and my chum--the darn fool--told her brother that it was me who
perfumed her, and he hit me in the eye with a frozen fish, down by the
fish store, and that's what made my eye black; but I know how to cure a
black eye. I have not been in a drug store eight days, and not know how
to cure a black eye; and I guess I learned that girl not to go back on a
boy 'cause he smelled like a goat.

"Well, what was it about your leaving the wrong medicine at houses?
The policeman in this ward told me you come pretty near killing several
people by leaving the wrong medicine."

"The way of it was this. There was about a dozen different kinds of
medicine to leave at different places, and I was in a hurry to go to the
roller skating rink, so I got my chum to help me, and we just took the
numbers of the houses, and when we rung the bell we would hand out the
first package we come to, and I understand there was a good deal of
complaint. One old maid who ordered powder for her face, her ticket drew
some worm lozengers, and she kicked awfully, and a widow who was going
to be married, she ordered a celluloid comb and brush, and she got a
nursing bottle with a rubber nozzle, and a toothing ring, and she made
quite a fuss; but the woman who was weaning her baby and wanted the
nursing bottle, she got the comb and brush and some blue pills, and
she never made any fuss at all. It makes a good deal of difference, I
notice, whether a person gets a better thing than they ordered or not.
But the drug business is too lively for me. I have got to have a quiet
place, and I guess I will be a cash boy in a store. Pa says he thinks I
was cut out for a bunko steerer, and I may look for that kind of a job.
Pa he is a terror since he got to drinking again. He came home the other
day, when the minister was calling on Ma, and just cause the minister
was sitting on the sofa with Ma, and had his hand on her shoulder, where
she said the pain was when the rheumatiz came on, Pa was mad and told
the minister he would kick his liver clear around on the other side
if he caught him there again, and Ma felt awful about it. After the
minister had gone away, Ma told Pa he had got no feeling at all, and
Pa said he had got enough feeling for one family, and he didn't want no
sky-sharp to help him. He said he could cure all the rheumatiz there was
around his house, and then he went down town and didn't get home till
most breakfast time. Ma says she thinks I am responsible for