Part 7 (1/2)

Clara and I are sure that papa played the trick on Grand, that is related in ”The Adventures of Tom Sayer”: ”Hand me that switch” The switch hovered in the air, the peril was desperate--”My, look behind you Aunt!” The old lady whirled around and snatched her skirts out of danger The lad fled on the instant, scrah board fence and dissapeared over it

Susy and Clara were quite right about that

Then Susy says:

And we know papa played ”Hookey” all the ti so as not to have to go to school!

These revelations and exposures are searching, but they are just If I am as transparent to other people as I was to Susy, I have wasted o to school, no she let hi-office to learn the trade He did so, and gradually picked up enough education to enable him to do about as well as those ere more studious in early life

It is noticeable that Susy does not get overheated when she is coraphical calm

It is noticeable, also, and it is to her credit as a biographer, that she distributes compliment and criticisood deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it She had none at all with er than I, and I think that the unbroken oodness and truthfulness and obedience would have been a burden to her but for the relief and variety which I furnished in the other direction I was a tonic I was valuable to her I never thought of it before, but now I see it I never knew Henry to do a vicious thing toward hteous ones that cost me as heavily It was his duty to report lected to do itthat duty He is ”Sid” in ”Tom Sawyer” But Sid was not Henry Henry was a very much finer and better boy than ever Sid was

It was Henry who called my mother's attention to the fact that the thread hich she had sewed , had changed color My mother would not have discovered it but for that, and she was nized that that prominent bit of circumstantial evidence had escaped her sharp eye

That detail probably added a detail to s on somebody else when there is a possible excuse for it--but no matter, I took it out of Henry There is always compensation for such as are unjustly used I often took it out of hi which I hadn't yet done These were occasions when the opportunity was too strong a temptation, and I had to draw on the future I did not need to copy this idea froht upon that principle upon occasion

If the incident of the broken sugar-bowl is in ”Tom Sawyer”--I don't remember whether it is or not--that is an exaar He took it openly froar when she wasn't looking, but she had her doubts about me Not exactly doubts, either She knew very well I _would_ One day when she was not present, Henry took sugar froar-bohich was an heirlooed to break the bowl It was the first ti on hi to tell on him, but he was not disturbed When ments, she was speechless for a ed it would increase the effect I aiting for her to ask ”Who did that?”--so that I could fetch out ot through with her silence she didn't ask anything about it--she ave me a crack on the skull with her thimble that I felt all the way down to my heels Then I broke out withtoone I expected her to do so remorseful and pathetic I told her that I was not the one--it was Henry But there was no upheaval She said, without eht It isn't anyyou've done that I didn't know about; and if you haven't done it, why then you deserve it for so to do, that I sha'n't hear about”

There was a stairway outside the house, which led up to the rear part of the second story One day Henry was sent on an errand, and he took a tin bucket along I kneould have to ascend those stairs, so I went up and locked the door on the inside, and cahed and was rich in choice firenerous equipment of these, and ambushed him I waited till he had cli and couldn't escape Then I bombarded him with clods, which he warded off with his tin bucket the best he could, but without oodfetched my mother out to see as theHenry Both of theh board fence and escaped for that time After an hour or then I ventured back, there was no one around and I thought the incident was closed But it was not Henry was a me With an unusually competent aim for him, he landed a stone on the side of my head which raised a bump there that felt like the Matterhorn I carried it to ly moved It seemed to be her idea that incidents like this would eventually reforh of them So the matter was only educational I had had a sterner view of it than that, before

It was not right to give the cat the ”Pain-Killer”; I realize it noould not repeat it in these days But in those ”Toreat and sincere satisfaction to me to see Peter perform under its influence--and if actions _do_ speak as loud as words, he took as much interest in it as I did It was a most detestable ro ment and considerable curiosity, wanted to sample it, and I let him

It was his opinion that it was made of hell-fire

Those were the cholera days of '49 The people along the Mississippi were paralyzed with fright Those who could run away, did it And ht killed three persons where the cholera killed one Those who couldn't flee kept themselves drenched with cholera preventives, and my mother chose Perry Davis's Pain-Killer for me She was not distressed about herself She avoided that kind of preventive But she made me proinally it was my intention to keep the promise, but at that time I didn't know as much about Pain-Killer as I knew after my first experiment with it She didn't watch Henry's bottle--she could trust Henry But she marked my bottle with a pencil, on the label, every day, and examined it to see if the teaspoonful had been removed The floor was not carpeted It had cracks in it, and I fed the Pain-Killer to the cracks with very good results--no cholera occurred down below

It was upon one of these occasions that that friendly cat ca for Pain-Killer--which he got--and then went into those hysterics which ended with his colliding with all the furniture in the roo the flower-pots with hilasses in petrified astonishment and say, ”What in the world is the matter with Peter?”

I don't remember what my explanation was, but if it is recorded in that book it ht one

Whenever erated impropriety that my mother's extemporary punishments were inadequate, she saved the ht--which was a penalty sometimes bearable, perhaps, but as a rule it was not, and I avoided it for the sake of my constitution She would never believe that I had been to church until she had applied her test: she made me tell her what the text was That was a sio to church to get a text I selected one for myself This worked very well until one tihbor, who had been to church, didn't tally After that my mother took other methods I don't knohat they were now

In those dayscloaks in the winter-tiht and showy Scotch plaids One winter's night when I was starting to church to square a cri the week, I hid ate and went off and played with the other boys until church was over

Then I returned ho side out, entered the room, threw the cloak aside, and then stood the usual exa very well until the temperature of the church was mentioned My mother said,

”It ht”