tell how they
fooled their father once, and got him to go to mill with a grist, on
Sunday, and Pa said he would defy anybody to fool him on the day of the
week. I don't think a man ought to tempt his little boy by defying him
to fool his father. Well, I'll take a glass of your fifty cent cider and
go," and soon the grocery man looked out the window and found somebody
had added a cypher to the 'Sweet cider, only five cents a glass,' making
it an expensive drink, considering it was made of sour apples.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE OLD MAN AWFULLY BLOATED--THE OLD MAN BEGINS DRINKING
AGAIN--THINKS BETTING IS HARMLESS--HAD TO WALK HOME FROM
CHICAGO--THE SPECTACLES CHANGED--A SMALL SUIT OF CLOTHES--
THE OLD MAN AWFULLY BLOATED--"HENNERY YOUR PA IS A MIGHTY
SICK MAN"--THE SWELLING SUDDENLY GOES DOWN.

"Come in," said the grocery man to the bad boy, as the youth stood
on the steps in an uncertain sort of away, as though he did not know
whether he would be welcome or not. "I tell you, boy, I pity you. I
understand your Pa has got to drinking again. It is too bad. I can't
think of anything that humiliates a boy, and makes him so ashamed, as
to have a father that is in the habit of hoisting in too much benzine.
A boy feels as though everybody was down on him, and I don't wonder that
such boys often turn out bad. What started your Pa to drinking again?"

"O, Ma thinks it was losing money on the Chicago races. You see, Pa is
great on pointers. He don't usually bet unless he has got a sure thing,
but when he gets what they call a pointer, that is, somebody tells him a
certain horse is sure to win, because the other horses are to be pulled
back, he thinks a job has been put up, and if he thinks he is on the
inside of the ring he will bet. He says it does not do any hurt to bet,
if you win, and he argues that a man who wins lots of money can do a
great deal of good with it. But he had to walk home from the Chicago
races all the same, and he has been steaming ever since. Pa can't stand
adversity. But I guess we have got him all right now. He is the scartest
man you ever saw," and the boy took a can opener and began to cut the
zinc under the stove, just to see if it would work as well on zinc as on
tin.

"What, you haven't been dissecting him again, have you?" said the
grocery man, as he pulled a stool up beside the boy to hear the news.
How did you bring him to his senses?"

"Well, Ma tried having the minis