The Story of a Bad Boy

's presence in Natchez, where he was establishing a branch of the bankinghouse. When they had gone, a sense of loneliness such as I had never dreamed of filled my young b

all the sympathy I could ask, repeatedly rubbing her soft nose

ame, I felt sti

ch he held in one hand. I observed that he had a habit of dropping off into a doze every three or four minutes, and I forgot my homesickness at intervals in watching him. Two or three times, to my vast amusement, he

Miss Abigail, who sat near a low table, knitting by the light of an as

all, excepting once, when the Captain remarked, in a meditative manner, that my parents "must have reache

kitchen, where Kitty caused me to laugh by saying Miss Abigail thought that what I needed was "a good dose of hot-drops," a remedy she was fo

ut of my eyes, though I was not a lad much addicted to weeping. Then Kitty would put her arms around me, and tell me not to mind it -- that it wasn't as if I had been left alone in a foreign land with no one to care for

Nutter House. Alone in the hallchamber I had my cry out, once for all, moistening the pill

t the house and stables, I should have kept my discontent alive for months. The next morning, accordingly,

ere three or four sickly trees, but no grass, in this enclosure, which had been worn smooth and hard by the tread of multitudinous feet. I noticed here

a few minutes -- during which my eye took in forty-two caps hung on forty-two wooden pegs -- Mr. Grimshaw made his appearance. He was a slender

in front of me and proceeded to sound the depth, or, more properly speaking, the shallowness, of my attainments. I suspect my

upturned eyes. I was a cool hand for my age, but I lacked the boldness to face this battery without wincing. In a sort of daz

ntrance died away, and the interrupted lessons were resumed. By

lackboard set into the wall extended clear across the end of the room; on a raised platform near the door stood the master's table; and directly in front of this was a recitation-bench capable of seating fift

ntances with unconcealed curiosity, instinctively selecting my friends a

t at me furtively several times during the morning. I had a presentiment I sho

me. I didn't understand them, but, as they were clearly of a pacific nature, I winked my eye at him. This appeared to be satisfact

was passed skillfully from desk to desk until it reached my hands. On opening the scrap, I found that it contained a small piece of molasses candy in an extremely humid

instantly punished by Mr. Grimshaw. I swallowed the fiery candy, though it brought the water to my eyes, and managed to look so unco

ng class threw us all into convulsions by calling Absalom A-bol'-som "Abolsom, O my son Abolsom!" I

Phil Adams, charging him to see that I got into no trouble. My new acquaintances suggested that we should go to the playground

u're comin' to this school

t; but I replied politely, that, if it was the custom of the school

of your sarse," sai

. "You let young Bailey alone. He's a stranger here, and might be afraid of you,

ay slunk off, favoring me with a parting scowl of defiance. I gave my hand to the boy

ing after a licking, and of course you'll give him one by and by; but what's the use of hurrying up an unpleasant job? Let's have some baseball. By the way, Bailey, you were a good kid not

who was engaged just then in cutting his initials on the bark of a tree ne

quaintance of Charley Marden, Binny Wallace,

ms and Jack Harris were considerably our seniors, and, though they always treated us "kids" very kindly, they generally went with anoth

ade several warm friends and only two permanent enemies -- Conway and his echo, Set

g by picturing Mr. Grimshaw as a tyrant with a red nose and a large stick; but unfortunately for the purposes of sensational narrative, Mr. Grimshaw was a quiet, kindhearted gentleman. Though a rigid disciplinarian, he had a keen sense of justice, was a good reader of

nd self-reliant. I discovered that the world was not created exclusively on my account. In New Orleans I labored under the delusion that it was. Having neither brother nor sister to give up to at home, and being, moreover, the largest pupil at school there, my

group of diminutive islands, upon one of which we pitched a tent and played we were the Spanish sailors who got wrecked there years ago. But the endless pine forest that skirted the town was our favorite haunt. There was a great green pond hidden somewhere in its depths, inhabited by a monstrous

eral miles from their ancestral mud. Unspeakable was our delight whenever we discovered one soberly walking off with Harry Blake's initials!

-baskets and fishing-tackle stowed away under the seat, we used to start off early in the afternoon for the sea-shore, where there were countless marvels in the shape of shells, mosses, and kelp. Gypsy enjoyed the sport as keenly as any of us, even going so far, one day, as to

door amusement for our half-holidays. It was all very well for Amadis de Gaul and Don Quixote not to mind the rain; they had iro

dressing a thoughtful conclave of seven, asse

theatre," suggest

to the play a great many times in New Orleans, and was wise in matters pertaining to the drama. So here, in due time, was set up some extraordinary scenery of my own painting. The curtain, I recollect, though it worked smoothly enough on other occasions, invari

, and the crooked pins with which our doorkeeper frequently got "stuck." From first to last we took in a great deal of this counterfeit money. The price of admission to th

the company, taking the only bow and arrow we had. I made a cross-bow out of a piece of whalebone, and did very well without him. We had reached that exciting scene where Gessler, the Austrian tyrant, commands Tell to shoot the apple from his son's head. Pepper Whitcomb, who played all the juvenile and women pa

audience consisting of seven boys and three girls, exclusive of Kitty Collins, who insisted on paying her way in with a clothes-pin. I raised the cross-bow, I repeat. Twang

ndignation, and pain, is still ringing in my cars. I looked upon him as a corpse, and, glancing not far into the

me, in which I said that this would have been the proudest moment of my life if I hadn't hit Pepper Whitcomb in the mouth. Whereupon the audience (assisted, I am glad to state, by Pepper) cried "Hear! Hear!" I then attributed the accident to Pepper himself, whose mouth, being op

heard the end of the William Tell business. Malicious little boys who had not

killed C

said th

my bow a

lled Coc

uld stand. And it made Pepper Whitcomb prett

ool-bounds he seldom ventured to be aggressive; but whenever we met about town he never failed to brush against me, or pull my cap over m

y prepared myself for the impending conflict. The scene of my dramatic triumphs was turned into a gymnasium for this purpose, though I did not openly avow the fact to the boys. By persistently standing on my head, raising heavy weights

ld suddenly expand into a giant twelve feet high, and then as suddenly shrink into a pygmy so small that I couldn't hit him. In this latter shape he would get into my hair, or pop into

gue, funereal, impalpable something which no amount of gymnastic training would enable me to knock over. It was Sunday. If ever I have a boy to bring up

that the deep gloom which has settled over everythin

bury them, and not indisposed to enjoy the ceremony. Even Kitty Collins has caught the contagious gloom, as I perceive when she brings in the coffee-urn -- a solemn and sculpturesque urn at any time, but monumen

sed stiffly in her lap. I sit in the corner, crushed. Robinson Crusoe and Gil Blas are in close confinement. Baron Trenck, who managed to escape from the fortress of Clatz, can't for the life of him get out of our sittingroom closet. Even the Rivermouth Barnacle is suppressed until Monday. Genial converse, harmless books, smiles, lightsome hearts, all are banished. If I want to read anything, I can

e are bright young faces there, at all events. When I get out into the sunshine alone, I draw a long breath; I would turn a somersault up against

il, in the porch. Our minister holds out very little hope to any of us of being saved. Convinced that I am a lost creature, in common

ill longer interval between the beginning and the end of that service; for the R

propriately enough -- a neighboring graveyard. I am by this tim

g is postponed for some reason.

hours. I don't think there was any hypocrisy in this. It was merely the old Puritan austerity cropping out once a week. Many of these people were pure Christians every day in the seven -- excepting the seventh. Then they were decorous and solemn to the

rest! How beau

me to the wea

ord! and truce t

Lord, as all ou

ill man by hi

blessed sunshin

f thee a dunge

bout