after they all had their innings, except Pa, who acted as umpire, the
meeting broke up, and Ma says its the last time she will have that gang
at her house.

"That must have been where your Pa got his black eye," said the grocery
man, as he charged the bunch of celery to the boy's Pa. "Did the
minister hit him, or was it one of the sisters?"

"O, he didn't get his black eye at prayer meeting!" said the boy, as he
took his mittens off the stove and rubbed them to take the stiffening
out. "It was from boxing. Pa told my chum and me that it was no harm to
learn to box, cause we could defend ourselves, and he said he used to be
a holy terror with the boxing gloves when he was a boy, and he has been
giving us lessons. Well, he is no slouch, now I tell you, and handles
himself pretty well for a church member. I read in the paper how Zack
Chandler played it on Conkling by getting Jem Mace, the prize fighter,
to knock him silly, and I asked Pa if he wouldn't let me bring a poor
boy who had no father to teach him boxing, to our house to learn to box,
and Pa said certainly, fetch him along. He said he would be glad to do
anything for a poor orphan. So I went down in the Third ward and got an
Irish boy by the name of Duffy, who can knock the socks off of any boy
in the ward. He fit a prize fight once. It would have made you laugh to
see Pa telling him how to hold his hands and how to guard his face. He
told Duffy not to be afraid, but strike right out and hit for keeps.
Duffy said he was afraid Pa would get mad if he hit him, and Pa said,
'nonsense, boy, knock me down if you can, and I will laugh ha! ha!'
Well, Duffy he hauled back and gave Pa one in the nose and another in
both eyes, and cuffed him on the ear and punched him in the stomach, and
lammed him in the mouth and made his teeth bleed, and then he gave him
a side-winder in both eyes, and Pa pulled off the boxing gloves and
grabbed a chair, and we adjourned and went down stairs as though there
was a panic. I haven't seen Pa since. Was his eye very black?"

"Black, I should say so," said the grocery man. "And his nose seemed
to be trying to look into his left ear. He was at the market buying
beefsteak to put on it."

"O, beef steak is no account. I must go and see him and tell him that an
oyster is the best thing for a black eye. Well, I must go. A boy has a
pretty hard time running a house the way it should be run," and the boy
went out and hung up a sign in front of th