Part 29 (1/2)

A ray of light came over Mr. Cane's stern visage as he asked, ”You weren't playing garbage-man, were you?”

”No! sir!” exclaimed Sube with a look of outraged innocence.

”Where else did you play?” asked his father.

”Where else?--Why--out in the street.”

”Well, where else?”

”Over on the back street.”

”Well,” Mr. Cane was glowering now, ”where else?”

”Over on the other street by the coalyard.”

”And what game were you playing in all these different streets?”

demanded the inquisitor who was now showing signs of irritation.

”Oh, different games. First we'd play one game awhile, and then another--”

”You weren't playing sewer inspector, were you?”

”No, sir,” muttered the boy as he made a mental note of two games he had never tried, but would at the first opportunity.

”Haven't you any idea where you got into this unspeakable effluvium?”

demanded his father with ill-restrained petulance.

”No, sir; not unless I might of got it up by the church. I was playin'

round up there part of the time, and I noticed some'pm smelled kind o'

funny, but I couldn't find out--”

”All right. Go on. Get the stuff off from you if you can--but don't come in here again to-night!”

Sube moved on to the bathroom, where he found that his mother had drawn a bowl of hot water into which she had put a generous quant.i.ty of ammonia and a scrubbing-brush. But after superintending the operation for a short time from a point over near the window, she retired, leaving Sube to his own devices. As soon as she was gone he let out the ammonia water on the ground that it interfered with his breathing, and hurriedly rinsing his hands in plain cold water wiped them on the bath mat (as his father afterward discovered) and slipped down the back stairs to rejoin his companions in the yard for a good ol' game of rat tail.

CHAPTER XVIII

OF HOLY WRIT

The following day Sube Cane made a pleasing discovery. He was strolling along the back street that bordered his father's garden when he was confronted by a vision of gorgeous beauty. He halted in amazement.

”Well, I'll be jiggled!” he gasped ecstatically. ”I'd like to know when they put that up! It wasn't there this morning. There was nuthin' but a lot of patent med'cine ads.”

And he gazed in rapture at the colorful announcement of the coming of Baylum & Barney's Greatest Show on Earth. At first a lady in fles.h.i.+ngs doing a toe-dance on the back of a pinto percheron held his attention, but he was soon won from her by the Human Fly, who was depicted as in the act of walking on the ceiling. And it was not long before the Human Fly gave way to the Only Genuine Blood-Sweating Behemoth of Holy Writ Now in Captivity. Then Sube truly lost his heart.

The longer he gazed at the behemoth the more he admired it. It was, indeed, a case of love at first sight. Under his fascinated scrutiny the s.h.i.+fty eyes became kind; the broad ugly nose and cavernous mouth seemed to smile at him; the wrinkled hide looked as soft as a baby's skin. How he would have liked one for a pet!