poor old deacon, but who understood that some
wicked wretch had deceived him, and I know by the way the tenor tickled
the soprano that he did it. I may be mean, but everything I do is
innocent, and I wouldn't be as mean as a choir singer for two dollars. I
felt real sorry for the old deacon, but he never knew what he had
done, and I think it would be real mean to tell him. He won't be at the
slugging match. That remark about taking up a collection settled the
deacon. I must go down to the stable now, and help grease a hack, so
you will have to excuse me. If Pa comes here looking for me, tell him you
heard I was going to drive a picnic party out to Waukesha, and may not
be back in a week. By that time Pa will have got over that Bohemian
serenade," and the boy filled his pistol pocket with dried apples, and
went out and hung a sign in front of the grocery:

STRAWBERRIES, TWO SHILLINGS A SMELL;

AND ONE SMELL IS ENOUGH.

CHAPTER XI.

GARDENING UNDER DIFFICULTIES--THE GROCERY MAN IS DECEIVED--
THE BAD BOY DON'T LIKE MOVING--GOES INTO THE COLORING
BUSINESS--THE OLD MAN THOROUGHLY DISGUISED--UNCLE TOM AND
TOPSY--THE OLD MAN ARRESTED--WHAT THE GROCERY MAN THINKS--
THE BAD BOY MORALIZES ON HIS FATE--RESOLVES TO BE GOOD.

"See here, you coon, you get out of here," said the grocery man to the
bad boy, as he came in the store with his face black and shining, "I
don't want any colored boys around here. White boys break me up bad
enough."

"O, philopene," said the bad boy, as he put his hands on his knees and
laughed so the candy jars rattled on the shelves. "You didn't know me. I
am the same boy that comes in here and talks your arm off," and the boy
opened the cheese box and cut off a piece of cheese so natural that the
grocery man had no difficulty in recognizing him.

"What in the name of the seven sleeping sisters have you got on your
hands and face," said the grocery man, as he took the boy by the ear and
turned him around, "You would pass in a colored prayer meeting, and
no one would think you were galvanized. What you got up in such an
outlandish rig for?"

"Well, I'll tell you, if you will keep watch at the door. If you see
a bald-headed colored man coming along the street with a club, you
whistle, and I will fall down cellar. The bald-headed colored man will
be Pa. You see, we moved yesterday. Pa told me to get a vacation from