ing ashore right where his pants
were, to pic-nic, and Pa he run into the woods. He was afraid there
would be some wimmen in the pic-nic that he knowed, and he coaxed us to
come in the woods where he was, and he said he would give us a dollar
a piece and not be mad any more if we would bring him his pants. We got
his pants, and you ought to see how they was wrinkled when he put them
on. They looked as though they had been ironed with waffle irons. We
went to the depot and came home on a freight train, and Pa sneezed all
the way in the caboose, and I don't think he has ruptured any blood
vessel. Well, I get off here at Mitchell's bank," and the boy turned the
brake and jumped off without paying his fare.

CHAPTER VIII.

HE IS TOO HEALTHY. AN EMPTY CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE AND A BLACK
EYE--HE IS ARRESTED--OCONOMOWOC FOR HEALTH--HIS PA IS AN OLD
MASHER--DANCED TILL THE COWS CAME HOME--THE GIRL PROM THE
SUNNY SOUTH--THE BAD BOY IS SENT HOME.

"There, I knew you would get into trouble," said the grocery man to
the bad boy, as a policeman came along leading him by the ear, the boy
having an empty champagne bottle in one hand, and a black eye. "What has
he been doing Mr. Policeman?" asked the grocery man, as the policeman
halted with the boy in front of the store.

"Well, I was going by a house up here when this kid opened the door with
a quart bottle of champagne, and he cut the wire and fired the cork at
another boy, and the champagne went all over the sidewalk, and some of
it went on me, and I knew there was something wrong, cause champagne is
to expensive to waste that way, and he said he was running the shebang
and if I would bring him here you would say he was all right. If you say
so I will let him go."

The grocery man said he had better let the boy go, as his parents would
not like to have their little pet locked up. So the policeman let go
his ear, and he throwed the empty bottle at a coal wagon, and after the
policeman had brushed the champagne off his coat, and smelled of his
fingers, and started off, the grocery man turned to the boy, who was
peeling a cucumber, and said:

"Now, what kind of a circus have you been having, and what do you mean
by destroying wine that way! and where are your folks?"

"Well, I'll tell you. Ma she has got the hay fever and has gone to Lake
Superior to see if she can't stop sneezing, and Saturday Pa said he
and me would go out to Oconomowoc and stay over Sunda