52 



MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



who teach them to say, " Now, I lay me down," etc., and sing them to sleep 

 with sweet, plaintive voices, and then kiss them good-night, and kneel down by 

 the bedside and weep. But it was different with this fellow. He was named 

 Jim, and there wasn't anything the matter with his mother — no consumption, 

 nor anything of that kind. She was rather stout than otherwise, and she was 

 not pious ; moreover, she was not anxious on Jim's account. She said if he were 

 to break his neck it wouldn't be much loss. She always spanked Jim to sleep, 

 and she never kissed him good-night ; on the contrary, she boxed his ears when 



she was ready to 

 Once this little 

 key of the pantry, 

 there and helped 

 jam, and filled up 

 30 that his mother 

 the difference ; but 

 ble feeling didn't 

 and something 

 whisper to him, 

 obey my mother? 

 this .' Where do 

 who gobble up 

 mother's jam.'" 

 kneel down all 

 never to be wicked 



leave him. 

 bad boy stole the 

 and slipped in 

 himself to some 

 the vessel with tar, 

 would never know 

 all at once a terri- 

 come over him, 

 didn't seem to' 

 " Is it right to dis- 

 Isn't it sinful to do 

 bad little boys go 

 their good kind 

 and then he didn't 

 alone and promise 

 any more, and rise 



up with a light, happy heart, and go and tell his mother all about it, and beg 

 her forgiveness, and be blessed by her with tears of pride and thankfulness in 

 her eyes. No ; that is the way with all other bad boys in the books ; but it happened 

 otherwise with this Jim, strangely enough. He ate that jam, and said it was 

 bully, in his sinful, vulgar way ; and he put in the tar, and said that was bully 

 also, and laughed, and observed " that the old woman would get up and snort" 

 when she found it out ; and when she did find it out, he denied knowing any- 

 thing about it, and she whipped him severely, and he did the crying himself. 



