But he was not
mad at Ma. As soon as he see it was Ma he said, 'Why, sister, the wicked
stand in slippery places, don't they?' and Ma she was mad and said for him
to let go her stocking, and then Pa was mad and he said, 'look-a-here you
sky-pilot, this thing has gone far enough,' and then a policeman
came along and first he thought they were all drunk, but he found they
were respectable, and he got a chip and scraped the soap off of them, and
they went home, and Pa and Ma they got in the house some way, and just
then the letter-carrier came along, but he didn't have any letters for us,
and he didn't come onto the steps, and then I went up stairs and I said,
'Pa, don't you think it is real mean, after you and I fixed the soap on
the steps for the letter-carrier, he didn't come on the step at all,' and
Pa was scraping the soap off his pants with a piece of shingle, and the
hired girl was putting liniment on Ma, and heating it in for palpitation
of the heart, and Pa said, 'You dam idjut, no more of this, or I'll maul
the liver out of you,' and I asked him if he didn't think soft soap would
help a moustache to grow, and he picked up Ma's work-basket and threw it
at my head, as I went down stairs, and I came over here. Don't you think
my Pa is unreasonable to get mad at a little joke that he planned
himself?"
The grocery man said he didn't know, and the boy went out with a pair of
skates over his shoulder, and the grocery man is wondering what joke the
boy will play on him to get even for the cayenne pepper.
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