Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 209 — page 2: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

2 — ee ee ee we et ———— --_—— Fritz, THE BOUND-BOY DETECTIVE; ’ Dot Leetle Game Mit Rebecca. --—- ~-—_—_—— —. BY EDWARD L. WHEELER, AUTHOR OF ‘‘ DEADWOOD DICK ’’ NOVELS, ‘*ROSEBUD ROB ”’ NOVELS, ETC., ETC. CHAPTER L THE BOUND BOY AFLOAT. ‘«PRitTzZ!” No answer to the call, which was shrill and authoritative; and a frown of displeasure man- tied the brow of Mrs. Jerusha Shrimp, as she stood in the vine-wreathed gothic arbor of her pretty farm-house, and gazed searchingly through a well-kept fruit orchard, now just in full bloom, which surrounded the house, “* Pritz!’’ This time Mrs. Shrimp called with more vehewence, and got her answer from among the branches of a cherry tree near where she was standing—the answer coming in the good- natured Teutonic tones of the looked-for Fritz. “Vell, vat you vant, Mrs, Schrimp?’ “Tl. show you, you rascally blunderbuss. What are you doing up in that cherry tree, sir? Come down, instanter!”’ ‘‘Dot ish all right. I sthay yoost vere I am!’ was thereply. ‘Off I come down you gif me der sdrap!” ‘* Not this time, sir, if you come down right away,” Mrs. Shrimp averred, a little more graciously, full well knowing the lad’s stub. born ways. ‘Come down, now—that’s a good boy; I want to bave a talk with you.” ‘Vid a sdick, eh?’ Fritz questioned, not of- fering to move until he had some assurance that it was abs>lutely safe. ‘‘No! no! no! Haven’t I told you that if you come down at once [ wouldn't strap you?” Mrs. Shrimp reiterated, impatiently. : ‘‘Vel, den I come down,” was the answer, and Fritz, clambering down out of the tree, soon stood upon the ground at a respectful dis- tance from Mrs, Shrimp,so that in ease she should make a dive for him he could run, Even Mrs. 8., with her vinegarish disposi- tion, could not refrain from smiling as she noted his warlike precaution, and the broad grin upon his stolid, good-natured features, for Fritz was rather a comical looking fellow to gaze at, at any time. He was short in stature for a boy of eighteen, and fat and healthy looking, with a round Ger- man face, with a Jewish hook to the nose, and sharp black eyes, while bis hair was red and busby. No one could lock at the sturdy young Dutchman without smiling, for he was the im- personation of good-nature, clumsiness and cunning. Dressed in a pair of loose-fitting blue over- alls, wet by a homespun over-frock, and a roux] cap on his bead, minus its “scoop,” and being bare-fcuted, added somewhat further to his © mical appearance. “Fritz!’ Mrs. Shrimp said, surveying him with a severe expression of countenance, ‘‘what on earth were you doing up in that tree?’ ‘‘ Noddinks on earth; I vasin der air,” plied the boy with a broader grin. “Stop!” Mrs. Shrimp commanded, rebuk- ingly. ‘None of your impudence, What were you doing in that cherry tree?” ‘‘Suckin’ birds’ eggs, und brognosdercatin’ der vedder, like Venner,” Fritz replied, edging a few inches further away. ‘ Der ish goin’ to von pig dunder storm some off dose days.”’ “Ob! you awful, awful boy! Come into the parlor, sir, straight as you can walk. I have got something serious to say to you.” +“ Dot means—‘ Fritz, old veller, you keep von eye on vatcb for der strap,’” was the si- lent conclusion of the lad, as he meekly fol- lowed his mistress. re: —— y= The Shrimp family parler was no elegant | get education milking cows, like affair, but was rather cosily furnished; boasted of some nice pictures, a piano, and Jast but not | least, three buman ornaments in the persons of the three Misses Sbrimp; the elder Shrimp of the masculine gender had long since passed away, peace be to his ashes, The eldest Miss Shrimp was over thirty, not really preposessing; and rather a counterpart of ber mother, being possessed of plenty of vim and wide-awake, look-after the-pennies busi- ness tact, and having a decidedly sour dispo- | sition. | Knowing ones said it was because she bad been unsuccessful in catching a husband; but be that as it may, Miss Caroline was her mo- ther’s favorite. Miss Arabella was twenty-five, and more fresh and matrimonially bopeful than her elder sister. . _- a ee ee ~- - ee -_-_----—- ~~ eee —_— — you could if you had been sent to school.” ‘““Humph! school, indeed! He's barely earned his clothing and living, to say nothing about going to expense of sending him to school. I should think you were old enough to talk better sense, Lot!” was Miss Caroline’s sharp reproof. ‘‘T’m sure Fritz has been treated very well, and cannot complain. IT’ve taught him how to read, write, spell and cipher, mysclf, ’ meekly added Miss Arabella, ‘Oh! of course! But I say he’s been made to work all the time, and used more like a slave!” Lot asserted, defiantly. ‘‘ Bah! don’t talk back to me, you old crones!” and with this parting shot, she returned to the perusal of her book, while Mrs, Shrimp and ber two elder daughters each gave a deep, deep sigh. Incor- it was the hight of insult, to her, to be | counted an old maid, for, indeed, did she not | have a lover in Philadelphia with whom she corresponded regularly, and were they not en- | _ ployed,” Mrs Shrimp went on, ‘** we have con- _ cluded that we shall have to Jet you go!” gaged? Besides, Arabella was a writer of poems of no mean order, on such novel and origi- nal subjects as Sprivg, Autumn—-poor sighing expiring Autumn, to say nothing of Love, Kisses and the various veins of womanly feel- ing. Miss Lotta Shrimp was seventeen, and the harum-scarum tom-boy of the family, much to the ruffled dignity of her elder sisters, and the worriment of her mother, for the ‘‘fellers” that Lotta couldn’t ‘‘ masb,” with her roguish, pretty face and figure, were liter- ally not worth ‘ masbing.” These three Graces of the Sbrimp family were seated in the parlor when Mrs. Shrimp and Fritz entered—Miss Caroline engaged in footing up the family expense book, Miss Ara- bella engaged at fine sewing, and Lot, as she was called, engaged in reading a yellow-cov- ered novel, much to the disapproval of ber sis- ters’ strict ideas. ‘Fritz,’ Mrs. Shrimp began, as she sunk into an easy-cbair, and motioned bim to stand up, in front of her—*“ Fritz, are you aware how old you are?” Fritz scratched his bushy red head a moment, as if the question perplexed him. ‘* Vel, | don’d know dot,” be finally replied, ‘¢ but off I vas der shudge py ash many licken’s | haff got, I dink I vas no older as dwelve or thirdeen.” ‘Ha! ha! good for ycu, Fritz! nobody’s fool!” cried Lotta. ‘* Lotta!’ Mrs. Shrimp said severely, set- ting her foot down beavily on the floor. “You are not required to speak till you’re spoken to.” ‘*But, you know I will have my say, now, mammy,” the independent member of the Shrimp family declared, with a malicious grin at Caroline. “ Fritz,” Mrs. Shrimp pursued, ‘you are eighteen years old, to-day.” ‘*Vas? So old ash dot?’ ‘‘Exactly, sir, according to the age given me by the man who bound you out to me.” ‘You mean dot old Hyman, der pack-ped- dler?”’ * Yes. And you being eighteen, your ser- vice for me is concluded. It is just five years ago to-day, since I took you to bring up, from the peddler who said you was his brother’s son, and he wanted you reared in a 200! Chris- tian family where you could bave the advan- tages of proper training and education. The laws knows you've had both, but 1 can see very little improvement in you.” “You could not expect to work education into a blockhead,” Miss Caroline snapped. ‘Dot vas drue,” Fritz assented, his eyes flash'ng. ‘*Cow-sdables don’d vas der blace der git some educations, und der old viramen she haff tried bard to train me with der sdrap, but id don’d vas in me.” The elder Shrimps frowned, ominously, while Lot clapped her hands. ‘‘Hurrah! What a shot that was!” she cried, dramatically. ‘‘Stick to it, Fritz! Il glory in your spunk. To be sure you couldn't | to keep you busy, and that times are getting You’se | ture on the wickedness of your ways.”’ ee ee rigible Lotta would yet biing them, in gray hairs, to the grave, they declared. ‘“‘And so, your time being up, Fritz, and we baving insufficient work to keep you em- Fritz’s countenance fell a little, av this an- nouncement.- ‘‘] don’d understand. You don’d vas vant me'any longer, eh?’ he asked, rather sorrow- fully. ‘No, Fritz; necessity compels us to part with you. Youare getting to be a man now, and vaturally eat more and wear out more clothing than when younger, and that, to- gether with the fact that we haven’t enough harder, makes it imperative that we curtail our expenses as much as possible.” ‘* But, vot ish to pecome of me? Vere I go, Mrs. Schrimp? I haff uo bome—I haff no blace to go—no money—no notting.” ‘‘Pshaw! brace up and face the world, and look up something to do, on your own book! Get a pack and go to peddling!” Miss Caroline advised. ** Don’t you do it, Fritz!’ cried Lot. ‘Jest you go on the stage—that’s your best hold. You’re boss in magic and tricks, an’ I'll bet you’d make a bit!” . ** Fritz, listen not for a moment to my ir- reverent cbild,” Mrs. Shrimp cried, putting up _her bands in horror. ‘ Never, never, uim io | go upon the stage, or into those awful palaces of sin-called theaters. Lotta, child, if Parson | Skindle were to. hear you give such an un- | Christian advice, he’d read you a severe lec- “Fudge!” Lotta retorted, snapping ber thumb and finger. ‘‘ Don’t Parson Skindle go te circuses?—and Tom Flynn told me that the _ parson even took in the Black Crook, when he was in New York,” ‘*Child! child! hush such nonsense. If Par- son Skindle has ever entered a tent, reccllect it was‘only to see the animals. He’d scorn to look at the circus, and as for his going to see the Bluck Crook, that’s simply a fabrication on the part of that wicked Toomas Flynn.” ‘Of course!” agreed Caroline, “What a sin that any one could thus malign Parson Skindle,” from Arabella. ‘‘No, no, Fritz; never let temptation lew! you into a lite of sinfulness,” Mrer. Sbrimp continued. ‘I have already secuied you a position, if it is such as will suit you. Pursou Skindle knows of a brother minister who wants a boy to chore around fer him, like sweeping out his office, keejing the tires, blacking his boots, running errands, and so forth. How would you like that?” “‘T don’d dink ash how I’d like dot aud-so- _forth job,’ Fritz replied, manifesting more spirit than was customary for bim, ' | und start into pizuess.” * Uf you _dov’d vas like me, I vill go to Philadelpbia | “* But, Philadelphia is a great city, Fritz, and a great ways {from here,” “Dot is diue, but I haff got legs, und I scon get there. Maybel find work on der road, und den I can go on der cars I vas mueh ! obliged to you all vor keepin’ me so long, uud JOO Goim (E cS Eom