A BAD BOY'S RECORD FOR ONE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 274, 18 November 1899, Page 4 (Supplement)

A BAD BOY'S RECORD FOR ONE DAY.

The boy had been behaving badly. / It seemed he was "trying himself." ; He went from one end of the house to'; the other scattering1 trouble. There ; were reports from him at frequent in-, tervals when the Other Children,: sorao";;; younger and some, older, could bear;; his persecution.no longer, and waftecl|; an appeal to mother. Yet he was| smiling—a seraphic, cherubic, de-4 moniac boy. ' Mrs Grace came in that afternoon,^ and mother, huii-ying down to gree%; her, found the banister rail all lathered-'----with father's sihaving soap. About thati time the oldest sister discovered a,;'', small, blind puppy in her bicycle cap, As an echo of her sere/m came a loud,;: complaint from the youngest sister. Her china tea set had been recently; hand-painted, arid she didn't like th?1 pattern. , ■ ."•■■ i: ; So the mother sent the boy to JMr' attic trembling with a desire tc^i* > right, and yet punish him, as severely" as he deserved. He didn'i want to gon to the attic, but he went. And, being diligent, he soon found entertainment;^ up there. He tried to get up a fight between two cats; but there was nog game in them. He. tried to beguile^ a sparrow, into the back-window, and|nearly succeeded. Then: he baited a» fish-line with beetles . dug from the,| ; rafters, and stationing himself at the^; back window, cast his line into. the|' adjoining garden and caught three ofo: Dr. Simons's best chickens. He would . have caught more, but the Simons.es"9r? servant saw him, and made trouble,' "so you'd 'a' thought her neck was, broke," the boy said. She threatened^ to tell his mother, so he threw oufcg one of the chiclcens—rwhicn was allff she had seen him capture—and trledg to get up a fight between the other--two. When he tired of .thai*he lowered^ one of the cats away from the frontjg window, pretending- it was his ppipj wolf, and he was teaching it to gather- - gulls' eggs down the cliff. Mrs Grace'if had gone, and the pastor was comingy and the boy concluded to drop thafe? cat on the minister's head just beforesf he rang the ; bell.- "He'll think sh^j jumped on him, and he Avori't mention J it to mother," gleefully reflected^the^ boy. ■ • ■ >■;-■.■ '■ ''^P

But the line fouled, and the cat went down slowly, whirling, all four feet, extended with drawn claws searching the air for support. The bell rang,l the door opened, the minister bowed' and raised his hand—but there was no hat to lift in salutation. Justin, the instant of recognition that cat's north-west claw touched the hat, ana ; all four assembled upon if instantly.:/ The boy, whose plans had miscarried,; hauled away. Up came the- cat With tine minister's hat—and mother/ speechless, sat down on the doorst*]? and groaned. —"Scotsman." • ;■