I have been in the back bedroom up-stairs all the afternoon, and I am
expecting father every minute. It was just after one o'clock when he
told me to come up-stairs with him, and just then Mr. Thompson came to
get him to go down town with him, and father said I'd have to excuse him
for a little while and don't you go out of that room till I come back.
So I excused him, and he hasn't come back yet; but I've opened one of
the pillows and stuffed my clothes full of feathers, and I don't care
much how soon he comes back now.
It's an awful feeling to be waiting up-stairs for your father, and to
know that you have done wrong, though you really didn't mean to do so
much wrong as you have done. I am willing to own that nobody ought to
take anybody's clothes when he's in swimming, but anyhow they began it
first, and I thought just as much as could be that the clothes were
theirs.
The real boys that are to blame are Joe Wilson and Amzi Willetts. A week
ago Saturday Tom McGinnis and I went in swimming down at the island.
It's a beautiful place. The island is all full of bushes, and on one
side the water is deep, where the big boys go in, and on the other it is
shallow, where we fellows that can't swim very much where the water is
more than two feet deep go in. While Tom and I were swimming, Joe and
Amzi came and stole our clothes, and put them in their boat, and carried
them clear across the deep part of the river. We saw them do it, and we
had an awful time to get the clothes back, and I think it was just as
mean.
Tom and I said we'd get even with them, and I know it was wrong, because
it was a revengeful feeling, but anyhow we said we'd do it; and I don't
think revenge is so very bad when you don't hurt a fellow, and wouldn't
hurt him for anything, and just want to play him a trick that is pretty
nearly almost quite innocent. But I don't say we did right, and when
I've done wrong I'm always ready to say so.
Well, Tom and I watched, and last Saturday we saw Joe and Amzi go down
to the island, and go in swimming on the shallow side; so we waded
across and sneaked down among the bushes, and after a while we saw two
piles of clothes. So we picked them up and ran away with them. The boys
saw us, and made a terrible noise; but we sung out that they'd know now
how it felt to have your clothes carried off, and we waded back across
the river, and carried the clothes up to Amzi's house, and hid them in
his barn, and thought that we'd got even with Joe and Amzi, and taught
them a lesson which would do them a great deal of good, and would make
them good and useful men.
This was in the morning about noon, and when I had my dinner I thought
I'd go and see how the boys liked swimming, and offer to bring back
their clothes if they'd promise to be good friends. I never was more
astonished in my life than I was to find that they were nowhere near the
island. I was beginning to be afraid they'd been drowned, when I heard
some men calling me, and I found Squire Meredith and Amzi Willetts's
father, who is a deacon, hiding among the bushes. They told me that some
villains had stolen their clothes while they were in swimming, and
they'd give me fifty cents if I'd go up to their houses and get their
wives to give me some clothes to bring down to them.
I said I didn't want the fifty cents, but I'd go and try to find some
clothes for them. I meant to go straight up to Amzi's barn and to bring
the clothes back, but on the way I met Amzi with the clothes in a basket
bringing them down to the island, and he said, "Somebody's goin' to be
arrested for stealing father's and Squire Meredith's clothes. I saw the
fellows that stole 'em, and I'm going to tell." You see, Tom and I had
taken the wrong clothes, and Squire Meredith and Deacon Willetts, who
had been in swimming on the deep side of the island, had been about two
hours trying to play they were Zulus, and didn't need to wear any
clothes, only they found it pretty hard work.
Deacon Willetts came straight to our house, and told father that his
unhappy son--that's what he called me, and wasn't I unhappy, though--had
stolen his clothes and Squire Meredith's; but for the sake of our family
he wouldn't say very much about it, only if father thought best to spare
the rods and spoil a child, he wouldn't be able to regard him as a man
and a brother. So father called me and asked me if I had taken Deacon
Willetts's clothes, and when I said yes, and was going to explain how it
happened, he said that my conduct was such, and that I was bringing his
gray hairs down, only I wouldn't hurt them for fifty million dollars,
and I've often heard him say he hadn't a gray hair in his head.
And now I'm waiting up-stairs for the awful moment to arrive. I deserve
it, for they say that Squire Meredith and Deacon Willetts are mornhalf
eaten up by mosquitoes, and are confined to the house with salt and
water, and crying out all the time that they can't stand it. I hope the
feathers will work, but if they don't, no matter. I think I shall be a
missionary, and do good to the heathen. I think I hear father coming in
the front gate now, so I must close.