University of Virginia Library

IKE AT CHURCH.

“What do you think will become of you?” said Mrs.
Partington to Ike, as they were going from church.
The question related to the young gentleman's conduct
in the church, where he had tipped over the cricket,
peeped over the gallery, attracting the attention of a
boy in the pew below, by dropping a pencil tied with a
string upon his head, and had drawn a hideous picture

[ILLUSTRATION]

"O, Isaac," continued she, earnestly "what do you want to act so like the
probable son, for." P. 149.

[Description: 676EAF. Illustration page. Image of a woman walking with a pudgy boy who is carrying a large umberella over one shoulder.]

of a dog upon the snow-white cover of the best hymn-book.
— “Where do you expect to go to?” It was a
question that the youngster had never before had put
to him quite so closely, and he said he did n't know,
but thoght he 'd like to go up in a balloon. — “I 'm
afeard you 'll go down, if you don't mend your ways,
rather than go up. You have been acting very bad in
meeting,” continued she, “and I declare I could hardly
keep from boxing your ears right in the midst of the
lethargy. You did n't pay no interest, and I lost all the
thread of the sermon, through your tricks.” — “I did n't
take your thread,” said Ike, who thought she alluded to
the string by which the pencil was lowered upon the
boy; “that was a fishing-line.” — “O, Isaac,” continued
she, earnestly, “what do you want to act so like the
probable son, for? Why don't you try and be like
David and Deuteronomy, that we read about, and act
in a reprehensible manner?” The appeal was touching,
and Ike was silent, thinking of the sling that David killed
Goliath with and wondering if he could n't make one.