched out on the floor, said Charlie 'd paid out two mouths' allowance for that old " whalebarrow " frame. 30 WE BOYS. "And it's joost good for clutter," said he. "Now, Mike, what's the use of telling that? You said yourself that the wheel was good, and the frame stout; you know you did." "Boot what nade have we of it? We've a whalebarrow as good as new alriddy " Charlie said he expected to run this one him- self. When he finished it we should see what we should see. He was as ready to accept Will's invitation as Homer had been, and we went home. We met at Mr. Bradley's at two o'clock. Will had put the syrup on in his mother's jelly- kettle. She said he had twice as much as ho needed, and a third more than he could boil down, and he was dipping it out with a teacup. After the syrup was set over the fire we kept a close watch over it, and we each of us had a spoon with which to try it, — each of us but Will ; he had a little wooden paddle that he had whittled out and that he greatly delighted in. We kept tasting and tasting, burning our tongues and burning our tonijucs. We had only just begun working the candy A SWEET SATURDAY. 31 when the cat jumped upon the table and began smelling the butter. Then Homer's shoe-strings came untied and Charlie's hair kept falling over his eyes ; the flies troubled us and some one knocked at the back door. Homer said he wished he had somethinar with which to flavor his candy, and Will scrambled up on the table, and took from the little cup- board over it a greenish glass bottle. He pulled out the cork, and smelled it. "Hold your hands, Home," said he. Homer put his hands together, and Will poured into them a spoonful of camphor. " Cracky ! " cried Homer. "Why, it's camphor, isn't it?" said Will, holding the bottle to his nose, and making up a dreadful face. " Here 's all sorts of flavoring extracts up here, Home," said Will, his head still in the cupboard. " Here 's picra — good for worms. Have some of this ? " said he, shaking a vial of nasty-looking black slufi" over Homer's head. " Get down. Will ! " said Charlie. "Home has flavorinor enough for this time." 32 wn BOYS. "Oh! I can dispose of this easily enough. Women like camphor; it's good for faiutuess. I '11 make this up for the lady of my heart, — the angelic Cynthia." " Have a little cayenne in it then, won't you ? " asked Will, who still stood upon the table. He reached down a little package of red pep- per, and Homer turned as much i)ito his candy as it would hold. " O Homer ! " said Charlie, " what a mess you are going to have ! " " What a mess Cynthia is going to have, you mean. Serve her right ; she blabbed on Bob the other day." "It won't hurt her," said Will, sitting down on the ed":e of the table and swinging his Ic^'s. "Cayenne's irritating, but camphor's healing." Homer shaped the candy into a short, clubby kind of a stick and laid it on the platter. I had just put down mine ; mine was quite white, and twisted into little sticks about three inches long. " O Bob ! " said Homer, " what are you going to do with those lily-lingers all laid in a row ? " A SWEET SATURDAY. 33 I said I should give them to my Aunt Lovisa. Theu I felt my cheeks and forehead flush up". I didn't intend to tell a fib about it, but I had thought of Nellie Eoyce. Charlie said he thouo'ht he should make a man, and we all began making men. Charlie's was a very fine one, but Homer's was n't so natural. He rolled up one large ball for the body, then one smaller ball for the head. The head was half as large as the body and the shape of a fly's head. One leg was larger round at the ankle than at the thigh, and the other was too short. Will made a girl. He tried to make her waist waspy and fashionable, but the skirt would n't hang to it ; so he made it broad, and said she was a good, sensible girl who didn't lace. He gave her a small head, but a good stout neck, for he said he wante(J her to hang together if she didn't do anything else. He stuck a couple of feathers on her head for hair, and pushed two bits of charcoal into her face for eyes. He named her Susanna Cynthia Angeliha Bradley, 3 34 WS BOYS. " Call her 'Glina for short, boys," said he. I didn't have very good luck with my man, so I just made him over into sticks. The rest of the candy we worked into rings, crosses, and balls. Charlie said he wished we could wipe up the molasses we had drizzled about, and "Will said ho wished so, too, for it had taken his mother an hour to clean up the room in the morning. So he brought the dishcloth and another rag, and we rolled up our sleeves and we washed the kettle, the pan, the plates, and all the spoons ; we rubbed off the table, the stove, and all the chairs, and Homer mopped the floor. We helped Will carry his molasses down to the store. There was between six and seven gallons of it, and Mr. Bradley j)aid him fifty cents a gallon. Will wanted to buy some almonds and " treat " ; but his father said he had done treating enough for one day ; it was time we scattered. Mr. Bradley had neuralgia in the face, and we did scatter. When I got home I offered Aunt Lovisa some A SWEET SATURDAY. 35 candy. She asked if Mrs. Bradley or we made it. I told her we did, all ourselves ; and she said she thanked me, she wouldn't take any. Mother ate two sticks, and said it was very nice indeed. 36 WE BOYS. CHAPTER IV. A SCHOOL DAY WITH US BOYS. "VTTHEN I went down to school Monday ^ ' morning, Will was out in front of the store helping pack away bundles and bags under the seat of Capt. Parker's old buggy. There was a bushel of hay-seed in a bag, a pailful of oats in which the captain had brought eggs to mar- ket, a bag of fine salt, and a half-bushel of coarse salt. The captain stumped back into the store, and Will called my attention to the things. "This bundle holds candles," said he, thrust- ing a brown-paper parcel under my nose. "And here's half a pound of tea. The cap- tain's geography is rather confused. He wanted Japanese, and he called for Egyptian. lie said he 'd take ' second best,' 'cause he did n't drink tea himself, but his 'old woman' had to have A SCHOOL DAT WITH US BOYS 37 her brew three times a day. He 's got a dress for the ' old woman ' in this bundle. I just wish you could see it. I don't know where this molasses jug is going. Stand out of the way now ; the captain's flour-barrel is coming." Frank rolled out the barrel, and he and the captain loaded it into the wagon. Then the captain climbed in, and said, " Gad up ! " The old wall-eyed, bob-tailed mare gave a kind of a spring and a jump, and started off with a great clattering of loose machinery about the wagon, while the ends of the colt-skin robe swung to and fro over the back of the seat. " Is n't it wonderful that the old rack-o' -bones mare can travel so ? " said Will, as we started towards the school-house. " Yes ; and it seems to me more wonderful that the old wagon don't go to pieces," said I. " Kind of all go down together, like ' the deacon's one-hoss shay ' ? Squatulate, you mean, don't you ? " "Yes, squatulate." Just then Homer came running from the school-house towards us. Homer has a pecul- 38 WE BOYS. iar, jerky kiud of a gait, aud when he runs, he runs all over, his elbows flyiug back and forth as rapidly as his legs. " Hullo ! " said he. "Hullo ! " responded we. "The fair Cjaithia has arrived," shouted he.' " I Ve been waiting for you before making the presentation." Will came to a sudden stop. " There, now, I 've left my girl at the store ! Wait a minute , boys, and I '11 run back and get her." Homer aud I waited in the yard until Will came back ; then we all went into the school- house. Cynthia stood with two or three other girls on the "girls' side," aud Homer walked up and held out to her the cayenne-camphor candy. " Miss Strong," said he, " will you please accept the contents of this parcel as a trilling token of the high esteem I feel for you ? " '' Who made it ?" asked Cynthia. "I did, my angel." "I 'd sooner cat pizen / " said Cynthia, and she sent the candy whizzing over to the other side of the SQhool-room. A SCHOOL DAY WITH US BOYS. 39 "I also have brought an offering," said Will, taking out of his pocket his girl, which was linty, and looked worse, if anything, than it did Saturday. " I don't wish for it, thank you ; it resembles the artist too closely," said CjTithia, tartly. Will sold it to little Tommy Taylor for two slate pencils. I waited by the entry door, and when J^ellie came, I slipped into her hand the candy I had saved for her. She thanked me quick and low, and tucked it into her pocket. Homer saw her eating it, and asked me if she was my Aunt Lovisa, and he and Will called her Aunt Lovisa all the rest of the day. The candy that Cynthia threw away fell in Ike Tucker's seat, and some of the boys laid it on his desk. Ike did n't come in until nearly ten o'clock. • He supposed some friend had put the candy there for him, ducked his head under the desk and took a good big bite. Just then his geometry class was called. He was under the desk, coughing, spitting, and sputtering at a great rate. 40 WE BOYS. "Don't koop the class waiting, Tucker," said the master. Ike swallowed the candy and came out look- ing like a picture in Fox's "Book of Martyrs." I held my nose, but it wasn't of any use, I snickered out ; so did Will and Homer. We got five marks apiece for it, and in two or three minutes Will burst out again, — just like a blad- der that pops because it 's too full. He got five more for that. About' a half an hour afterwards, Tommy Taylor was fumbling around under his desk, and he pushed Will's girl out slap into the aisle. She was so soft that she didn't break, but the master saw and confiscated her. Just before afternoon session opened, Cj'uthia came out with a very remarkable story about the way we had cleaned up Mrs. Bradley's kitchen. Will fired up and denied much of it, and he and Cynthia had a regular up-and-down, out and-out dispute over it; and after the bell rang Will took out his slate and drew a female portrait, supposed to represent Cynthia. Tommy Taylor saw it, and held up his hand to tell. Will A SCHOOL DAY WITH US BOYS. 41 made savage motions at him ; but he only run his hand up higher, and I think he would have told, but just then the committee and the com- mittee's son walked in. The committee is Mr. Anson Pomeroy. The committee's son is Daniel Webster Pomeroy. He belono's to a colleije. Just before school closed, Mr. Pomeroy took the register out of the desk to examine, and found Will's girl stuck on the back side of it. The expression of his face, as he peeled her off, was too jolly. He could n't have been more solemn had he been at a funeral. When he rose to make his remarks, he said he was glad to observe that in some respects we had improved ; we did n't make as much noise with our boots as we had done, and we did n't lop on the desks as badly. "But this," said he, holding up the girl solemnly, "this don't look quite right." Will whispered, just so that I could hear, that he should like to know how it ought to look. " If you waste your time and thoughts upon 42 WE BOYS. such frivolities as this, what do you suppose you will be good for when you become men and women ? " " School committees," whispered Will. " Please, sir," said he, raising his hand, " that was n't made in school time." "No, I hardly supposed as much; but the very fact of its having been brought into the school-room shows that your minds are not where they should be, — upon your studies. It shows," said he, looking squarely at Will, "that you don't appreciate the worth of your educa- tional advantages." "Please, sir," said Will, raising his hand again, "sh-sh-she is n't mine, anyway. She belongs to Cynthia Strong." Some of the large boys and girls tittered. Cynthia looked savage. j\Ir. Pomeroy laid down the girl, at that, and went to scoldinor us about our advantages. One of the girl's feathers had come oif on his hands, and when ho ran his fingers through his hair after ideas, the feather stuck on his forehead. There it kept bobbing up and down, and waving A SCHOOL DAY WITH US BOYS. 43 SO kind of funny-like while he tallied, that I snickered out. I pretended I'd sneezed, though, and used my handkerchief. When he finished talking, he invited Webster to rise and remark. Webster rose, threw back his shoulders, and took a good look at us. Then he began. Gus- tus Hillman is practising short-hand, and took down parts of the speech. I copy it from his note-book. "My friends, — nay, my more than friends, for you are to me like a band of brothers and sisters, — your faces are dear to me; your names are like household words upon my lips. I have gone out and come in with you here, in the years that are passed ; I have sat as you now sit in these seats ; studied the same lessons that you now study; played the same games that you now play on yonder common — " " Not by a long John ! " whispered Will. " — and my deepest interests, my tenderest affections cling around you as — as — as clings the ivy around the oak. I shall never forget you, — never I So long as the mighty orbs in yonder firmament give light to man, — so long 41 WE BOYS. as Time, iu his unending flight, wheels through the vast cycles of the future, — so long will a regard for you hold its seat within this manly bosom." Here Webster clapped his hand to his breast, and mussed the manly shirt-bosom. "I can understand all your feelings as you meet here from day to day. I know all your hopes and fears, your joys and sorrows, your aspira- tions and your disappointments ; for I, too, have been a boy. Yes, thank God, I, too, have been a boy ! and I have no words in which to express to you the overwhelming emotion which ihe' remembrance of that fact has forced upon me to-day. " I would especially admonish you not to be discouraged. What though the Temple of Wis- dom lifts its glittering fane on summits that now seem to you inaccessible? We have all been obliged to toil up the rugged steeps of that acclivity. Plato and Socrates were once young like you. Cicero and Demosthenes acquired the elements of learning in their youth. Press forward, then, and you shall rise higher and higher, until your names shall shine as stars iu A SCHOOL DAT WITH US BOYS. 45 the diadem of Fame. But, as tlie ancient Romans were in the habit of remarking, tem- pus fvgit, and I will not trespass further. Accept my heartfelt wishes for your prosperity and success in whatever pursuit in life you may in future engage." Daniel Webster sat down, and stillness reigned. Will kept nudging me. The master closed the school. Yfebster came down from the platform and shook hands very kindly with all the large scholars. Most* of the girls stood up stiff and awe^-struck-like before him, as if he was the man who made the dictionary. "Is n't Web a stunner, though ! " said Will, after Webster and some of the large girls had started off. "And what do you know about ^stunners,' pray?" asked Ed, putting his hand on Will's head and rumpling his hair over his eyes. "I mean to be one myself one of these days. I shall come in to visit this school then, and if I don't spread and soar, then you never ! and if I see a boy down on this row of seats who don't keep his nose clean nor anything I shall 46 WE BOYS. tell him I didn't enjoy any such advantages when I was of his age, and that he ought to improve 'em and fit himself for honor, glory, and immortality hereafter. "And I tell you what 'tis. Tommy Taylor, you won't be gone by that time, and if you don't nowadays mind your p's and q's a little better, I shall then just point this stern fore- finger of mine at yon and say, ' There 's a boy, who, if I mistake not, is in the broad road to destruction,' and I '11 rake up all the old cod- gers on the fiice of the earth to hold up before you as examples, — Cicero, Demosthenes, and all the rest of 'em. I wonder who the deuce Cicero and Demosthenes are, anyway ! I 've heard about them ever since I was out of bibs." "Ask Sue," said Homer; "she's acquainted with all the self-educated men." " Susanna Anastasia, w^ho are Cicero and Demosthenes?" asked Will. Sue was just going out. She turned round towards us, snifi'ed up her sharp nose, and says she, " Heathen ! " A SCHOOL DAY WITH US BOYS. 47 "Does she mean they or us, I wonder?" said ^Yill, looking puzzled. "There, now," continued he, svvinging his book and slate over his shoulder, " I 'm going through complex fractions to-night like a pig through a briar-lot. Come on, boys ! " We all filed out-of-doors. I ran back to get my handkerchief, and Tommy Taylor was up before the master's desk, kind of humble and cast-down like. "Please, sir," said he, "if you'll give me my 'lasses-candy girl, I '11 never bring her to school long as I live and breathe." Tommy lives on the same street that I do, and that nii^ht I saw him out back of his father's barn, eating down the girl, — feathers, charcoal, lint, and all. 48 WE BOYS. CHAPTEE V. FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. TuesdAy morning Mike Flaherty came aromid Avilh invitations to Charley Paysou's birthday party. It was to be on Friday. My mother said she wanted mo to go, but she did n't know what I had to wear. " Your best clothes looked so shabby I was ashamed of them last Sabbath," said she. "His father is going to get him a suit in Boston, next week, you know, Lovisa." Aunt Lovisa did n't say whether she knew or not. Sha was crocheting a tidy, and when she 's at work on tidies she don't seem to think any- thing else is of any consequence. Mother went up-stairs and brought down the clothes. She looked them over herself, and then held them up for Aunt Lovisa to look at. Aunt Lovisa just glanced at them. " The sleeve edges are badiy worn, but I sup- pose we might bind ihem," said mother. FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 49 " Yes, we might," said Aunt Lov^sa, spread- ing the tidy out in her lap. " But here 's this three-cornered rent in the jacket, and the pantaloon knees are just about worn through. They look rusty, upon the whole, don't they? " " Yes, they do," said Aunt Lovisa, comparing a skein of worsted with that in her tidy. "Mrs, Payson is so nice about Charlie's dress, too, and all that Boston company there," continued mother. "I shan't have to stay at home, shall I, mother? These clothes look well enough, I 'm sure," said I, holding the clothes up to me, and standing off at t4ie farther side of the room. " No, they don't ; they 're in no way suitable to wear to a party," said my mother. I went to school feeling pretty down-hearted. All the boys were talking about the party and I could n't say anything ; but when I went home to dinner father said he would go to Boston Wednesday and come back Thursday evening, so that I could have my clothes for Friday. 4 50 WE BOYS. After that no one talked more about the party than I did. All our class were iuvitcd, Mrs. Payson had requested the master to excuse us from after- noon session, and we were going as early as three o'clock. Mike told Will, Mho is always a kind of committee of inquiry upon such occa- sions, that the table was to be set under the trees ; that Mr. Payson had bought a box of oranges and a dozen pineapples, and that the ice- cream and cake were to be sent up from the city. My father didn't come Thursday evening, and I went to school Friday morning feeling blue again. I had on my beat suit, and 1 finally asked Charlie if he did n't think those clothes would do. " I know they don't look nice, but when I get on my ruffled shirt and best boots they '11 look some better," said I, brushing off the dust. "Do? Of course they will," replied Charlie. " Who cares anything about clothes, anywaj^? " Still I felt badly, and when I went home at noon and mother said father had n't come, I came near crying. FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 51 " Maybe he 's come, and stopped at the bank," said I. She said it might be, but she was afraid not ; I might run down and see. Will went with me. Father was n't there, and the teller said he had n't been there . " What shall I do, Willie ? " asked I. " Go ! If you have to wear your grandfather's double gown, do you go.'''' As soon as I got back to the house I asked mother if I could go and wear those clothes. " Charlie thought they looked well enough, and Will said he would go if he was in my place," pleaded I. She seemed to think it would- n't do. " Could n't you sponge 'em, mother? " She smiled, and shook her head. Finally she said I might ask Aunt Lovisa what she thought about them. Aunt Lovisa looked me over, and turned me around, and looked me over again. " I should n't want to go if I were you, Rob," said she at last. " It's too -warm a day. Stay at home and be a good boy ; you can have some fruit and nuts, set the table in the yard, 52 WE BOYS. invite Katie Patterson and Freddy, and have a party by yonrsclf." Katie Patterson is five years old and brother Freddy four ! As soon as we were througli dinner I ran to the depot and waited for the two-o'clock train. A number of people got off, but my father wasn't among them. I started back. A com- pany of boys and girls who had come from Giaccville to attend the party were just ahead of me. They were nicely dressed, and I saw that my clothes would look too rusty. I could n't hold in any longer, and I cried all the way home. "He hasn't eome, mother, and I can't go!" said I, choking, as I went into the sitting-room. There he stood. He had jumped off the rear car as sooh as the train slackened, and had cut across to the house the nearest way. "I'm afraid it was an extravagant purchase," said my mother, as she unfolded the suit. " No, I think not," said my father. " It must serve to remind Rob that he is n't to be called up in school again," FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 53 I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him over and over again. " I '11 never be called up again as long as I live, — not if I can help it, father." "That'll do," said he. My suit fitted perfectly, and after cooling off and dressing I started for IVIr. Pay son's. Charlie and Will came down the walk to meet me. Will put his finger on my buttons, and asked whether I was the Emperor of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey. The party, consisting of about twenty-five boys and girls, was under the trees in the yard east of the house. Provisions were made there for all sorts of games, and we played many of our own introduction. When we were redeeming forfeits, Nellie Royce and 1 were sent down to the brook to make a " double and twisted bow-knot." A "double and twisted bow-knot" is made by taking hold of hands and ducking your heads under your arms and through your arms, and kissing each other every time you go up or come down. 54 WU BOYS. "I don't think it was nice to send us off so, do you, Rob?" asked Nellie, as soon as we were out of hearing of the party. " I don"t know as there 's anything so bad about that. I 'd much rather do what we 're to do than to recite poetry for a forfeit," said I, throwing a pebble at a chipmunk on the wall. "Now, Rob," said she, when we reached the brook, " let's just give each other one kiss, and haye no arm-twisting about it." She put out her red lips and I paid my for- feit, and a robin on a willow near sang, Tra-la- la-la ! " Is n't the brook pretty ? " said she. " Let 's just run up to that pool under the willow and see if there are any fish there." When we returned the party were all sitting on the grass playing "Consequences." Will said we had been gone long enough to tie a whole clothes-line into double bow-knots. Just then Rose Payson stole up behind him and gave a most unearthly squawk on a blade of grass. Will chased her into the flower-garden, where she dodged behind the bee-hives. Bees are FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 55 always angiy at Will, and he daren't follow; so she sat among the flowers in her blue silk flounces, her lace handkerchief thrown over her head, and squawked at him to her heart's con- tent. By the time they came back we were all playing on grasses, and it was proposed that Will and Rose should choose sides and play a match. Rose showed us where we could find some particularly fine blades, and after we had gath- ered a supply we ranged ourselves in two rows over against each other, and Rose sounded the prelude. Will followed; then Rose and her side opened up ; then our side ; then Rose's ; and the squeaking, the squawking, and squall- ing was awful. The people came out of the house, and one gentleman ofiered a lovely little pearl-handled knife to the winning side. Then the way our grasses screeched, screamed, whistled, and wailed was quite appall- ing. Some of us were on a high pitch and some on a low, some made hoarse sounds, some sharp, and some shrill; we all played with all our might. Mr. Payson laughed until he cried. 56 WE BOYS. The prize was given to Will. He attempted to present it to Eose, going down on one knee with a great flourish ; but he struck upon a bumble-bee, and came up less gracefully than he went down, but Rose secured the knife. After that we broke up in groups and sat around under the trees. Charlie invited us into the garden and showed off his own private little patch. Pie was very generous in giving us tastes of things, and if a boy praised up anything he offered him some seed ! We went to the carriage-house to see his new wheelbarrow. He had that morning painted it a bright blue, streaked off with yello^, and on each side the name. Rose, in yellow letters. "I was going to name it after sister Mabel, but she said she must decline that honor, so I've called it Rose," said Charlie. Will and Tommy Taylor got blue paint on their jacket-sleeves, and had to retire to the house and be rubbed up with benzine. While the table was being set in the yard, we had music and dancing and a fine time in the parlor. When supper was announced Will FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 57 had his wits about him and asl?:ed to take out Eose, but I made no move until Mrs. Royce touched me on the shoulder, and said she, " Won't you give your arm to the Httle girl in the striped dress, Eobbie?" The girl in the striped dress was Cynthia Strong. Will gave my jacket a sly twitch as I crossed over to her. She did n't say a word to me, but thrust her arm up to the elbow through mine. She is taller and every way larger than I, and I can't think we looked very well together. She hardly spoke all the time we were at the table, but sat with her head thrown back and her nose turned up in the air. She seemed to feel that some one was imposing upon her. I'm sure it was n't I. ' The table looked beautifully and we had a fine time at it. When we were nearly through, a Boston boy, Charlie's cousin, rose with his glass of lemonade and proposed Charlie's health. We had all of us seen enough of the way grown people manage things to know that we 58 WE BOYS. ought to drink to the toast, but some did n't think quick enough, and it was three or four minutes before the last strasrsrler set down his glass. Tommy Taylor, who always says the w^rong thing in the wrong place, spoke up loud, and said he'd already drank so much lemonade it seemed as if he should burst. We all pretended not to have heard Tommy's remark, and Charlie rose to respond to the sentiment. I reckon his mother had taught him his speech beforehand. As soon as Charlie sat down, Will hopped up with his glass, and says he, "To the prosperity of Charlie's whalebarrow. May it lead a long life and a useful one, do a good stroke of busi- ness and an honest one ! " The people under the trees applauded, and Tommy Taylor was just ready to cry "Hurrah !" but he sat beside me, and I slapped my hand over his mouth in time to prevent. Some one called "Bob Brown, you speak to that ! Bob Brown ! Bob Brown ! " I can't think now how I dared, but then I FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 59 did u't feel afraid. I said the wheelbarrow was young yet, and we could n't be sure of its future, but we had great hopes for it. It had a good name, and if it Klid justice to its name, it would never disappoint our hopes. "We ate nuts for a Avhile, and then a Grace- ville boy, who had been in a brown study, rose, glass in hand, and pompously proposed : "The fair sex : What should we men do without them?" Quite a stir was made among the people under the trees. Mr. Paysou called out that some one must respond to that, and Charlie invited Homer to speak. Homer rose and hitched up his pantaloons — that 's a dreadful habit of Homer's. If he *s a little flurried, he begins to hitch up his panta- loous. He said he liked the fair sex very well, some of 'em much better than others, and he belived that was the way with everybody. He thought that as a general thing they were very useful about dusting, making pincushions, and lamp-mats, but come to cutting up stove wood or weeding in the garden, they were n't of much 60 WE BOYS. account. He had known a fair sex who could give a good ball ; but come to marbles and nine- pins, they did n't amount to much again. By the time the confectionery Avas passed we all felt some as Tommy did when we began drinking toasts. Charlie seemed to understand it, and invited us to fill our pockets to take home. We began stuffing away our candy, and a number put their cherries and an orange into their pockets. The Boston boy began to look as if he had fallen among a lot of barbarians. Some one mentioned that we hadn't seen Charlie's presents, and we all jumped up from the table helter-skelter, and ran into the house. There was a rosewood writing-desk, a pencil- case, a cabinet-size portrait of Mrs. Payson, two or three books, a key-saw, a pair of sleeve buttons, two jackknives and a penknife. Charlie said he tliought the most of the key saw, — Mike gave him that, — and Eose cor- rected him for expressing a preference. We returned to the parlor, and Mabel gave us some music. Rose, Nellie, and MoUie Him- FOREBODINGS AND FESTIVITIES. 61 mond each played a little. The train on which the Graceville boys and girls had to leave was due soon after sundown, and Mrs. Payson sent them to the depot in the carriage. The rest of us stayed until twilight. When Aunt Lovisa saw how much candy I had brought home, she said she should be for- ever and ever ashamed of mo ; but she ate what I had in one pocket, and I gave mother and Freddy the remainder. 62 wi: BOYS. CHAPTEE VI. WILL AISTD I TAKE A ElDE. I didn't see Will again until three o'clock the next day. Then I found him under one of the horse-sheds back of his father's store. Capt. Parker's old mare and the wagon with the colt-skin robe stood under the shed. "The captain has sued uncle 'Zekiel Wood, and the lawyers are holding a court in the Town Hall. This team has been here ever since morning," said Will, as I went in. He was punching the mare in the sides and feeling her bones. He said he wished the mas- ter would engage her for the school to study anatom}^ upon. " She has thirty-five ribs," said he, counting up and down her back, " and lots of knobs and hollow places." He went around to her head and opened her mouth. " My eyes ! Do but see her teeth. She must be a revolutionary pensioner." WILL AXD I TAKE A RIDE. 63 I went around and looked at her teeth, and then he wanted me to put my hand under her chops and see what a curious place there was there. He poked, punched, and thumped her over, tickled her nose with straws, and fed her oats out of his hand. Then he proposed that we should back her out and take a ride around Barebones Hill. "Oh, I shouldn't dare," said I. " What are you afraid of ? Here she 's occupied my father's shed and cribbed this feed- box all day. It 's no more than right that I " should have a ride out of her." " But the captain ! " gasped I. " He need n't know it. We '11 take our little airing and be back long before the lawyers are through with him and 'Zekiel." While talking he had taken the mare by the bits and backed her out. "Don't, Will, donH!" pleaded I. "Don't get excited or be goosey-poosey, Bobby. Come on ! She 's a regular stavcr for travel, and steady as a cow. We 'il rattle around 64 WE BOYS. and be back here in twenty minutes. Let me tumble you in. There you go ! " Will pushed me in and jumped in after me. He gathered up the reins and chirruped to the mare. She slowly straightened her limbs, stretched herself, and jogged out into the street. '■ She don't start off as she does with the captain," said I. " When we get a little out of the village I '11 just touch her up with the whip," said W^ill. " At this rate we never shall get out of the village ; and oh, Will, everybody is looking at us. Do make her go faster." • Will twitched the reins and chirruped ; she didn't mind it in the least. He took out the whip and struck her on the flank ; she did n't pay any attention to it. We dragged by the bank. My father was standing in the door. " Where are you going. Bob? " called he. '' Up to Capt. Parker's," said I. Now, Capt. Parker's lay off in a different direction entirely, but the question had come so suddenly that I did n't know what to say. WILL AND I TAKE A RIDE. 65 "Oh, dear, Willi" exclaimed I, "I've told father a lie." Will made no reply, but rose on his feet and gave the mare a crack over the head. She started up so suddenly that he was thrown back on the seat, and my head was nearly jerked off. For a few minutes she travelled as I have seen her with the captain ; but it had been much better fun to watch the captain jolt along than it was to be in the wagon ourselves. The old thing didn't seem to have any springs, and we had to hold on to the sides to keep from being bounced out. Every now and then Will would ask me if I did n't enjoy it. I said I did. "Why don't you talk more, then?" asked he. I said I did n't feel like talking. We struck off on to the Barebones Hill road. " Now for some fun ! " said Will, trying to be gay. I wanted to ask him to let me get out and go back to my father, but was ashamed to do it. The road was sandy and had but few houses and no shade-trees. QQ WE BOTS. " Ko one around here to see us," said AViU. "No," said I. "Aren't you having a good time, Bob?" asked he, looking around into my face. "Yes." "What makes you sigh so much, then?" " Oh ! " said I, " she goes so slow ! " Will took out the whip and struck her across the back, across the flank, across the sides. We each of us tried punching her with the butt end of the whip. Sometimes she would start up and trot for a rod or two ; then would drop her head, and fall into that dreadful jog. The sand was deep and burning hot ; the sun blazed like a great fire ; we were both covered with dust, my head ached, and Will's face was turn- ing lobster-color. "I'm afraid we shall be sun-struck. Isn't there anything that can be done to get this horse along faster ? " " Nothing, unless we get out and carry her," said Will. " I believe I '11 try another crack over her head. Hold on to your seat. Bob." I grasped the back of the wagon. Will WILL AND I TAKE A RIDE. (57 partly rose, and holding on to the dash-board with one hand, with the other gave the mare a blow. She sprang, something cracked, some- thing crashed ; the forepart of the wagon sank down. The mare was angry and rushed ahead. Will pulled on the reins, I shouted "Whoa!" the cracking and crashing went on. When she was ready the mare came to a stand-still, shook her head, and looked back at us as if she would like to know if we were sat- isfied noiv I We jumped out and made an exam-* ination. The axle of the wagon was broken, and there seemed to be a general splintering up of things, and many loose irons. " What are we going to do ? " gasped I. Will thought I should have to stay with the horse while he ran back to the nearest house for help. The nearest house was a quarter of a mile back, but in plain sight. I took the mare by the bits and watched Will as he ran off throuo'h the dust. He rang at the front door of the house, he knocked at the back door, but no one answered ; he peeped in at a window, and then WE BOTS. turned and made signs to me that there was no one at home, and he was gohig on to the next house. It was a half-mile between the two. It was hot, hot there in the road. The flics bit the mare, and I every minute expected that she would start and run. I felt i^retty sure that we should have to pay for the wagon. I did n't know how much such a wagon was worth, but I knew our new phaeton cost more than two hundred dollars. Supposing ■the captain asked a hundred for this, or seventy- live or even fifty, would n't my father be obliged to pay it? —my dear father, who, only the day before, had bought me those nice clothes ! Maybe, too, he would have to pay for the horse. I did n't loiow Avhat kind of a claim the captain would set up ; he had the reputation of being a hard man. Then suddenly it flashed across me that he might arrest us for stealing the team ! Had the mare started at that moment I couldn't have held her. Will and I should be thieves, then, and have to be tried before a court and sent to the state-prison ! Oh, how my mother would feel ! and it would break my WILL AND I TAKE A RIDE. 69 fathers heart ; it would kill them all, Freddy and gi-andma — what would grandma say? I thought I should die ! It might be that the court was already out, and the captain had missed his hors3, and the constables were after us. Oh ! how hot it was ! As far down the road as I could see rose up a cloud of dust. I knew there was a team in it. It was coming for me ! On it came, nearer and nearer, and I shook like a leaf. I knew how it would be : the constable would jump out, grub me, perhaps put on the handcuffs?, and tumble me into his buggy, heels over head, hit or miss. I wondered if he had already taken Will. I could see the horse, a black horse, — not like the constable's, like the deputy s'lerilTs though; no, the man was not as large as the sheriff. My heart gave a bound ; he was a stranger ! " Hallo, Bub ! you 've had quite a smash-up," said he. '' Can I do anything to help you? " " No, sir, I thank you. AuotheV man has gone back after help," said I, shaking all over, and stanclin-t there, and Homer's dog ; and Tommy has got a pup, and that was there too. One of the men was very handsome ; he had the reddest whiskers I ever saw. The other had a very red face and was quite good-looking. They had both tried to get away, and both had on fetters ; and the handsome one wore hand- cuiFs. It was a very chilly morning, and some one called to Mr. Kitely to come into the bar-room and "have a cup of coffee." Almost all the men went into the bar-room after coffee and left us boys to guard the robbers. I didn't care to go very near, and Charlie is too polite, so we stood back a little ; but Will is n't a very polite boy ; he did n't wait for any introduction, but just stepped up and went to talking. Says he confidentially, — *' Could you keep any of the mone}^ away from Kitely?" Had n't I known Will I should have thought he rather hoped tliey had. FURTHER EXPLOITS. 153 They did n't answer. - "You did n"t expect they 'd get you, did ycu ? " "Ain't you sorry you did it, now?" asked Tommy, putting his nose right up in the red- fa(;ed man's face. "I bite," said the red-faced man. Tom darted back at that, and pitched off the piazza backward into a flower-bed. Both the burglars laughed, and their laugh sounded just as natural, just as any man's would. Charlie and I stepped up a little nearer. Will was down on his knees examinini^ the fetters on the red-faced man's ankles, "This must be a darn mean county if the sheriff can't show a handsomer set of anklets than those," said the man. "xUl out of style, are they? " asked Home. " Kitely never did keep up w-ith the fashions," said Will, as if he was a good deal mortified. " How do they go on and off, though ? " " Why," said the man, " they 're just the sim- plest thing. The sheriff has the key ; but you see that little hole. You might pr}' that little hasp back with almost anything." 154 WE BOYS. " That 's so," said Will. " I wish I had some- thing to try it." "Well," said the man, "you just come here and put your finger in my upper vest-pocket ; you '11 find a little narrow steel bar that I believe would open that," Will found' the little bar, and we boys came up and sat down on the piazza floor around the man's feet, to see if the hasp could be pried back. The man told him how, and after a lit- tle he pushed just right and the lock slipped back, '^^'ill knew too much to take off the fet- ters : he just wanted to see if you could < pen them without the key ; but the minute that burglar saw the bar v/orkccl, he just sprang oflT the bench, hitting some of us on the head with his boot-hccls, and before we had the least notion what was going on, he was off the piazza. Will clutched at his coat, but did n't get it. We shouted, "Stop thief, stop thief!" and ran after him, shouting, "Stop, stop!" but he would n't. The doss barked and ran : the men comino- FURTHER EXPLOITS. 155 out of the bar-room yelled, "Where is he?" and Bijah Whittlesey, coming with the lock-up key, stood in the street with his mouth wide open until he shut it to say, — "That Bradley boy is the darndest little cuss ! " Kitely sprang on his horse and dashed down past us, and we boys dashed after him, and all the men about the hotel dashed after us. We could see the burglar's brown coat far ahead of us all. Mr. Kitely chased him nearly to the Grew woods, and there he lost sight of him. A part of the men went around the woods, and a part came back with us boys to lock up the other burojlar. The other burglar was gone ! — utterly dis- appeared. It didn't seem possible. "Jerusalem !" said Will, "what's going to be done now ? " Tommy went up and put his finger on a spot on the bench, and said he, — " When we left, he sot right there ! " Home looked around to see if there was a 156 Trz BOYS. bole anywhere through which he could have cravTled under the piazza floor. The men who had come back swore a good deal at everybody. My mother doesn't wish me to hear such language, and I went with Charlie and looked up a pear-tree to see if the burglar had climbed up there. The building opposite the liotel is the school- house, and the only two women who were up iu the hotel had been in the kitchen, so no one had seen where he went. I was afraid to go home alone, so Will went with me. He said he should n't go to school until that burglar was found ; said that since he had been the means of letting him go, he felt that he ought to stay and help hunt him up. Homer stayed out, and Tommy ran away at recess. Tlie greatest excitement was over the last man. The girls thought he must have com- mitted suicide, till Ike asked them what they supposed had become of the remains. At recess we all went over and looked at the bench where he last was seen. I sat down on it. At about three o'clock in the afternoon a noise FURTHER EXPLOITS. 157 was heard in the street, and a boy who sits by the window made such motions that we all stretched our necks, and those of us wdio are small partly rose to look out. " Order ! " said the master, and we all sank down. The sounds came nearer and we all looked up again. '' Order ! " said the master, and we all sank down. The boy by the window made most exciting gestures. Then said the master, — " The first boy I see looking out again, I shall ferule." "May I be excused?" said Gustus Hillman. "No, sir." " May I g'wout? " said Ike Tucker. "No, sir." " May I step to the door just a minute, please ? " said Charlie Pay son. "No, sir; the next boy that asks me to go out I shall keep in at recess to-morrow moru- mg." "Please, sir, they've got the burglar. Can't 158 WE BOYS. school closs at ten minutes before four to- night?" said I. "No, sir. Let me see you give your atten- tion to your book." Pretty soon the door opened, and lYill, Homer, and Tommy all filed in. They looked perfectly happy, and it made us realize how much we 'd lost. The Master called those " three young gentle- men " to his desk to account for being absent, and they all said they 'd had permission from their fathers and would brinor notes so stating; to-morrow morning. AVill asked to speak but he could n't get per- mission. After school, though, he perched himself upon a desk and Home on one opposite, while we boys gathered around, and they told us about the capture. " They found hinv in Mr. Strong's barn, and it'll be quite a feather in your cap, Cynthia," said Home. "They drove him out of the woods, you see," said Will, "and they all thought he went in an opposite direction from the barn, but FURTHER EXPLOITS. 159 Capt. Parker had a glimpse of him skirting through the bushes in the pasture, and we sui° rounded the barn, but while the men went up after him he knocked a board off the outside and jumped down from the side they didn't expect." "They'd left no one but us boys to guard that side, because they did n't see how he could ^ get out that way, and he 'd got off again had n't Will just grabbed him by the legs and held him," said Home. We all looked admiringly at Will ; he seemed quite modest. "He just pounded Will with his fists ; but you held like a good one, didn't you, Will?" said Tommy. Just then the board over the ventilator fell as if it had been accidentally knocked down. Our school-room is in the second story of the building, and there 's an opening into the attic, with something like a trap-door which we can pull up or lower by a rope. "I 'd like to know what made that fall," said Ike. 160 WE BOYS. He drew it up again, and it came up easily as usual, and we concluded the children in going from the lower school-room had jarred it down. We stopped to play ball on the green, and "Will threw the ball so that it went through the attic window. There are two windows exactly facing each other in that attic, and while we stood looking at the broken pane, I thought 1 saw something moving between them. Will grasped my arm. " There 's some one up there ; it 's that burglar ! " We didn't see anything more, and Home said it had all been a notion, but Will said it was n't a notion, and left us boys to watch the house while he went for Mr. Kitely. iNlr. Kitely came with three other men, and the school-house key. Two of the men stayed at the outside door, and Mr. Kitely and the other man and we boys went up into the school- room. They put a ladder up to the ventilator, and Mr. Kitely took his pistol out, and went up the ladder, and put his head through the ventilator. FURTHER EXPLOITS. IGl It was a thrilling moment, but instead of a commotion up there, Kitely just stepped down on the next ladder round and looked down on us, anJ said he, — " I '11 give you Jessy, young Bradley, for trumping up this sell." " Ha was there ! " said both Will and I. " some beaui'they saw," said one man. " Does a beam have a head, and dodge out of sight?" said Will. " When we left school that ventilator was open, and when we came in here the board was down," said Home. We all remembered Ike's having opened it. I was so sure the man was somewhere in the house that I ran out-of-doors. Mr. Kitely finally decided to search the building, and they found the man in the cellar behind the furnace. Will told him how wo happened to discover him, and seemed surprised that he did n't appear to enjoy the joke better ; and Tommy asked him if he was n't ashamed to "make all this fuss." Mr. Bradley took both the burglars to 11 162 WE BOYS. Wiircester, to lodge them in the jail, and we boys went to the depot with them. Will asked if he could n't have enough of the " reward " to treat us boys with chocolate mice or something, but no one paid any attention to him. I was glad we were through with the bur- glars, for Will and I seemed to have been unpleasantly mixed up with them. The next Wednesday Will was not in school at either session, and as soon as we were dis- missed I ran down to look him up. He was sitting in the front door, and his face was swollen and tied up with a handkerchief. He smelled of hops and paregoric, and said he 'd had the toothache. Ha was gloomy, and said he did wish something would turn up ; he was tired of this sameness of things. " I 'm sure there has n't been much sameness ; there were the burglars," said I. "Pho! what were the burglars?" said he, contemptuously. " I wish that mountain over there would break forth into fire, smoke, and melting lava," said he. "I should enjoy the excitement, — smoke, FURTHER EXPLOITS. 163 hot water, and ashes a-flying, streams of fire hissing dowu the mountain, and people running with their silver teapots and money bags, just as they did years ago over there in Pompey." "Not Po;7//?e^y," said I. "Hercules, then; I wouldn't be particular which one. I should want everybody to get away safely ; and then what fun it would be to come back the next morning, walk over the roofs of the houses, and see a chimney or a church steeple sticking out here and there. A\hat good times we should have in digging down to our things ! If I lived anywhere around in Italy I should go to Hercules ; but now I should have to cross the ocean, and I a' most know I should foil from the ship's mast-head and be drowned. I wish I could go somewhere, though ; 1 Ve never been beyond York State. What's York State?" I replied that York State was a great deal, and tried to show Will that it was. " Pho ! there are the Rocky Mountains and the Sandwich Islands, Hindostan and Cape Good Hope ; don't talk to me of Yor-rk State ! " 164 WE BOTS. " There 's going to be a Sabbath-school picnic next week," said I, thinking best to divert his mind. " I don't care an3'thing about picnics ; they 're too tame. I've been reading about a boy who robbed a melon patch. 1 'd like to rob a melon patch ; but all the melons around here are gOue- to-seed cucumbers, and I might steal enough to kill myself and nobody would make a fuss about it." I had heard my father read something from the newspaper about "dangerous characters," and the horrible thought flashed across me that "Will talked like a " dangerous character." "Let's go down to the depot and ramble around among the engines," said he, getting up and knocldng the paregoric, peppermint, and camphor bottles on the floor into one heap. I hinted that his face w^as too much swollen to warrant his appearing on the street ; but he did n't mind what I said, and we went on to the depot. A\'hen we reached the depot there were en- gines and a freight train in, cars were being FURTIIEB EXPLOITS. 165 switched off and backed up, trains running through, and a great deal going on. V\ill always wants to bj in the midst of things, and we went out among the tracks and around the turn-table. " Look at the lettering on those cars," said he, as a long freight train rushed past. " ' Through Freight, Atlantic to the Pacific, —Blue Line,— San Francisco, Omaha, St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Boston.' How much and how far they travel ! — going all the time ; and here are we just stuck down still in this place, Baywater, Bay water, Baywater on all sides of us ! " " Look out, there I " shrieked voices back of us. A man twitched Will off the track, and an euirinc shot by like lisrhtnino-. Will just stood and stared at the track. I thought I should faint. We finally went over and sat down on the freight-house platform, and Will dropped his head in his hands. The w^ork- men were talking. "That was a mighty narrer escape," said one. "If he hadn't been snatched off that instant 't would a took him," said another. 166 wi: BOYS. " I wonder there ain't more of 'em run over than there is. They 're daown araound here all hours of the day, and the carelessest set of young ones in the countr}^" "Learn you a lesson about hangin' around depots, won't it, bub?" said one to Will. Will did n't answer, but crossed over the track and started for home. lie hadn't spoken since he Avas pulled off. " It was dreadful, was n't it, Will? " said I. He lifted up his face, and he was white as a ghost. " Where should I have been now. Bob ? " asked he. Of course, I could n't very well answer, but it sent cold chills over me. No more was said, and Will turned in at his own gate while I went on. Will was at school the next day, but he Avas sober, and did n't appear to take an interest in anything. At recess I managed to get him out on one side the yard alone with me. "What is the matter, Will?" said I; "you don't act at all like yourself." " Don't want to," growled he. "I 'm sick of FURTHER EXPLOITS. 107 myself, Bob ; I 'cl be glad enough to be somebody else if I could. Everybody is disgusted with me. I 'ill a disgrace to my parents and ' a stumbling- block and a rock of offence ' in this school ; I 'm an evil associate for you, and have led you into the ' ways of iniquity ' time and again. I 'm never going to play with you any more." I laughed out, — what Aunt Lovisa calls my "nervous laugh." "Giggle, will you? I don't feel much like giggling. I've come near dying, and near being killed, besides a good many accidents, within the past three mouths ; and I believe it 's time I began to take advice and behave myself. I would really like to be good, — good as Ed is, you know; but I don't s'pose I ever shall." The bell rang just then, and I never was more glad to hear it. I couldn't bear to hear Will talk so solemn. Something happened that afternoon for which I was very sorry. Sue Vallaudigham expects to be a poetess, and she practises a good deal nowadays. She don't like Will, but she's written a great deal of poetry at me. The 168 WE BOYS. master that afternoon saw her passing a spell- ing-book to my desk, and made her read the paper that was in it. This was it, — Thou art not like the run of boys, Eobert ! There is a gentleness and a winsomeness in thee That disarms criticism. Thou art not like those rude boys with whom Thy lot is cast, but seerast to walk apart; And in thy blue eyes I see reflected the light Of far-off worlds. Since thou hadst that scarlet fever, — fearful disease ! — Thou hast been pale, puny, peaked, of ethereal mould, As if thy body couldst not hold thy soul; And sometimes I sit and think, when the sunshine Shines on the floor, — How shouldst we miss thy innocent prattle, And one boy who would not tattle ; AVho did not carr}^ gunpowder and bumblebees And rubber snappers, in his pocket; Who was kind alike to rich and poor, And had good lessons. 1 hope thou willst break away from bad influences; Scorn the temiDter and his folly, Though he be both smart and jolly. He will work you only ill. Just so sure as his name is Will. FURTHER EXPLOITS. 169 The reference to bad influences made Will bluer than ever, and the poem didn't make me feel very comfortable. I asked mother that nio-ht if she thouo-lit I needed anvthinar " strengthening." All the next morning Will was very absent- minded, studying a lesson we 'd taken three days before, and when asked why, in comput- ing interest at six per cent, we reckon five mills for every odd day, replying, "For Bob's sake," Just before intermission he brightened up a little ; and as I left the yard for home he came up and ran his arm through mine, and says he, "I'm o-oino: to do it, Bob." "Going to do what?" " Going to turn over a new leaf, fair and square ; no backing out allowed/' "O Will, I wouldn't!" " Wouldn't! Why not? " asked he, stopping and looking astonished and disappointed. " I don't want you to try anything new : you '11 get into some scrape or other. I think it 'S safer for you to keep right along as you ate." "Oh! but Bob," said he, putting his arm 170 WE BOYS. around my shoulders and giving me a squeeze, " I 'm going to be a Letter boy ; 1 'm going to remem1)er that there 's somebody in the world besides Will Bradley ; I'm going to try more to please my father and mother and the master. That is n't all, either : I 'm going to the root of the matter, — I 'm going to try under all my doings to be better." " If you really do that, I think it will be a great improvement, Will," said I. " Give us your hand on it, Bobby." "The only thing I'm afraid of," added he, " is that I shall get discouraged and back out. I Ve had two or three such spells before." " If I was in your place I 'd tell Ed ; he understands all about such things, and maybe he could help you," said I. Will declared that was a good idea, and at the next recess we held an interview with Ed, back of Martin's shed. "If you honestly wish to be a better boy, Will," said he, "there's nothing in the world to prevent, — no secret or mystery about it. None of us are very good ; but some of us FURTHER EXPLOITS. Ill work towards it and some of us don't, and that makes a difference. "When you know what is right, do it ; and when you don't know, try to find out." " Supposing I try it three or four weeks, and then comes a week when I get careless, don't ask whether an act is right or wronvith him. Charlie is the best mathematician in the class. He keeps his work distinct, and always knows whereab;iuts in an example he is, which must be one great comfort. The girls take turns in weeping. We have one or more of them shedding tears in recitation every day, and they weep at irregular intervals all the time. Nellie Roj^ce is particularly cast down. "Robby,"said she tearfully the other night, " I don't know anything and I never shall, and I shall mortify my father to death." With that she cried worse than ever. Cynthia is sullen, but if she once gets hold of anything, she sticks and hangs like a little Avood- tick, until she gn;iws her way through. The master don't approve of our ciphering together : he says it isn't a self-reliant way; but Will says, ''Hang self-reliance while you are in par- 192 WE BOYS. tial payments ! " And we decided to bang it, and went to Mr. Bradley's. Every one was hopeful. Home had bought a new slate half as large as the blackboard ; v/o had all laid in bonntifuUy for slate pencils, and dulled all the jackknives in the company in sharpening them. The dining-room was given up for our use and we ranged ourselves about the table, — the boys around Charlie, the girls around Cynthia. With a good deal of trouble and many expla- nations from our leaders, we Avent through the first example ; but though our answers agreed with each other, they did n't agree with the book. "Will thought "the book must be wrong," but Charlie discovered that we had computed it at six per cent, when it should have been seven. Homer wanted to knovf if we could n't add in the seven per cent. '' Let's let it go," said Will ; " if a man is so hard up as to have to make such little dabbing, scattering. payments, I say let's give him the difierence betw^een six and seven per cent. 1 'm goinof to brin"; on the refreshments." DO O CATS, BOGS, ETC. 193 With that he disappeared into the darkness of the pantry. We heard him knocking around among the glassware, tipping over a tin dish or two, and finally putting his head in through the sitting-room door, and screaming, " Mother, mother, where did you set 'em ? " Then he bobbed back into the darkness again, and presently we heard a slopping and a splash- ing sound, a tin pan clattered oS on the floor, and Will appeared in the door, dripping with milk. "Jerusalem ! " gasped he. Then Mrs. Bradley came upon the scene, and there wus much sopping up, wiping and spon- ging, and some scolding. In the midst of it there came a scratching and a low whining at the door. Will threw it open, and in bounded - Zip. He licked Will's face all over, ran around the room, barked, and wagged, and yelped, tipped over the apple-dish, and narrowly missed the lamp. Mr. Bradley, when he came from the store, told us that Zip had appeared at Will's Grandfather Goodrich's the night after the hunt, 16 194 WE BOYS. * much the worse for wear ; but Grandma Good- rich had nursed hhii up, and grandpa brought him clown to the store. Charlie and Cynthia, who had continued at work upon the example, brought the answer out right ; and after we had copied their opera- tion, Will took Zip in his arms, and we sat around the fire, and ate apples and grapes, and told bear and ""host stories of a thrillino:, hair- starting character. Will was particularly dreadful with the tale of a "headless horse- man." When the clock struck nine, we all started as if the ghosts had spoken. On his way home Homer thought he caught a glimpse of WilTs "headless horseman," started to run, tripped and fell, bruising his face so badly that his expression of countenance for the next few days was far from pleasing. The remainder of our term passed off pleas- antly, but with nothing notable happening. W^e had chestnutting excursions, and political demonstrations, and a menagerie came to town. Will tried hard to be a good boy, though he once in a while made what he called "a bad CATS, DOGS, ETC. 195 back-slide." The fortnight before the close of school the lars-e scholars were enffiis-ed in preparations for the exhibition, which was to come the evening after examination, and to con- sist in, tableaux, plays, and music. They did n't seem to wish us small boys to have any part in the entertainment, and Will felt rather hurt in consequence. Air Pomeroy had requested them to enact a play entitled, "Scenes in the Life of the Hebrew Law-giver." The Hebrew law-giver was Closes. They v\^ere n't at all pleased with the play, because it was old and stupid, but they did n't dare refuse Mr. Pomeroy. "Let me be tLe infant Moses," said Will. "The idea of it ! " rephed Miss Belle Ehodes, who was to be Pharaoh's daughter. " Then let me be the Hebrew who slew the Egyptian in the wilderness," said Will. No ; he could n't be that. "Let me be the Egyptian, then." No ; they did n't want him upon the stage in any capacity, and wouldn't have him. "I'll be one of the frojys that overrun the 196 WE BOYS. land but that I "11 go on, now," said lie to me, privately. From some remarks dropped at home, I found out that Aunt Lovisa's gentleman, Mr. Jackson, of Troas, was coming to our house about the time school closed, and though my mother has taught me never to talk of family affairs away from home, I happened to mention this piece of news to Will. Pie seemed to think it the best joke of the season. "I see fun ahead, Rob," said he, "and I do hope she'll marry him ; for it '11 be a blessing in disguise to you, and you'll have no end of cold chicken and ice-cream at the w^edding." During the last few weeks of the term, Cynthia Strong, who is usually so pert and snappish, was extremely sober, and Home one day asked her if she was under "concern of mind." Will and I one day found out her trouble. Mr. Strong lives a half-mile out of the vil- lage. He is town-collector, and we had been out there with money to pay our fathers' taxes, and were coming home across lots, and about aire. DOGS, ETC. 1-97 crossing the brook, when we heard some one cry mg and sobbing behind a clump of willows. We peeped aromid, and there was Cynthia all in a little heap, her face hid in her lap. We were afraid she had fallen and hurt herself, and Will went up and touched her on the shoulder. Sh3 flounced up and looked at us, but did n't attempt to rise. -" Are you hurt ? " asked Will. - No ; but I wish I was. I can't go anywhere, nor do anything, nor have anything like other girls ; it 's nothing but trouble, trouble, trouble!" " What troubles ? " " Everything." "Well, what in particular?" "You 11 make fun of me if I tell you; you all make fun of me, you think I 'm a great awk- ward, homely girl, and I am, but I can't help it. I 'd be glad to be nice and pretty as Rose Paysou is, but I was n't made so well in the beginning ; 't is n't my fault. I don't want to grow so fast, nor to have my hands spread and my feet bulge ; but they do, and my wrists grow bony, the freckles come, and here I be!" ^^^ WH BOYS. "We won't make fun of you, anrl you don't look so very badly, Cynthia," said Will, going down on the grass beside her. "Yes, I do," retorted Cynthia, twisting her handkerchief hard. " I know just how I Lk ; and examination day I Ve got to look — oh,' I've got to look like a reg'lar Vitth ~ be(/(/a// That old pink delaine is all I 'II have to wear, and that is streaked and spotted and faded ; the skirt and the sleeves are too short ; it pinches everywhere and the hooks and eyes keep burst- ing off, — I shall be a credit to the school, shan't I?" Will did n't seem to know what to say. "As long as Sue Vallandigham wore her old dress, I thought I could stand it; but her mother's bought her a beautiful blue merino, and it does seem as if I s/iall die! I wish I might, and go and be an angel, and have a robe I should n"t grow out of. Oh-h dear ! " " Won't your father get you a new dress ? " "No, he can't, there are so many of us chil- dren, and we have such appetites, and he can't get pay for his last job. It's dreadful to be CATS, BOGS, ETC. 199 poor and go to school with rich girls. I 've a great mind to run away." '' You 'd have to go looking worse than you do now, and maybe not have enough to eat," said I, somewhat frightened. . "I know that ; but the girls would n't be look- ing on, and I shouldn't be so dreadfully, — dr-ead-inWj ashamed. Just the minute my father gives me leave, I 'm going away to work ; and I '11 work day and night, — day and night, — and won't I have some clothes ? I '11 have a black silk dress that'll stand alone, and a blue poplin as stiff as a board, I will. They '11 see then — those girls with their plaid silks and gold chains — that Cynthia Strong is as good as any of 'em, they will." With this, Cynthia straightened up, wiped her eyes, rolled her handkerchief into a hard knot, and appeared so brave and determined that she seemed in a better mood to leave than in the weeping one. Will told her he thought it would all, in some way, come out right, and we left. " I 'm Sony for her, Bob, and she will look 200 V,'E BOYS. like the AVitch of Enclor ; for she did at the last examination, and she 's grown ever so much since," said Will. " Let 's put our money together, and earn enough more to buy her a dress," said I. "You and I might as well be doing something as Charlie Payson." Will approved, and that evening I asked my mother's consent. Aunt Lovisa laughed, and said Will and I had grown "very chivalric " The two wrinkles came between my mother's ej'cs, and said she, "I fully approve of Rob's trying to help the little girl, Lovisa." jNIy mother never laugiis at my plans whether they 're " chivalric " or not. She gave me some- thing to do for which she said she v.ould pay me, and Will did errands for his father. By the next Saturday night we had each earned a dollar and a quarter. We tried to interest Home in our project. "It's one of Will's new goodish notions, is n't it ? " asked ho privately of me. "I don't know what you mean by goodish notions," retorted I. CATS, DOGS, ETC. 201 "Take that for a specimen, then. Will has been running over with them since he came micler parson Edward Hammond's influence. He is ra-a-ther improving, though ; he tries not to be so tricky — " "Will 3^ou join us?" interrupted I. "Don't believe I can, Rob. Much obliged for the privilege, but spending-money 's too scarce, and Cynthia too snappish. You oughtn't to expect a growing boy to stand and deliver every time a G^irl outOTOws her ""own." I wonder why, when some people are asked to do a thing just once, they always put in the " every time " !^ Charlie gave seventy-iive cents, Ed, a dollar, and my mother and Mrs. Payson the remainder. Mr. Bradley let us have the material — blue merino like Sue's — at cost, and Mrs. Hammond hired it made, and fitted it to Mollie, who is about Cynthia's size. When it was completed, we folded it up into a parcel, pinned on it a card inscribed, " Miss Cynthia Strong, from a few of her Friends," and put it under her desk. She came in late, and looking extremely miserable. She put her 202 WE BOYS, hand under the desk after her Testament, and hit the parcel ; she drew it out, read the note, and looked bewildered. All through prayers she kept taking little peeps in at one end of the parcel, and imme- diately afterwards she tucked it under her apron, and asked to "g'wout." When she returned her face was all aHow. "I've heard of angels bringing folks thino-s," said she, at noon, "but 1 never expected any of 'em would come near wie / " EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 203 CHAPTEK XV. EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. TpXAMINATION came, as usual, on Fri- -'-^^ day. We attended morning session, but did nothing except perform a few examples, and arrange for the afternoon. A dread was on us as if a great crisis was at hand. When we met in the afternoon we had on our best clothes, and, in some way, it seemed as if we must get acquainted over again. Will had on a new pair of boots that squeaked out- rageously. We were to sit three at a desk, so as to make room for the spectators, and we had to put a board across the two chairs at each desk, in order to make room for the third scholar. Our board was rather too short, and there was danger of its slipping off at one end. Tommy Taylor sat with us, and Will gave him a charge before school commenced. 2U4 ^ WE BOYS. "NoAV, Tommy," said he, "you'll have to sit still and think of solemn things, because if you get uneasy, and begin cutting up any didos, this board '11 slip, and you'll go down, slam banof." Tommy solemnly promised that he would n't move, folded his arms, and sat up stiff and still as a statue. The first class called was our grammar class. Homer usually sits first on the recitation seat, and he had been all the morning studying up the first questions, and preparing to show off; but when the class was called, what should Cynthia Strong do but establish herself on that end seat ! Home motioned and motioned to her to move along ; but she would n't budge an inch, and poor Home had to take his place second. Cynthia recited through all the first part, and then Home was called up. He had on an up- right pointed collar, that stuck into his throat, and made him look as if choking, while his green necktie gave him a jaundice-y appearance. " Homer, what is a noun ? " asked the master. EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 205 "A noun — " gasped Homer; ''ti noun is — a noun shows whether it's first, second, or thh'd persons." "What are the properties of nouns, Homer?'' "The properties of nouns — " said Homer, "are three: mascuhne, feminine, common, and neuter." "What do you mean by the number of a noun ? " "The number of a noun shows how many j)arts it's divided into, whether first, second, or third." "That'll do," said the master. Homer sat down, looking as if he 'd done credit to his instructions, however it might bo with the remainder of the class. Will came next, and the master began putting the same questions to him. He immediately took the subject of nouus into his own hands, as if a noun was a kind of toy with which he was perfectly, familiar ; told all he knew and more too, and wound up With the declension of a noun in a fall, clear voice. The spectators exchanged approving glances. 206 WE BOYS. Will is a wonderful boy for examinations. Pie don't have remarkable lessons durins: term O time ; but when examination comes, the excite- ment of having visitors in school just fires him up, and everything he ever studied, read, or heard, comes to him. Compan}- affects me and most of the other boys in a diiferent way, and we forget everything we ever knew. By the time our geography was called, the room was full of visitors. Oh, how I did wish I was one of them ! "Will, who is always veiy polite on such occasions, carried his geography to the committee, and his boots went squeak, squeak, sqiieah, all the way out. Mr. Pomeroy shook his head as if his geographical informa- tion had been called in question, and Will squeaked back again. The master first examined us on Europe. Then Mr. Pomeroy began with his questions. "For what is Vienna noted?" "For the lovely palace of Schonbruuu," re- plied Will. "For being situated on a great number of small islands," corrected Mr. Pomeroy. EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 207 "Aren't you tliiiikiiig of Venice, sir?" asked Will, respectfully. VxV. Poii]croy ackno^Tlcdgccl that he was think- ing' of Venice, and Will got credit for knovring more than the counnittce. AMien we came on to Africa, ^\ ill bounded Soudan, and named its provinces with great ac- curacy and distinctness. "Now bound the State of New York," said Mr. Eoyce. " We don't take York State this term, sir," said Cynthia. Will blundered through the boundary, though, and j\Ir. Roycc smiled, and said we 'd better perfectly understand the geography of our own country before we went on to Soudan. There- upon Will woke up, and bounded the state over again, mentioned the lakes, rivers, and moun- tains, named and located the principal towns, gave heights, lengths, and breadths, and went iuto details generally with an case and a fluency that brouglit down the house, and astonished no one, I think, so much as himself. Mr. Eoyce joined in the applause. 208 WE BOYS. We went oil to Oceanica, and Homer told how the natives of the Friendly Isles killed and ate Captain Cook. That 's Home's standard item on Oceanica. He may forget everything else, but he never forgets that the natives of the Friendly Isles killed and ate Captain Cook. When our arithmetic was called, Will looked and acted as if he could recite riijht through the book, from numeration to mensuration, without pausing. To have heard him reel otT the rule for partial payments, one wouldn't have sus- pected but that he could perform the examples as easily as any in simple addition. Mr. Royce questioned us on interest, ISlr. Pomeroy on fractions. Fractions are ^Ir. Pomeroy's hobby. We finished them, and were examined on them last term, but they had to be raked up again. He said he would ask a feAv practical questions, and after he was through with his practical questions, he said he would like to have William Bradley write a few deci- mals on the board, " You may write," said he, "one million one hundred thousand and one; one million, one EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 209 huiiclred thousand, one hundred and one tril- lionths." Will was standmg by me, and he fairly grcjaned out at that. He 's always in a muddle about writing decimals, and for my part, I don't know who is n't. He dashed down ones and ciphers, and when he had quite a string of them, began rubbing out some, and putting in others, affixing, prefixing, and fixing in the middle until it was in a general jumble. Finally he made a dab with the chalk for a decimal point, and besran readius:. Mr. Pomeroy, who, through his glasses, had overlooked all operations, said he was n't read- ing it aright, and if he did read it right, 'twas n't what he was told to set down. Then Mr. Pomeroy tried to read what was on the board, and to tell what ought to be there, and to help fix it. Will maintained that what he gave out now was n't what he gave out the first time, and they both grew confused. They could n't agree on what the original number was, nor on what they had written, nor on what they wanted to write, and they grew more and 14 210 WE noi's. more confused, and neither of them knew what the other was talking about, nor what he him- self was talldng about. Mr. Pomeroy had grown red in the face, Will had come to that point Avhere, according to 'Bijah Whittlesey, " he 's as sot as a mule *' ; and there 's no know- ing what they would have come to, hadn't the master interposed. "It's some time since the. boy studied decimals. Perhaps 1 'd better give him a problem elsewhere," said he, in his blandest tones. Mr. Pumeroy straightened himself up, and said perhaps the boy had better have a problem elsewhere ; he tvas rather bewildered ; and, between them both, they set "the boy" at work. Then came Tommy Taylor to the board. (He isn't in our class, but this day he was reciting with us.) He took his place between AVill and I, and gave a sympathetic grin to each of us. As soon as he had read over his ex:mple, he ran up his hand, and said he, — "This ain't the example I did this morning." Will snatched his hand down. EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 211 "Don't you know beans, Tommy?" whispered he. But Tommy will do just as he 's a mind to. He twitched away his hand, and hoisted it up again. "Please, sir," drawled he, "this ain't my example." "Perform the example that's assigned you, or else take your seat," retorted the master, flushing up. After this recitation we had nothing more to do except listen to the large scholars. Sue Yallandigham got so uneasy, she began writing, tipped the ink over on her white apron, and had to " g 'wout " in a state of great agitation. Just after the scholarship reports were read, a dead silence fell in the room, and Ed Ham- mond stepped forward and presented the master with our " testimonial of . affectionate esteem." This year our " testimonial " was a beautifully finished angler's rod, and a case containing all varieties and sizes of what Home called " trout and sucker tools." Ed made an excellent speech that set everybody laughing, the mas- 212 WE BOYS. ter made a funny reply, and the solemn awfid- ness of examination day was a good deal broken up. Nothing then remained but the remarks. How I do hate the remarks ! Tommy Taylor grew restless, and began fidgeting in a way that was dangerous. Will tried to stop him, but he would keep ^vriggling and twisting. " Tommy," whispered Will, at last, "I've a big fish-hook — a pickerel hook — in my pocket, and if you don't sit stiller, I '11 hook it into you and hold you still." Upon that Tommy quieted down a little. Mr. Pomeroy made the closing remarks, and addressed himself particularly to the large boys and girls who were not to return. He was at the most pathetic point, and the girls were weeping, when Tommy gave a most agonizing wriggle, his board slipped, and down he went with a crash. He struck against the iron standard of the desk, cut his lips, and set up a howl. When he saw the blood running he thought he was killed, and screamed worse than EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 213 ever. Will clapped his hand over his mouth, and dragged him out. That little accident interrupted the flow of speech-making, and we were soon dismissed. In the evening, we had in the hall a very good exhibition of tableaux and dialogues. Once in a while, we small boys were brought on the stage to fill up a background, but most of the time we were employed in carrying messages between the boys' and the girls' dressing-rooms or in running on errands outside. The dressing-rooms were small, the actors numerous, and things much mixed. Two fairies had a bitter quarrel about their wands. The beautiful princess had the headache, and was smelling camphor, and the pooi* but honest youth who was to win her said he 'd be hanged if he 'd brought his handkerchief. Louis XVI appro- priated the costume of Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie Antoinette could n't find her pearl neck- lace, and the Empress Josephine set up a weep- ing and a wailing, because some one had tipped a bottle of perfumery on her lavender silk robe. Will and I were despatched to the nearest 214 WE BOYS. neighbors to dry the lavender robe, and when we returned there vras no one in the l)0}'s' dress- ing-room but Home. He said the other boys were either on the stage or among the audience. He appeared flurried, and his breath smelled of medicine. Will beijan clearincj out a chair to sit down upon. He gave a toss to an old revolver of Xapoleon Bonaparte's, and it fell on the table, shivering a small hand-mirror of Harry Blakes- lee's. "Jerusalem !" ejaculated Will. '' There 's a dollar and a ' half out of your pocket," said Home, composedly. " Just my luck," replied Will, as he picked up the broken glass. "So surely as I get my debts paid up, and a liitle somethiug ahead, so that I can begin to enjoy life, I smash up some- thing or other, and have to rake and scrape, plan and pinch, to pay damages." "Look here. Will," said Homo, glancing around him, and speaking low, "leave the pistol as it fell, and we'll go out among the audience. I}i a minute or two there 'U be a dozen or more EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 215 boys in here turning things over and throwing them around, and by the time Harry finds his gkiss broken, be '11 be as likely to suspect some one else as you." Will faced around upon Home. "I wonder. Homer Sharpe," said he, "if you think I 'd do that thing ! You have a high opin- ion of me, haven't you?' You think I'm a brave sort of a boy, don't you?" Will looked so angry and excited I w^as afraid w^e w^ere going to have a quarrel, but just then the boys from the stage came crowding in. " Harry," said Will, as soon as he had an op- portunity, " I 've done something you will think ouffht to send me to the reform school." . "Don't doubt it," said Harry, turning over a pile of clothes in the corner. W^ill explained, and Harry took it quite coolly. We were both much relieved, for Harry is n't ahvays sweet-tempered, and we had expected he would storm. Another scene en the stage was soon arranged, and the dressing-room was thinned out. "I should like to know," said Gustus Hill- 216 WE noYS. man, who had remained, "what has become of my troches. I left a full box on the table, and there aren't half a dozen here now." I remembered just then how Home's breath had smelled. He was now holdinir a bis: coloijne b.;ttle to his nose, and didn't appear to hear a word of what was being said. "Well," said Ike, giving Gustus a wink, "if anybody has eaten all those troches, he's a dead mau ! " Homer dropped the cologne-bottle stopper he had begun licldng. " Oh-h ! " exclaimed Gustus, greatly distressed, " I hope no one has eaten them. One is a dose for a full-grown mau ! " "Even now," said Ike, gravely, "the poor WTetch may be quietly sitting among the au- dience. If he could but be warned in season to take the antidote — " " What is the antidote ? " gasped Home. "Oil," replied Ike, quickly; "oil, promptly administered, and in a dose sumciently large to prevent the troches eating through the eplgis- iratrum into the pericardium.'^ EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 217 Homer turned ashy white, and clawed at the pit of his stomach. " They 've begun eating a'rcady," groaned he. " Have you eaten those troches ? " demanded Ike, seizing Home by the shoulder. "Tell me, Homer Sharpe, have you eaten those troches?" Home tremblingly acknowledged that he had. "And they were tlie real bronchial troches, made out of the strongest kind of bronchia! Tell me quick. Home, do you feel any irrita- tion of the {esophagus or oscillation of the epiglottis ? " "Yes, yes," groaned Home, "the pepper- glottis is bad — they 've begun eating — I feel 'em. Has n't anybody any oil, — not any kind of oil?" "Kerosene?" said Ike, looking at Gustus. Gustus shook his head at Ike. " There 's a bottle of what druggists call 'bear's grease' at the bottom of my trunk, over there. You get that out, Ike, while I rub him." " Do you think he '11 die, Will ? " asked I. "Just you hold on for a while, Bob. Home is alwjiys eating things and med lling with what 218 WE BOYS. don't belong to him. Let the boys manage him." "A^ow, Home," said Gustus, taking the cork out of the bottle, "this is a hair-dressing abom- ination I Vc had two years, and the druo-o-ist had a year before me. It won't be very pleas- ant to take." Home said he didn't care for that; he could stand anything but this gnawing. He took the bottle, and had swallowed one half its contents, when Gustus snatched it away. "Don't let us kill you. Home," said he. "Are you sure I've taken enough?" asked Home, with tears in his eyes. A regretful look came over Gustus's f\ice, and he did n't reply ; but Ike answered briskly that the oil was sure to soften and neutralize the effect of the troches, and that, being bear's oil, it Avas peculiarly calculated to counteract the o-nawino-. He hustled Home on to a trunk, and ordered him to lie flat on his back, while he piled on overcoats enough to induce perspiration. The little room was close and hot, and by the time the boys came in from the stage. Home EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 219 was in a pretty moist condition, and groaning with nausea. Iko explained his condition, and Ed Hammond turned on his heels and walked away ; but the other boys questioned Homo in regard to his feelings, and suggested things he had better take. Home answered them in a faint voice, and lay with his eyes closed. He said the gnawing had ceased, but he had a deathly kind of feeling inside. "Of course," said Ike, "it's the troches dying off from the effects of the oil." Ike had to go on the stage in the next tab- leau, and before going he pronounced Home out of damper. Home crawled out into the audience-room, and lounged on the end of a settee, where, later in the evening, I saw him trading off slate pencils for sassafras lozenges. Soon came on the play, " Scenes in the Life of the Hebrew La^v-givcr." Belle had fixed upon little Yv^illie Tucker, Ike's cousin, for the jMoses ; but, before the play came on,AMllie was fast asleep on a pile of clothes in our dressinff-rooin. 220 WE BOYS. " Don't you ^^ake him up. You let me be the infant Moses," said Will privately to Ike. Only a few evenings before, Ike bad been badly snubbed by Miss Belle. Here he had an opportunity for revenge, and on Will's urging the matter, he consented. "The white dress that large-sized fairy, Su- sannah Vallandigham, wore will fit me ; and you can tix on Willie Tucker's pink sash and shoul- der knots to make me look pretty," said Will. I was sent to borrow the dress, and having an unusually amiable freak. Sue gave it to me without a question. We dressed Will down in the basement uhere it was cold as Greenland, but where none of the boys could see us. Then Ike wrap[)ed him up in a shawl, and to- gether we carried him on the stage and laid him in the clothes-basket among the cat's-tail reeds that represented bulrushes. Pharaoh's daugh- ter and maidens were so absorbed in arraying themselves that they clia n't look afier the Moses. Belle inquired of Ike if Willie was reaJy. Ike replied that Will was ready, and the curtain was rung up. EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 221 Pharaoli's dauo-hter and her maidens, lookins; very beautiful, came slowly down to the river's bank. Pharaoh's daughter, in a very sweet voice, was giving advice to her maidens. Soon a cry was heard from amid the bulrushes. " List ! " said Pharaoh's daughter, raising her forefinger. "I hear an infant's wail." The train of maidens paused and listed. "Pa, ya, yaT'' v/ent Will from among the reeds. "The sound, methinks, proceeds from yonder tiny boat amid the reeds. Advance, and dis- cover to me Avhat it may be. Perchance the ofispring of some fond Israelitish mother may be saved from the cruel edict of my father." Almina Harris, who was Maid No. 1, advanced towards the basket. Almina had been selected as Maid No. 1, because she was strong enough in the arms to bring forward the infant. "It is a Hebrew child, my lady; one of the accursed race which thy father seeks to destroy," said she, drawing the mosquito net off the child's face. " Bring him hither ! I would myself behold 222 WE BOYS. the innocent, unjustly doomed to be cut off in the morning of iiis existence." Almina was too stupefied by what she had found, to reply. Will straddled out of the bas- ket, knocked over a good many " cat-tails," and came tramping up to Pharaoh's daughter. "Here I be," said he. There he stood, smiling tranquilly, while Pharaoh's daughter was aghast. Stillness reigned for an instant, and then the audience l3urst into laughter. The maidens ran off the stage, and on Pharaoh's daughter and the infant Moses facing each other, the curtain fell with a crash. By the time Ike and I got behind the scenes again, the excitement was tremendous. Pha- raoh's daughter was in hysterics, and the maidens wanted Pharaoh to execute the infant Moses without further delay. When we appeared, a general attack was made upon Ike, and Harry Blakeslce, who was Pharaoh, was disposed to execute him along Avith the infant. Ike coolly put on his hat, and said he thought he would step out and take the air. Will and I, EXAMINATION AND EXHIBITION. 223 having returned the white dress to the enraged and sputtering Susanna, followed him. The remaining scenes in the "Life of the Hebrew Law-giver," were dispensed with. The remaining plays and tableaux passed off without anything particularly interesting occurring be- hind the scenes. The large scholars, many of whom are n't coming back another term, remained after the audience had dispersed, to hold a farewell inter- view. Will and I remained to see what it con- sisted in. It was pretty much all weeping and kissing. They tried to sing " Auld Lang Syne," but broke down on it, and had more kissing and weeping, bade each other good-by, and started home in companies that soon paired off. Will and I made one pair. 224 WE BOYS. CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION BY ORDER OF AUNT LOVISA. SATUKDAY morning Aunt Lovisa was ex- pecting Mr. Jackson, and there was so much sweeping, dusting, and getting ready at our house that I could n't stand it, and went down to Mr. Eradley's store for comfort. Will was sitting on the counter swinging his legs and holding a political discussion with Capt. Parker. "If 'Lincoln is elected and slavery allowed in the territories, the South will secede, and this glorious Union will be disrupted ! Hallo, Bob," said he patronizingly, looking down upon me. I sprang up beside him and told him of the state of affairs at our house. Just then the train came in, and pretty soon we saw a tall man with a portmanteau pass the door. "That's the man," said I. "O Jerusalem!" said Will, "if I was a wo- CONCLUSION BY ORDER OF AUNT L0VI8A. 225 man, I would as soon be courted by a broom- stick." "I like to have him at our house," said I, " for we always have three kinds of cake for tea, and Aunt Lovisa passes the basket to me every time. Usually she thinks rich cake is bad for a boy." "Let's go see the meeting," said Will. We ran, but we did n't reach the house until Aunt Lovisa had taken him into the parlor. All that we in the hall could hear was a mur- mur of voices. Will put on the shiny hat, and, with Mr. Jackson's cane, walked up and down the hall in Mr. Jackson's stiff gait, and saluted me as Aunt Lovisa. We had all the fun we could, and it was all the more fun because we knew Aunt Lovisa had sharp ears, and a loud titter v/ould bring her out. " I wonder if this is a present," whispered AVill, taking up a brown-paper package that seemed to hold a box. " Oh ! I know what I '11 do," said he, pulling out his pill-box of sneezing snuff. I don't suppose there 's been a time since 15 226 WE BOYS. Will came out of " knickerbockers " but he 's carried sneezing snuff in his pocket. He rubbed the powder on both sides the package. Just then we heard steps approaching the parlor door, and we dodged into the closet under the stairs. The hat Will wore struck against the upper casement of the low door and rolled off. We had barely time to get it in with us when out came Mr. Jackson. As he went to the table for his package he brushed past the closet, and the door shut with a snap, and that door don't open on the inside. I didn't think of it then, though, for I was as excited as. Will was, anticipatmg fun with the snuff. Mr. Jackson went back to the parlor, and "\^'ill set me off into giggles by saying, "Now — now — going to be^in. Bob ! Now ! " When it did begin I thou2:ht I should have died. First came Aunt Lovisa with little cat sneezes, a dozen at a time; then Mr. Jackson, in great horse sneezes that seemed to shake the house ; tlien both together. We heard them flying around, opening windows and doors, and CONCLUSION BY ORDER OF AUNT LOYISA. 227 Will said lie hoped they 'd both lost their hand- kerchiefs. " Why, why (sneeze), I (sneeze) don't under- stand (sneeze, sneeze) what it means (sneeze, sneeze, sneeze),'^ went Mr. Jackson. ^' Cayenne 1^^ gasped Aunt Lovisa, with a dozen small sneezes. Then they both went off in a chorus. Will laughed till he tipped over, and he tipped on to Mr. Jackson's hat. That fright- ened us, and still we kept on tittering. There seemed to be all the coal-hods and dust brushes and pans in the house in that closet, and we kept hitting things and knocking things down and tumbling into things.. Finally the commotion in the parlor subsided, and we began to think about ourselves. Will tried opening the door-spring with a stove poker, but could n't. We put our shoulders against the door and pushed with all our might, and Will tried to encourage me by whispering, " Now, now ! There she goes ! Give us liberty or give us death ! " But she did n't "go," and it began to look as 228 WZ BOYS. if we should have death for all of liberty. I sat dowu in a coal-hod to take breath, and Will ou a cricket. The cricket was an infirm one, its four legs spread out like a spider's, and down he went. For a half-minute he sat reflecting. "Do let's scream," said I. "No, I won't scream. Let's give her one more push," said he. We braced our backs against the side of the narrow closet, put our feet against the door, and pushed with all our might. The spring gave way, the door flew back against the wall, we boys went down among the iron and tin ware, and out came Aunt Lovisa. "Ah ! it 's ijou, is it, William Bradley?" said she, as if light was breaking in upon her. "You 're the worst boy in town ; and I do think Almira is just insane to allow Rob to associate with you ! " Will brushed himself, swung the door to- gether so as to hide the hat, and walked oif. As soon as Aunt Lovisa returned to the parlor, we slipped back, took the hat, and carried it up to mother. Will confessed the whole aflfair to her. CONCLUSION BY ORDER OF AUNT LOVISA. 229 "Why, Willy, how could you?" said she. "It was very naughty. I can't allow such prac- tical jokes in my house ; I really can't." She was, at first, a good deal frightened about the hat, but she pressed, and smoothed, and brushed, until it looked as well as ever, and she herself carried it back and hung it on the rack, and Will went home. After tea I went down to Will's and found him lying on the grass looking very dejected. He sa,id Ed Hammond had been reproving him for playing off such jokes as he had at the exhibition. "And such as I've been at again to-day," said he. " Then Ed is a prig," said I. "No, he isn't, Rob ; he only let me know, in that way he has of saying little and meaning much, what he thought of certain performances, and he 's right, Eob . I honor 'Bijah Whittlesey and your aunt for their opinions of me." Just then up came Ed balancing the school- house key on his finger. He was going after his books. 230 WE BOYS. "I 'm sorry I gave you pain, Will," said he, " but I do despise small-boy tricks. I want you to try to overcome your propensity for them. Fun, like everytliing else, has its metes and bounds. You 're one of the kind who need to think twice before they act. Come over to the school-house now. We 're friends, are n't we ? " Ed reached down his hand and Will grasped it and rose by it, and we went on to the school house. The sun was shining in full at the west windows, but the great school-room looked lonely. Ed walked around tapping the desks thoughtfully, and a fly buzzed through the empty room. "Boys," said Ed at length, "it will be but a little while before you, too, will be leaving the old school-room. It looks a long way ahead, I know, but you won't find it so, and you '11 feel badly at the last, — you can't help it ; and you '11 be full of regrets just in proportion as you 've neglected those little opportunities for showing kindnesses that are always coming up in school, and that, once let slip, never return. Now, boys, if you want your school-days pleasant in the retrospect, you must help each other." CONCLUSION BY ORDER OF AUNT LOVISA. 231 "Well, Ed dear, we do mean to, but you see we don't thinJc." " Oh ! I know that, but we ought to think, and I do believe we may be helped to remember these things. I want to make my experience of some use to you, and I am going to give you a little summary of advice. "Help one another. Hold to the right side, be it never so unpopular ; hold firmly and come out strongly just in proportion as you feel it is right. Don't tease the girls, nor fret the mas- ter, nor shirk your lessons. Despise sly, tricky ways. If you 've something that you feel you must do or die, do it openly and take your pen- alty like men." " Amen ! " ejaculated Will. "We '11 try, and you can once in a while write to us from your college off there, and reinforce your admonitions by gentle suggestions." We walked around the room arm-in-arm a little while ; then Ed took out his books and strapped them up, and we went out. In the hall he stood with his hand on the door-knob, and took a long survey of the room. 232 WE BOYS. " O Ed ! " exclaimed I, " we Ve only just found out what a good friend you are, and now you 're never, never coming here to school any more !" I could n't keep back the tears. Ed laughed, pulled out his handkerchief, and gave a brush first at my eyes and then his own. " Don't let 's have a farewell scene this even- ing," said Will. " We '11 see you again, Ed. Come on. Bob." W^e nodded good-evening and ran for home. Monday Morning. Mr. Jackson has gone, and Aunt Lovisa is — " tired and nervous," mother says. She has been reading over this writing of mine, and she says it 's very silly and has been a great waste of time. " Besides, Almira," said she, " he 's been using up this sermon-paper his Uncle Robert bought before he went off to California to die. It 's perfect sacrilege ! " With that she took out what little paper was left in the lower drawer, and went ofi" with it. I can write no more. HOW WE TURN OUT. 233 CHAPTER XVII. how we turn out. Baywatee, September, 1876. "VTESTERDAY mother was up garret, rum- --■- maging chests, overturning barrels, getting stung by wasps, and having dreadful times generally, and I had reached the foot of the stairs with spirits of ammonia for the stings, when a manuscript book of yellow sermon- paper came fluttering down at my feet. " There 's that kind of a chronicle you kept when you were a httle boy, Rob. I should think you would wish to preserve it," called mother. I set the ammonia down on the stairs, and retired to examine the book. I've concluded to revise it, add a chapter, and petition a friend of my father's, who owns an interest in a pub- lishing house, to give it to the public. I see that it closed with Aunt Lovisa. It 234 WE BOYS. may as well resume with Aunt Lovisa. She was married the Thanksgiving after my chroni- cle closes, and we not only had ice-cream and cold chicken in abundance, but I was allowed to invite in my friends, Charles, William, and Homer, and, to quote from the latter classic, " We had a bully time of it." Aunt Lovisa went to Troas to live, and as soon as I realized that she had left us forever, I began to suffer the pangs of remorse. Not a repentant word that I uttered, not a tear-drop that I let fall, did my mother fail to ti'ansmit a record of to Aunt Lovisa. In course of time there came to me a letter proffering my aunt's full and free forgiveness, and, what seemed quite as much to the point, enclosing a dollar bill. An intimation was, to be sure, conveyed that the donor preferred I should purchase some good and instructive book, rather than spend the money for an3rthing " to eat " ; but with the advice of my friend William, I broke the bill into cocoanut and taffy drops. Aunt Lovisa has now two boys of her own, and if Will and I were ever such aggressive, now WE TURN OUT. 235 iutractjxble, exasperating little wretches as these are, I can't blame my aunt for having wanted mercy towards us luavily laden with justice. The last time they were at our house, the youngest screamed himself purple in the face after cake. "People don't know aw^/thiug what it is to bring up a child until they 've tried it for them- selves," said Aunt Lovisa. Upon that she cuddled him up to her, and began feeding him preserves. Will is now in Boston, in the employ of his uncle, a prominent wholesale dry -goods dealer, and a childless man. He has the prospect of one day being received as a partner in the firm. I am still plodding away with my father in the Baywater bank. The first of next ]S'oveml)er I am to have a good place in the Sidon N. Y. Second National. Perhaps I can't • better give an idea of the present status, absolute and relative, of us Bay- water boys, than by giving an account of my last Spring's visit to Will. While I was waiting at the Bayvv^atcr depot 236 WE BOYS. on that occasion, in came Charlie Payson, bound west. Charlie is one of the finest looking young men that ever came up in these parts, and has that iudesciibable but never-to-be-mistaken air which distinguishes a man from those depend- ent, drifting, going-to-the dogs class of fellows one meets at every turn. He had come from Chicago only the day before. " You make a short visit," said I. " Yes ; but I can't extend it. In fact, I ought not to have come at all, but mother and Rose start on their European trip next week, and I felt as if I must just run home and say good- by." " You are getting to be the Western man of business, always pressed for time, are you, then?" "Yes, I am, Rob. I 've got a good start for a youngster, but if a young man is going to make any place for himself in the world, with all this rush and competition on all sides of him, he can't very often let up for a play-day." "The old wheelbarrow, Payson's Express, and HOW WE TURN OUT. 237 the black horse have retired from active service, I suppose." "Yes. I 've more regard for that old wheel- barrow, though, than for auy other piece of in- animate matter between the two oceans. If ever I get to be a prominent business man, I '11 trun- dle it out and I'll say to the boj^s, 'There, young men ; there 's the foundation of my suc- cess in life ! ' You see, Eob, I stuck to that thing night and morning, day in and day out, until I earned enough to buy the' old horse and wagon. After that I laid up money, and when I started for Chicago the day I was twenty-one, I took with me a capital that I would n't have exchanged for a gift of thousands from my fa- ther. There are some things worth more to a young man starting in business than money, you know that, Eob." I said something about his father's abundant resources. "Father has over and over again offered to help me, but I don't want it. If I can't Avalk, I "11 squat ; but I won't go hobbling along on borrowed crutches. No, sir; when I dehver 238 WE BOYS. my grand Yv'lieelbaiTow lecture, I shall say, 'Learu first to use your own legs, boys, and then stap.d on them ; dop't be askuig the> loan of some one else's.' " " Gustus Hillman is in Chicago, isn't he?" asked I. "Yes; Gustus has worked his way up from a local reporters place to a sub-editorship on the ' Trumpet,' and he has an outlook on something higher. He has every now and then a turn of despondency when no one's trials and discouragements are like his own ; but he has the good sense never to write his articles in blue ink. When he comes out of the depths, he 's in fine feather, and is wonderfully popular with his professional brethren." The down-train whistled just then and we took leave of each other. It rained a little that morning, and about twenty-five miles this side of Boston there entered the car a female figure, heavily draped with damp water-proof cloth and enveloped about the head with blue bereire. She seated HOW WE TURN OUT. 239 herself by me, and as she removed her veil, whisked the water-drops in my face. I recog- nizedran old acquaintance. "Miss Vallandigham,"said I. " Mr. Brown," responded she. It was Sue. She had become a temperance lecturess, and I was interested in getting her report of herself. She said she had been lecturing three seasons, ever since the family left Bay water ; that she drew respectably sized houses, and her receipts paid her expenses and left her fair wages, nothing more. I felt sorry for her. She had lectured the previous evening, and had an engagement for the coming evening, and she looked disheart- ened and seemed to be in a peculiarly limp, starchlcss condition. It must be discourao-iuo;, — trying to reform mankind in the bulk, w^hen so many of her sex lamentably fail with the individual specimen. At a smoky little station she left to take the stage, and as I saw her steaming water-proof shut into the crowded vehicle, I wished in my heart, for the hundredth time, that §Q many 240 WE BOYS. human beings did n't make mistakes in finding' out for what they 're fitted in life. I had a number of errands to discharge in Boston, and did n't get around to Will's quar- ters until nearly dark. I found him quite luxuriously established. His parlor was large and fine, and had a wonderfully home-like, social look, — books and pictures, a piano and violin, statuar}^, plants in the windows, and all that sort of thing, I must have betrayed ray surprise, for after a while Will said, "This establishment is uncle's. Aunt comes down with a servant once or twice a week, and gives it those little feminine touches we read so much about, but which janitors and chamber- maids, in some way, never seem to get the knack of. You '11 by and by see to what use we put it." Before lighting up the room. Will put fresh coal on his fire, and we sat down for a talk. Will told me how fortunate he had been in pleasing his uncle, and how he had every year laid up a part of his salary. I told him how I came to oltam the place in Sidon, what salary now WE TURN OUT. 241' I was to have, where I was to board, when I was ofoino- to take Nellie Rovce there, and all that sort of thing. I gave him the Baywater news and all the personal gossip of the town. " Home and Cynthia continue to live harmo- niously, do they?" asked he. " Oh, beautifully ! Home runs the tin-shop, as did his father, while Cynthia's dress-making and millinery establishment eclipses anything outside the cities." " Home sent me an invitation to the wed- ding," said Will. " I had n't seen Cynthia f r some time, and when she swept into church in her white silk and laces, I never was so com- pletely astonished in my life. She was fairly queenly ! And there was Home, standing at least three inches highei* in his baots than usual, and looking as if he thought every man in the church was dying with envy. And to think of the way he and 1 used to tease that girl — 't was too funny ! " "I sometimes contrast her executive abilities with those of some men of her years, — Tommy Taj'-lor's, f )r instance," said I, IG 242 WE BOTS. " That reminds me of something I never told you. At the time of my last and only visit to the Baywater High School, four or five years ago, Tommy was in the upper class, and had that day taken his first lesson in Virgil. He read, — "'^rma virumque cano, Ti'ojce,' etc. "Then soberly and seriously translated it, — " ' A man took a dog in his arms and went to Troy.'" " That 's a fair sample of Tommy. He went to San Francisco a month or two ago, to take a situation an uncle had offered him, and he 1. ought a ticket for the Isthmus r-)ute, because his uncle fifteen years ago went by the Isthmus route. If San Francisco don't 2,1 ve some of his ideas a shaking up I shall be very much surprised." "The most comfort-taking man in Baywater," said I, " is Ike Tucker. He is head machinist in one of the shops, has run two or three pat- ents through the office, and succeeded in ob- taining as much for them as he expended. He married Almina Harris, you know." "And of his two sons, one is named Isaac Edward, and one Gustus William," said Will. HOW WE TURN OUT. 243 "I went to see Ed Hammond last fall," con- tinued Will. "I owe a great deal to Ed, and he 's grand, Rob ! he 's a man to measure by. ' He 's down there on the Maine coast with a large consrreffation of sailors, fishermen, and lumber- men, — as rough a looking set as ever you saw. He went at first as missionary or something of that sort, with no idea of staying, but he fairly built up a church there, and now I suppose he couldn't be induced to leave. In the warm season the city visitors in that vicinity come in to hear him, and a few months ago he received an offer of a larger^ salary, — a call to a wider sphere of usefulness, I mean, in a Portland church, wealthy, cultivated, fashionable au- dience, and all that, but he declined; said he did n't know but souls on the coast were worth as much as souls in the city. That's Ed all through." Steps were heard on the stairs, and Will sprang up and lighted the gas. In a minute a couple of young men entered, and these were soon fol- lowed by four or five others. They appeared to be expected, and AVill immediately entered 241 WE BOYS. upon their entertainment, rather they entertuned themselves. Conversation, reading, and music followed each other naturally. Later in the evening, more mental exhilaration appeared than I ever before saw whore I was sure there had been no artificial stimulus. "When the party took leave, ^ne of the number invited the others around to his quarters for the next evening. AYill let them into the street. " Have n't we had a good time ? " asked he, as he came back. " Auntie is all the time cudgel- ling her brains for jihilanthropic schemes, and within a year or two she 's been studying up on 'Duties of Employer? to Their Employees.' She invites all the subordinates connected with the store to tea two or three times a year ; but that she thinks don't amount to much, and she has taken up the idea of furnishing a pleasant parlor, which is open to all, and over which I am to preside. So far it has worked well. Some of the boys come in every few evenings. Some- ti-mes auntie sends down refreshments or comes down with two or three young lady friends, musical perhaps. Our entertainments are varied HOW WE TUBN OUT. 245 as the times,— reading, music, informal discus- sions, burlesques of operatic and oratorical performances, anything that comes up. We have a general aim to gather improvement with our amusement, and to cultivate a kind of fra- ternal interest in .each other." Will then began telling me of his experiences in the city, and giving sketches and incidents, through which I saw that all his old spirit and enthusiasm, though directed in different chan- nels from that in his boyish days, had not abated one whit. Sunday I went to church with Will in the morning and out to his mission class in the afternoon, and we had a long visit in the even- ing sitting by the open coal fire in his room, Will, through all, bright and original as ever. He wound up saying, "After all. Bob, I more and more strongly feel that whatever the inci- dents and accidents of our lives may be, only as they strengthen our feet in the path of Duty and lead us into communion with the Right, are they valuable." " Amen ! " responded I. LOUISA M. ALOOTT'S FAMOUS BOOKS. LITTLE WOMEN ; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Parts First and Second. Price of each, $1.50. 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