id:

"Hanner, for God's sake, look up there. That is the damest comet I
ever see. It is as bright as day. See the tail of it. Now that is worth
getting up to see."

"Just then my chum lit the two Roman candles and I touched off the
rocket, and that's where my eye winkers went. The rocket busted the
joints of the stove pipe, and they fell down on Pa, but Ma got her head
inside before the comet struck, and wasn't hurt, but one length of stove
pipe struck Pa endways on the neck and almost cut a biscuit out of him,
and the fire and sparks just poured down in his hair, and burned his
night shirt. Pa was scart. He thought the world was coming to an end,
and the window came down on his back, and he began to sing, "Earth's but
a desert drear, Heaven is my home." I see he was caught in the window,
and I went down stairs to put out the fire on his night shirt, and put
up the window to let him in, and he said, "My boy, your Ma and I are
going to Heaven, but I fear you will go to the bad place," and I told
him I would take my chances, and he better put on his pants if he was
going anywhere that there would be liable to be ladies present, and when
he got his head in Ma told him the world was not coming to an end, but
somebody had been setting off fireworks, and she said she guessed it was
their dear little boy, and when I saw Pa feeling under the bed for a bed
slat I got up stairs pretty previous now, and don't you forget it, and
Ma put cold cream on where the sparks burnt Pa's shirt, and Pa said
another day wouldn't pass over his head before he had me in the Reform
School. Well, if I go to the Reform School, somebody's got to pay
attention, you can bet your liver. A boy can't have any fun these days
without everybody thinks he is a heathen. What hurt did it do to play
comet? It's a mean father that wont stand a little scorchin' in the
interests of science."

The boy went out, scratching the place where his eye winkers were, and
then the grocery man knew what it was that caused the fire engines to be
out around at four o'clock in the morning, looking for a fire.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HIS PA GOES HUNTING. MUTILATED JAW--THE OLD MAN HAS TAKEN TO
SWEARING AGAIN--OUT WEST DUCK SHOOTING--HIS COAT-TAIL SHOT
OFF--SHOOTS AT A WILD GOOSE--THE GUN KICKS!--THROWS A CHAIR
AT HIS SON--THE ASTONISHED SHE DEACON.

"What has your Pa got his jaw tied up for, and what makes his right eye
so black and blue," asked the groce