snakes tail does not in fact and in truth die till sundown; that if
a boy kills a lucky bug he shall find a nickel; that to cross one's
heart and lie, brings on swift and horrible retribution; that letting
the old cat die causes death in the family; that to kill a toad makes
the cow give bloody milk; that horsehairs in water turn to snakes in
nine days; that spitting on the bait pleases the fish, and that to
draw a circle in the dust around a marble charms it against being hit.
What tradition, ancient and honorable in Boyville, declares is true,
that is the Law everlasting, and no wise mans word shall change the
law one jot nor one tittle. For in the beginning it was written, to
get in the night wood, to eat with a fork at table, to wear shoes on
Sunday, to say "sir" to company, and "thank you" to the lady, to go to
bed at nine to remember that there are others who like gravy, to stay
out of the water in dog days, to come right straight home from school,
to shinny on your own side, and to clean those feet for Heaven's
sake,--that is the whole duty of boys. As it was in the beginning, so
it shall be ever after.

Now most of us grown-ups do not admit these things, and not being
able to speak the language of the people whose rights we are
seeking to destroy, we will never know how utterly futile are our
conspiracies. But that is immaterial.

The main point that the gentle reader should bear in mind is this:
The town of Boyville is free and independent; governed only by the
ancient laws, made by the boys of the elder days--by the boys who
found bottom in the rivers that flowed out of Eden; by little Seth,
little Enoch, little Methuselah, and little Noah; by the boys who
threw mud balls from willow withes broken from trees whereon David
hung his harp a thousand years thereafter. For Boyville was old when
Nineveh was a frontier post.

Boyville hears from afar the buzz about principalities and powers,
the clatter of javelins and the clash of arms, the hubbub of the
"Pride and pomp and circumstance of glorious war." The courtiers of
Boyville cheer for each new hero, and claim fellowship with all "like
gentlemen unafraid." But the Free Town has its own sovereign, makes
its own idols. And the clatter and clash and hubbub that attend the
triumphs of the kingdoms of the earth pass by unconquered Boyville as
the shadow of a dream.

THE MARTYRDOM OF "MEALY" JONES

A WAIL IN B MINOR

Oh, what has become of the orner