whip yer."

"Not on your life, I did once. I never got home 'til long after dark.
Mother licked me good for running away then pa whoppoped me for
scaring ma, nope, I've learned my lesson."

"Gee, Bill, it's dirt mean, but I'll tell you what I will do, I'll
come back and play marbles with yer if the fish don't bite good."

"I wish the old hens was in Tophet. Say, Ned, ain't got a book yer
could let a feller have, have yer?"

"Sure, one of the latest. I just finished it and it's a corker. I
promised Joe Hykes he could take it next but you will have time to
read it this afternoon and Joe is off playin' ball."

Willie grabbed the book eagerly. It had an alluring cover, the
design was worked out in bright red, brilliant yellow and poisonous
green and it represented a man in the act of killing a young and
presumably beautiful woman. It was of the dime novel variety
entitled "Conclusive Evidence," just the thing to appeal to the
imaginative Willie. Soon all thought of hens slipped from Willie's
mind, his heart beat rapidly, he breathlessly followed the hero's
thrilling adventures, he almost shed tears when the girl who had
helped the hero outwit the villain was found mysteriously murdered.
With keen interest he watched the authorities carry the hero to jail.
He was first in the audience at the trial, he drew a long breath
when only circumstantial evidence could be brought out, his heart
sank when the villain rushed into the court room and cried out that
he had conclusive evidence, his hopes went down, a sharp pain
assailed him in the shoulder, he thought the villain had grabbed him,
he jumped up and--in place of the court room, prisoner, judge, jury,
witnesses, interested onlookers, etc., he saw his mother standing
beside him and--horrors--a dozen or more hens blissfully digging in
the loosened earth of the garden.

"Where did you get that book, Willie?"

"It was lent to me, ma, don't tear it ma, don't tear it, it ain't
mine, ma--"

"That will do, Willie, it is not fit for you or any other boy to read,
now you come in the house and go to bed."

"But ma, it is only four o'clock and I'm hungry and I won't let 'em
in the garden again, ma, please can't I stay out here, ma?"

"You do as I told you without further delay."

All alone in his room, confined to his bed by the stern mandates of
his mother, with everything out of doors calling him, Willie could
not sleep and then when darkness fell hunger gnawed at his vital