, with a bed slat. He said he knew
that I wrote, that note all the time, and he thought he would pretend
that he was looking for "Daisy," just to fool me. It don't look
reasonable that a man would catch epizootic and rheumatism just to fool
his boy, does it? What did he give me the dollar for? Ma and Pa don't
seem to call each other pet any more, and as for me, they both look at
me as though I was a hard citizen. I am going to Missouri to take Jesse
James's place. There is no encouragement for a boy here. Well, good
morning. If Pa comes in here asking for me tell him that you saw an
express wagon going to the morgue with the remains of a pretty boy who
acted as though he died from concussion of a bed slat on Peck's bad boy
on the pistol pocket. That will make Pa feel sorry. O, he has got the
awfulest cold, though." And the boy limped out to separate a couple of
dogs that were fighting.

CHAPTER II.

THE BAD BOY AT WORK AGAIN--THE BEST BOYS FULL OF TRICKS--THE
OLD MAN LAYS DOWN THE LAW ABOUT JOKES--RUBBER-HOSE MACARONI--
THE OLD MAN'S STRUGGLES--CHEWING VIGOROUSLY BUT IN VAIN--AN
INQUEST HELD--REVELRY BY NIGHT--MUSIC IN THE WOODSHED--
"'TWAS EVER THUS."

Of course all boys are not full of tricks, but the best of them are.
That is, those who are the readiest to play innocent jokes, and who are
continually looking for chances to make Rome howl, are the most apt to
turn out to be first-class business men. There is a boy in the Seventh
Ward who is so full of fun that sometimes it makes him ache. He is the
same boy who not long since wrote a note to his father and signed the
name "Daisy" to it, and got the old man to stand on a corner for two
hours waiting for the girl. After that scrape the old man told the boy
that he had no objection to innocent jokes, such as would not bring
reproach upon him, and as long as the boy confined himself to jokes that
would simply cause pleasant laughter, and not cause the finger of scorn
to be pointed at a parent, he would be the last one to kick. So the boy
has been for three weeks trying to think of some innocent joke to play
on his father. The old man is getting a little near sighted, and his
teeth are not as good as they used to be, but the old man will not admit
it. Nothing that anybody can say can make him own up that his eyesight
is failing, or that his teeth are poor, and he would bet a hundred
dollars that he could see as far as ever. The boy knew th