ad the scurvy at
Atlanta.' Another said, 'He beat me out of my wages playing draw poker
with a cold deck, and the aces up his sleeve. Let us hang him.' By this
time Pa's nerves got unstrung and began to hurt him, and he said he
wanted to go home, and when we got around the corner he tore off his
badges and threw them in the sewer, and said it was all a man's life was
worth to be a veteran now days. He didn't go down town again till next
day, and when he heard a band playing he would go around a block. But
at the sham battle where there were no veterans hardly, he was all right
with the militia boys, and told them how he did when he was in the army.
I thought it would be fun to see Pa run, and so when one of the cavalry
fellows lost his cap in the charge, and was looking for it, I told the
dragoon that the pussy old man over by the fence had stolen his cap.
That was Pa. Then I told Pa that the soldier on the horse said he was a
rebel, and he was going to kill him. The soldier started after Pa with
his sabre drawn, and Pa started to run, and it was funny you bet."

[Illustration: Pa on the run p071]

"The soldier galloped his horse, and yelled, and Pa put in his best
licks, and run up the track to where there was a board off the fence,
and tried to get through, but he got stuck, and the soldier put the
point of his sabre on Pa's pants and pushed, and Pa got through the
fence and I guess he ran all the way home. At supper time Pa would not
come to the table, but stood up and ate off the side board, and Ma said
Pa's shirt was all bloody, and Pa said mor'n fifty of them cavalry men
charged on him, and he held them at bay as long as he could, and then
retired in good order. This morning a boy told him that I set the
cavalry man onto him, and he made me wear two mouse traps on my ears all
the forenoon, and he says he will kill me at sunset. I ain't going to be
there at sunset, and don't you remember about it. Well, good bye. I
have got to go down to the morgue and see them bring in the man that
was found on the lake shore, and see if the morgue keeper is drunk this
time."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BAD BOY IN LOVE--ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?--NO GETTING TO
HEAVEN ON SMALL POTATOES!--THE BAD BOY HAS TO CHEW COBS--MA
SAYS IT'S GOOD FOR A BOY TO BE IN LOVE--LOVE WEAKENS THE BAD
BOY--HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GET MARRIED?--MAD DOG!--NEVER
EAT ICE CREAM.

"Are you a christian?" asked the bad boy of the grocery