168 
AMEEICAlsr AGEIOULTURIST. 
[April, 
Sow Tommy Celebrated the First of April. 
BY AGNES (CARR) SAGE. 
“It’s April Fool’s day, hurrah !” shouted Tom- 
..oy Baii^s, spriugingup in hed, and turning a dou¬ 
ble siiinersanlt over the footboard, endangering his 
spinal column—unless, as Aunt Selena declares, it 
was made of India-rubber. But, like many anoth¬ 
er boy, Tommy seemed to have as many lives as a 
eat, and now landed on his feet, and proceeded to 
put on his clothes, with a jig or pigeon-wing be¬ 
tween each garment, for he was as fond of gym¬ 
nastics as jokes. The first of April was a perfect 
gala day to him, as it gave an implied license to 
play all kinds of praidcs, and to-day he expected to 
have “ a jolly time,” as he expressed it. The day 
was to end up with a party at Carrie Shaffer’s in 
the evening, at which, as the merry little hostess 
had confided to him over a lump of taffy, there 
was to be the funniest April Fool supper, with 
everything a sham, from the cake and candies filled 
with cotton and pepper to the molasses and water 
lemonade. 
“ Blit wili there he nothing at all good to eat ?” 
Tommy had asked in some dismay.—“Oh, yes,” 
replied Carrie ; “ mother will be sure to have plen¬ 
ty of goodies, to come on, after we have had all the 
fun wo can out of the first course, but you must be 
sure and not tell a soul. Tommy, or it will spoil the 
whole thing.”—Master Bangs vowed that wild 
beasts should not drag the secret from him. 
So with these jileasing anticipations filling his 
mind. Tommy, having danced into his jacket and 
brushed his carrot-colored locks until they stood 
up like a halo about his comical little freckled face, 
slid down the banister and commenced the day’s 
campaign by slyly exchanging the contents of the 
sugar-bowl and salt-cellar, emptying Aunt Selena’s 
snuff-box into the tea-pot; and setting all the 
clocks ahead of time. Soon after he called to Di¬ 
nah, the cook, that it was quarter to eight, and 
Miss Bangs would be down in five minutes. He 
laughed until tears came, to see how she flew 
around like a fussy black hen to hurry breakfast 
on the table.—“Why, Dinah, what makes you so 
early this morning ?” asked Aunt Selena, descend¬ 
ing the stairs at the sound of the bell, and holding 
up her watch, the hands of which pointed to ten 
minutes past seven.—“ Lor sakes. Missus, I frought 
it was dret’ful late, and been spinnin’ round hyere 
like a chicken wid it’s head off. I bleve dem 
clocks is all bewitched I does; for shore as you 
live honey, dey’s all a strikin’ eight dis bressed 
minute.”—“ Guess April Fool has been meddling 
with them,” said Tommy, preparing to attack a 
plate of hot muflftns.—“ Or a Tom Fool, which is 
much the same thing,” remarked Aunt Selena 
dryly, while Dinah as she went off to the kitchen 
to steep some more oolong, muttered, “Dat ere 
hoy am de berry biggest imp dis side o’ Dixie, an’ 
I spect he will come to some dret’ful end, shore 1” 
“There, Thomas, is a ham sandwich and a po¬ 
tato turnover for your lunch,” said Aunt Selena, 
handing the lad a neat package, as he was about 
starting for school ; “ and I do beg that you will 
not go near Robinson’s livery stable any more. I 
don’t like the language you hear there, and besides 
you are so venturesome ; one of the horses will 
surely kick you, and perhaps injure you for life. 
That black mare of his is very skittish and un¬ 
manageable.”—“Gentle as a lamb, women don’t 
know nothing about horses,” grumbled Tommy 
ungrammatically, as he pocketed his lunch, and 
set off on a run for the schoolhouse. “I am sick 
and tired of bread and ham, and potato pie. ‘ Pore 
trash,’ as Dinah says, anyway.”—But when, after 
a morning of rather more bent pins, and paper 
streamers, than poGhooks and fractions, he dis¬ 
covered that his sandwich was made of turkey and 
his turnover of the nicest mince meat, and learned 
that Aunt Selena could April fool as well as her 
nephew ; although in a much kinder and more 
satisfactory manner.-” She’s a brick, if she does 
think a fellow is always going to break to pieces, 
or be kicked overthe moon,” soliloquised Tommy. 
But in spite of his gratitude, when school was out, 
he could not keep away from Robinson’s stable, 
for he thought “ the black mare is off in the coun¬ 
try to-day, so there can be no danger, and I’m in 
for the best trick yet, if only Billy the hostler will 
help me.”—So, with his chum, Dick, and bis seat- 
mate, Harry, early in the afternoon he entered the 
barn where three men were polishing the harness 
and washing down the handsome carriages. 
“ Here comes Tom, Dick and Harry,” remarked 
one; “well boys, what’s up?”—“Oh! such a 
lark !” said Dick. “ Tom is going to fool his old 
aunt, so she won’t get over it for a week.”—“ But 
we want your help, Billy,” said Tom, while Harry 
....Oh ! art stopped short 
At the cultivated court 
Of the Empress Josephine," 
warhled Dick. “ But I declare. Bill, you seem to 
be ruining it.”—“Don’t I look frightful?” ex¬ 
claimed Tom. “ But Aunt Selena’s hair won’t 
‘ turn white in a single night,’ for it’s that already. 
So come on boys; anythitig for sport.”—And Aunt 
Selena fulfilled the little scapegrace’s greatest ex- 
pections, for she came rushing from the house, as 
they entered the gate, screaming, “O! my boy! 
my boy ! It is just what I feared ! He has heen 
kicked by the black mare.”—“ Yes mum,” said 
Dick, “he was quite insensible when we picked 
him up, but seems to be a coming around now.”— 
“I am so faint, I shall die; I know I shall,” 
groaned Tom, feebly, while his companions shook 
with inward convulsions, which, however, they 
hoped Miss Bangs would attribute to fright.— 
“ Bring him right in here,” said Aunt Selena, open¬ 
ing the door of the sitting-room, “ and Dinah run 
for the camphor and arnica.”—“ O ! my head ! my 
eye I” moaned Tom, writhing as though in agony ; 
at which Dick and Hariy were so overcome with 
emotion they stuffed their handkerchiefs in their 
mouths and beat a hasty retreat, leaving their 
friend to the tender mercies of Aunt Selena and 
Dinah, who bore him off upstairs, and declared he 
must be undressed and put right to bed.—Tom now 
began to think the joke had gone far enough, and 
jumped up with a hearty laugh, exclaiming, 
“ Don’t be frightened, aunty, it was all an April 
fool.”—“An April fool, indeed !” cried Aunt Se¬ 
lena, “ with his head all cut in this way ! Why ! 
the blow may affect his brain !”—“ No, Billy, the 
stable-man, painted it for fun. See, it will all wash 
CARRYING A JOKE TOO FAR. 
Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
produced from his pocket several cakes of black, 
blue, and red paint.—“ So you want to make Miss 
Bangs think you were kicked by black Sal,” said 
Billy, when the boys had explained : “ That would 
be a sell ;I never set up for an artist afore, but I’ll 
do the best I can for you,” and mounting Tommy 
iuto the rung of a tall ladder, and watched by the 
admiring and critical company, Billy proceeded to 
surround the lad’s left eye with circles of black and 
blue, and to adorn his forehead with a long gash, 
and drops of scarlet paint to represent blood.— 
“ There,” said Billy as he finished and stepped back 
to survey his work. “Now that’s what I call ar¬ 
tistic and he brought a bit of broken looking- 
glass for Tom to view the disfigurement. 
off,” cried Tom.—“ Oh, he’s quite delirious I I 
quite !” said aunt.—“ Crazy as a loon !” ejaculated 
Dinah, with a roll other white eyes.—And in spite 
of the boy’s protestations the two women popped 
him into bed, bound up his head in vinegar and 
brown paper, and applied mustard to his feet, to 
draw down the inflammation, while his tears and 
prayers—for he now began to be thoroughly frighG 
ened—only met with, “See how frantic he is get¬ 
ting. I only hope it won’t result in a brain fever. 
Poor boy, how he must suffer! We must call 
in Dr. Emerson if he is not better soon.” 
The guests at Carrie Shaffer’s that evening 
watched long and eagerly for Tommy Bangs.— 
“ Hope his head didn’t ache so hard as to keep him 
