re, I tell you what I
honestly think. I think that dog was chewing that box of parlor matches.
This kind that pop so when you step on them. Pa was just going to set
down when the whole air was filled with dog, and Pa, and rockets, and
everything."

[Illustration: Air was filled with dog, and Pa, and rockets p023]

"When I got in there Pa had a sofa pillow trying to put the dog out, and
in the meantime Pa's linen pants were afire. I grabbed a pail of this
indigo water that they had been rinsing clothes with and throwed it on
Pa, or there wouldn't have been a place on him biggern a sixpence that
wasn't burnt, and then he threw a camp chair at me and told me to go
to Gehenna. Ma says that's the new hell they have got up in the
revised edition of the Bible for bad boys. When Pa's pants were out his
coat-tail blazed up and a Roman candle was firing blue and red balls
at his legs, and a rocket got into his white vest. The scene beggared
description, like the Racine fire. A nigger chaser got after Ma and
treed her on top of the sofa, and another one took after a girl that Ma
invited to dinner, and burnt one of her stockings so she had to wear one
of Ma's stockings, a good deal too big for her, home. After things got
a little quiet, and we opened the doors and windows to let out the
smoke and the smell of burnt dog hair, and Pa's whiskers, the big fire
crackers began to go off, and a policeman came to the door and asked
what was the matter, and Pa told him to go along with me to Gehenna, but
I don't want to go with a policeman. It would give me dead away. Well,
there was nobody hurt much but the dog and Pa. I felt awful sorry for
the dog. He hasn't got hair enough to cover hisself. Pa, didn't have
much hair anyway, except by the ears, but he thought a good deal of
his whiskers, cause they wasn't very gray. Say, couldn't you send this
anarchy up to the house? If I go up there Pa will say I am the damest
fool on record. This is the last 4th of July you catch me celebrating.
I am going to work in a glue factory, where nobody will ever come to see
me."

And the boy went out to pick up some squib firecrackers, that had failed
to explode, in front of the drug store.

CHAPTER V.

THE BAD BOY'S MA COMES HOME--NO DEVILTRY ONLY A LITTLE FUN--
THE BAD BOY'S CHUM--A LADY'S WARDROBE IN THE OLD MAN'S ROOM--
MA'S UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL--WHERE IS THE HUZZY?--DAMFINO!--THE
BAD BOY WANTS TO TRAVEL WITH A CIRCUS.

"W