AFTER THE CONFESSION.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 27, 14 January 1875, Page 7

AFTER THE CONFESSION.

There is a mam living in Fifth-stucev whois> a- good - man, endeavouring; tow"-' train np-his children in the way they.- \ should go, and as his flock is numerous', and two of them are boys, he has onyihing but a sinecure in this training business. Only a day or two ago the> elder of these male olive-branches, who . bus lived about fourteen wicked years, enticed bis younger brother, who hasonly- had ten years' in boyish deviltry, to go out on the river in a boat,.aspecies of pastime which their fatherhad many a time forbidden* Both the boys went this ti'me,'trusring to luck to conceal their depravity from the knowledge of their pa, and in due time they returned, and walked around the house, the two most innoc°nt-10->king boys in Burlington. They separated for at few-' moments, and at the expiration of thattime the elder was suddenly confronted by the father, who requested a private interview in the usual place, and the pair adjourned to a wood-shed, where, after brief, but highly spirited performances, in which the boy appeared most successfully as " heavy villain," and his father took his favourite role of " first old man," the ctir fain went down, and the hoy considerably mystified, sought, his brother. "Jolin," he said, " who do you suppose told dad ? Have you been licked ?" John's face will not look-more pjaceful and resigned when it is in his coffin than it did as he replied : " No; have you?" " Have I ? Come, down to the cow-* shed and look at my back." John declined, but said : ( "Well, Bill, I tell you how . father, found us out. lam tired of acting in this way, and I ain't going to run away and come home and lie about it any more. I'm going to do better after this, and so when I saw father I couldn't: help it, and went right to him and confessed.-" . ■,■"■' Bill was touched by the manly action on the part of his younger brother. li\ .. found a tender place in the. bad boyV heart, and he was visibly affected hy it. | But he asked: -. . • ":.'•';. " How did it happen the old man,. didn't lick you ?" I " Well," said the penitent, young re-- | former, "you r see~r~di^ | myselfj'l only confessed on you 1 ; that; | was the way of it.", , . , •■ i j. A strange coldlighf glittered in/Bill's. I, eyes. H - r \ - j " Only confessed on me ! he said:. " Well, that's all right, outcome down* behind the cow-shed and look at my back." And when they got there * * * * —^Burlington Hawkeve.;' -■-; ■-_-- — ----- '- . .'"' ' ' "' V -i HX