54 



MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



moral boys. Jim said he was "down on them milksops." Such was the 

 coarse language of this bad, neglected boy. 



But the strangest thing that ever happened to Jim was the time he went boat- 

 ing on Sunday, and didn't get drowned, and that other time that he got caught 

 out in the storm when he was fishing on Sunday, and didn't get struck by light- 

 ning. Why, you might look, and look, all through the Sunday-school books 

 from now till next Christmas, and you would never come across anything like 

 this. Oh no ; you would find that all the bad boys who go boating on Sunday 



ways storms when ^^^^ffl^ M^^Mi lfil^^^y'^^itela^^' bad boys go fish- 

 Nothing could ^mK^^M^l '^b^^S^MS*^' Wk^^S hurt him. He even 



around the cupboard after essence of peppermint, and didn't make a mistake and 

 drink aqua fortis. He stole his father's gun and went hunting on the Sabbath, 

 and didn't shoot three or four of his fingers off. He struck his little sister on 

 the temple with his fist when he was angry, and she didn't linger in pain through 

 long summer days, and die with sweet words of forgiveness upon her lips that 

 redoubled the anguish of his breaking heart. No ; she got over it. He ran off 

 and went to sea at last, and didn't come back and find himself sad and alone in 

 the world, his loved ones sleeping in the quiet churchyard, and the vine-embow- 



