e?" and the grocery man looked pleased, and
pointed the boy to a barrel of seven cent sugar.

"Don't you know what a teller is in a livery stable? It is the same as
a teller in a bank. I have to grease the harness, oil the buggies, and
curry off the horses, and when a man comes in to hire a horse I have to
go down to the saloon and tell the livery man. That's what a teller is.
I like the teller part of it; but greasing harness is a little too
rich for my blood, but the livery man says if I stick to it I will be
governor some day, 'cause most all the great men have begun life taking
care of horses. It all depends on my girl whether I stick or not. If she
likes the smell of horses I shall be a statesman, but if she objects
to it and sticks up her nose, I shall not yearn to be governor, at the
expense of my girl. It beats all, don't it, that wimmen settle every
great question. Everybody does everything to please wimmen, and if they
kick on anything that settles it. But I must go and umpire that game
between Pa, and the hired girl, and the goat. Say, can't you come over
and see the baby? 'Taint bigger than a small satchel," and the boy
waited till the grocery man went to draw some vinegar, when he slipped
out and put up a sign written on a shingle with white chalk:

YELLOW SAND WANTED

FOR MAPLE SUGAR.

CHAPTER IX.

A FUNERAL PROCESSION--THE BAD BOY ON CRUTCHES--"YOU OUGHT TO
SEE THE MINISTER!"--AN ELEVEN DOLLAR FUNERAL--THE MINISTER
TAKES THE LINES--AN EARTHQUAKE--AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE WAS
OVER--THE POLICEMAN FANS THE MINISTER--A MINISTER SHOULD
HAVE SENSE.

"Well, great Julius Caesar's bald-headed ghost, what's the matter with
you?" said the grocery man to the bad boy, as he came into the grocery
on crutches, with one arm in a sling, one eye blackened, and a strip of
court plaster across his face "Where was the explosion, or have you
been in a fight, or has your Pa been giving you what you deserve, with a
club? Here, let me help you; there, sit down on that keg of apple-jack.
Well, by the great guns, you look as though you had called somebody
a liar. What's the matter?" and the grocery man took the crutches and
stood them up against the show case.

"O, there's not much the matter with me," said the boy, in a voice that
sounded all broke up, as he took a big apple off a basket, and began
peeling it with his upper front teeth. "If you