University of Virginia Library

THE DUTIFUL BOY.

THIS was on Pine Street, Saturday. The central figure was a bareheaded woman, with a broom in her hand. She stood on the back-stoop, and was crying, "Georgie!"

There was no response; but anybody who had been on the other side of a close board fence at

the foot of the garden might have observed two boys intently engaged in building a mud-pie.

"That's your mother hollering, Georgie," said one of the two, placing his eye to a knot-hole, and glancing through to the stoop.

"I don't care," said the other.

"Ain't you going in?"

"No."

"George!" came another call, short and sharp, "do you hear me!"

There was no answer.

"Where is she now?" inquired Georgie, putting in the filling of the pie.

"On the stoop," replied the young man at the knot-hole.

"What's she doin'?"

"Ain't doin' nothin'."

"George Augustus!"

Still no answer.

"You needn't think you can hide from me, young man, for I can see you; and, if you don't come in here at once, I'll come out there in a way that you will know it."

Now, this was an eminently natural statement, but hardly plausible, as her eyes would have had to pierce an inch-board fence to see Georgie; and, even were this possible, it would have required a glance in that special direction, and not over the top of a pear-tree in an almost opposite way.

Even the boy at the knot-hole could hardly repress a smile.

"What's she doin' now!" inquired Georgie.

"She stands there yet."

"I won't speak to you again, George Augustus," came the voice. "Your father will be home in a few minutes, and I shall tell him all about what you have done."

Still no answer.

"Ain't you afraid?" asked the conscientious young man, drawing his eye from the knot-hole to rest it.

"Noah! She won't tell pa; she never does: she only sez it to scare me."

Thus enlightened and re-assured, the guard covered the knot-hole again.

"Ain't you coming in here, young man?" again demanded the woman; "or do you want me to come out there to you with a stick? I won't speak to you again, sir!"

"Is she comin'?" asked the baker.

"No."

"Which way is she lookin'?"

"She's lookin' over in the other yard."

"Do you hear me, I say?" came the call again.

No answer.

"George Augustus! do you hear your mother talking to you?"

Still no answer.

"Oh! you just wait, young man, till your father comes home, and he'll make you hear, I'll warrant ye."

"She is gone in now," announced the faithful sentinel, withdrawing from his post.

"All right! Take hold of this crust, and pull it down on that side, and that'll be another pie done," said the remorse-stricken George Augustus.