WELCOME TO SELIGOR'S
CASTLE WITH A FUNNY LITTLE STORY FROM
SHEENA'S STORY BOOK.
HOW
JIMMY TENDED THE BABY. I never could see the use
of babies. We have one at our house that belongs to
mother, and she thinks everything of it. I can't
see anything wonderful about it. All it can do is
to cry, and pull hair, and kick. It hasn't half the
sense of my dog, and can't even chase a cat. Mother
and Sue wouldn't have a dog in the house, but they
are always going on about the baby, and saying:
"Ain't it perfectly
sweet?"
The worst thing about a baby is, that you're
expected to take care of him, and then you get
scolded afterwards. Folks say: "Here, Jimmy, just
hold the baby for a minute, there's a good boy";
and then as soon as you have got it, they say:
"Don't do that! Just look at him! That boy will
kill the child! Hold it up straight, you good for
nothing little
wretch!"
It's pretty hard to do your best, and then be
scolded for it; but that is the way boys are
treated. Perhaps after I'm dead, folks will wish
they had done
differently.
Last Saturday mother and Sue went out to make
calls, and told me to stay at home and take care of
the baby. There was a football match, but what did
they care for that? They didn't want to go to it,
and so it made no diference whether I went to it or
not. They said they would be gone only a little
while, and if the baby waked up I was to play with
it, and keep it from crying, and "be sure and not
let it swallow any pins." Of course I had to do
it.
The baby was sound
asleep when they went out; so I left it for just a
few minutes, while I went to see if there was any
pie left in the pantry. ( Hm, if I was a woman, I
wouldn't be so dreadfully suspicious as to keep
everything locked up in the pantry!
)
When I got back upstairs again, the baby was awake
and howling like she was full of pins. So I gave
her the first thing that came to hand, to keep her
quiet. It just happened to be a bottle of French
polish, one of them with a sponge on the end of a
wire, the sort Sue uses to black her boots, because
girls are too lazy to use a
regular brush and
polish.
But it didn the job for the baby stopped crying as
soon as I gave her the bottle, and I sat down to
read my comic. The next
time I looked at her, she'd got out the sponge and
about half of her face was jet black. This was a
nice fix, for I knew nothing could get the black
off her face, and guarenteed when mother came back
she would say the baby was spoiled, and that I was
responsible. Now as I think an all black baby would
be much more stylish than an all white baby, and
when I saw that she was half black already, I made
up my mind that if I blacked
it all over it
would be worth more than it had ever been, and
perhaps mother would be ever so much pleased. So I
hurried up and gave it a good coat of
black.
You should have seen how
that baby shined! The polish dried as soon as it
was put on, and I had just time to get baby dressed
again, when mother and Sue came in.
I would
lower myself to repeat their unkind remarks. When
you've been called a murdering little villain, and
an unnatural son, it will rankle in your heart for
ages. After what they had said to me I didn't seem
to mind father, and went upstairs with him almost
as if I was going to bed, or maybe something that
didn't hurt so much.
"The baby is beautiful, and shiny, though the
doctors say it will wear off in a few years. Nobody
shows any gratitude for all the trouble I took, I
can tell you it isn't easy to black a baby without
geting it into her eyes and hair. In fact I
sometimes think it is hardly worth while to live in
this cold and unfeeling world."
Unfortunately we do
not have the poets
name.
Posted 11:59
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