n the floor, and Pa was stamping on it with his boots,
and talking offul.

"What is the matter," says Ma.. "Don't your religion agree with you?"

"Religion be dashed," says Pa, as he kicked the liver pad. "I would
give ten dollars to know how a pint of red ants got into my liver pad.
Religon is one thing, and a million ants walking all over a man, playing
tag, is another. I didn't know the liver pad was loaded. How in Gehenna
did they get in there?" and Pa scowled at Ma as though he would kill
her.

"'Don't swear dear," says Ma, as she threw down her hymn book, and took
off her bonnet. "You should be patient. Remember Job was patient, and he
was afflicted with sore boils."

"I don't care," says Pa, as he chased the ants out of his drawers,
"Job never had ants in his liver pad. If he had he would have swore the
shingles off a barn. Here you," says Pa, speaking to me, "you head off
them ants running under the bureau. If the truth was known I believe
you would be responsible for this outrage." And Pa looked at me kind of
hard.

"O, Pa," says I, with tears in my eyes, "Do you think your little Sunday
school boy would catch ants in a pop bottle on the lake shore, and bring
them home, and put them in the hole of your liver pad, just before you
put it on to go to church? You are to (sp.) bad." And I shed some tears.
I can shed tears now any time I want to, but it didn't do any good this
time. Pa knew it was me, and while he was looking for the shawl strap I
went to Sunday school, and now I guess he is after me, and I will go and
take a walk down to Bay View.

The boy moved off as his Pa turned a corner, and the grocery man said,
"Well, that boy beats all I ever saw. If he was mine I would give him
away."

CHAPTER XI.

HIS PA TAKES A TRICK--JAMAICA RUM AND CARDS--THE BAD BOY
POSSESSED OF A DEVIL--THE KIND DEACON--AT PRAYER MEETING--
THE OLD MAN TELLS HIS EXPERIENCE--THE FLYING CARDS--THE
PRAYER MEETING SUDDENLY CLOSED.

"What is it I hear about your Pa being turned out of prayer meeting
Wednesday night," asked the grocer of the bad boy, as he came over after
some cantelopes for breakfast, and plugged a couple to see if they were
ripe.

"He wasn't turned out of prayer meeting at all. The people all went away
and Pa and me was the last ones out of the church. But Pa was mad, and
don't you forget it."

"Well, what seemed to be the trouble? Has your Pa become a backslider?"

"O, no, his fl