Pa's
falling into bad ways again, and now I am going to cure him. You watch
me, and see if I don't have Pa in the church in less than a week,
praying and singing, and going home with the choir singers, just as
pious as ever. I am going to get a boy that writes a woman's hand to
write to Pa, and--but I must not give it away. But you just watch Pa,
that's all. Well, I must go and saw some wood. It is coming down a good
deal, from a drug clerk to sawing wood, but I will get on top yet, and
don't you forget it."

CHAPTER XXV.

HIS PA KILLS HIM--A GENIUS AT WHISTLING--A FUR-LINED CLOAK A
SURE CURE FOR CONSUMPTION--ANOTHER LETTER SENT TO THE OLD
MAN--HE RESOLVES ON IMMEDIATE PUNISHMENT--THE BLADDER-BUFFER
THE EXPLOSION--A TRAGIC SCENE--HIS PA VOWS TO REFORM.

"For heaven's sake dry up that whistling," said the grocery man to
the bad boy, as he sat on a bag of peanuts, whistling and filling his
pockets. "There is no sense in such whistling. What do you whistle for,
anyway?"

"I am practicing my profession," said the boy, as he got up and
stretched himself, and cut off a slice of cheese, and took a few
crackers. "I have always been a good whistler, and I have decided to
turn my talent to account. I am going to hire an office and put out a
sign, 'Boy furnished to whistle for lost dogs.' You see there are dogs
lost every day, and any man would give half a dollar to a boy to find
his dog. I can hire out to whistle for dogs, and can go around whistling
and enjoying myself, and make money, Don't you think it is a good
scheme?" asked the boy of the grocery man.

"Naw," said the grocery man, as he charged the cheese to the boy's
father, and picked up his cigar stub, which he had left on the counter,
and which the boy had rubbed on the kerosene barrel, "No, sir, that
whistle would scare any dog that heard it. Say, what was your Pa running
after the doctor in his shirt sleeves for last Sunday morning? He looked
scared. Was your Ma sick again?"

"O, no, Ma is healthy enough, now she has got a new fur lined cloak. She
played consumption on Pa, and coughed so she liked to raise her lights
and liver, and made Pa believe she couldn't live, and got the doctor
to prescribe a fur lined circular, and Pa went and got one, and Ma has
improved awfully. Her cough is all gone, and she can walk ten miles. I
was the one that was sick. You see, I wanted to get Pa into the church
again, and get him to stop drinking, so I