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~ ee ee ng ——— -
a ‘ :
HAPPY DAYS
Petey, the Grocer’s Hoy;
_ IF YoU DON'T SEE WHAT YOU WANT, LOOK FOR IT.
By SAM SMILEY,
Author oF ‘Across the Continent on Cheek,” “Harry Hawser,” “Bob and His Uncle
ie?
ke, etc.
“Uncle Jake,” “Smart and Sharp,”
CHAPTER I.
Petey, the grocer’s hoy, was a peach.
In appearance; I mea)
He had plump, red, rosy Gheeks.
There was fuzz on them,
He had yellow hair and’ he looked green.
That was where you’d be mistaken if
you went by appearances,
He wasn’t green the least bit.
But he looked so fresh and innocent
“Goliah,” ete. ete,
t was winter, but he was fixed up as if
it were sprin,
He was those boys’ mutton in an in-
stant
They had been looking for some one to
That shiny hat seemed to tempt them
at o:
Soak the dude!” said Pet .
The boys all grabbed up snowballs,
Petey was not the last one to do so.
“How do you know T done it?”
“Well, didn’t you?’ *
“Why didn’t I run it I dia?”
at was a poser,
“Well, but didn’t you?"
od you see me?”
Well then, I can't prove it by you. Why
don’t you get somebody what did see me?”
There was clearly no use in talking to
that: mild mannered, apparently stupid
y.
os
S
The stranger gave it up as a bad job and
presently Petey picked up his basket and
disappeared tn a flat house further up the
sue
him after that many times and
haa opportunities to cultivate his acquaint-
ance without his knowing it and the fol-
lowing incident will be found true to life:
When Petey got through delivering his
packages, hurrying just about as much as
a telegraph boy hurries, he went back to
the grocer’s over on the West Side, on the
corner of one of the avenues and a cross
stree!
A fat, cross-
grained - Ger-
USE man kept the
store and was
“and fat and
co
Straight in
head so high
that it
amounted to
baldness.
fe had a
scrubby mus-
tache, which
people said he
ad chewe
fashioned mo-
saic pin as
g as
nickel in his
shirt front.
FSSSH-SH-SH-Z1P!
that any one might very well be excused.
There was trouble wherever Petey ap-
peared.
et you could never say for certain
that’ he caused it.
I remember well the first time I saw
1m,
It was over on the West Side, not too far
uptown, in the city of New Yor!
It was in winter and there was plenty of
snow on the ground.
The boys in. the street were making the
most 0!
It was Sst after school 1 hours and a lot
of them were
Along came Pe! ste
The boys seemed to know
At any rate they didn't Seived him.
Petey wore a long white apron with a
Dib to it. |
It reached from just under his collar
nearly to his toes.
the apron he wore an ordinary
short jacket, unbuttoned.
His tronsers, what you could see of them,
were thick and big and didn’t fit any too
well.
wore heavy laced shoes and a big,
rough looking cloth-cap set back.on his
h to show his yellow hair.
His eyes were blue and he was of un-
mistakable German extraction.
@ wore no gioves on his hands, which
were big and red, but did not seem to
1d.
On his right arm was a big, long, shal-
low basket, containing a few parcels.
“Hello, Petey,” said one of the boys, as
he came "sauntering along, as if he had all
the time he wal
“Hello, you,” aor Petey, stopping, setting
down his basket and leaning against an
ron railing.
t then: along came a man on the op-
posite side of the street.
He wore a high silk hat, a red necktie, a
light colored overcoat and gray trousers.
YOU KNOW HOW A SELTZER BOTILE TALKS WHEN YOU PRESS THE LEVER?
THAT WAY, AND PRETTY
UD, TOO. IT WAS
HADN’T BEEN ANY TAKEN OUT.
Then a shower of them whizzed across
the stree
The high } bat fount it first.
Away it
01 “ree snowballs spread them-
selves out on that light c
e or two took the man ata the legs.
Several went very wide of the mark.
Now that man was not such a dude as
the boys though:
He picked up ts hat, grasped his stick
and went for them.
They all scattered.
All except Petey.
He stood leaning against the fence, his
basket on the zround and a look of inno-
cence on his
willing, to ‘take oath that it was
Petey’ shot that took off the stranger’s
mt look at him, however, you would de-
clare that he knew nothing about it.
Across the street came the man, grasp-
ing his cane and looking mad.
He looked very threateningly until he
came in front of ey.
Then he looked as. i he thought he might
have made a mista’
“Here, did you throw one of those snow-
balls?”
“Hey?” asked Petey, looking down from
the sky.
“I asked you if you threw one of those
srowballs.”
“What snowballs?”
“That knocked my hat off and spotted
my coat.”
“Oh, did they? That was too bad.”
He looked awfully innocent, but still the
stranger was not quite satisfied.
The iatter shook his stick at Petey and
“I believe you were one of them and
I’m going to give you a licking.
‘What for?” asked Petey, never stirring.
“For throwing snowballs.
open was this?”
“Just now.”
a
eB
WELL CHARGED AND THERE
shirt sleeves,
even in win-
ter.
“Och, Petey,
you
was?” he demanded, as the boy entered
“By der streeds loafing, I
should tort you was go by der Gentral
ae already around, you was gone so long
yet.”
WELL, THIS ONE TALKED JUST
I had me orders to take out,” said
Petey. “I ain’t no express wagon and I
gotter walk.”
“Walk? I bet you, you creep, when y.
don’t gone asleep yet. Ach, off dot it wasn't
dot you hada fam'ly, I fire you out quick,
you loafer boy.’
eep your shirt on, uncle,” said Petey.
ou don’t pay me enough to get gay about
“Pay you? For why should I pay you?
Wasn’t you a relation? How you dinks I
makes money otf I pays you? Aber you
was by Chermany once you don’t got some
di ngs for seven years.”
, I was never in Germany and I
dont vant to go—see? Got anything more
to go out?”
“Ya, I got me plenty, two bushul off coal,
a halluf peck off potatoes, two cans o'
erosene, a quart off apples, a bag off flour
und two bundles off woo
“Gimme de wood,” raid Petey. “I ain't
no freight ca car. Let the tarrier take up his
coa!
‘Ach. make me mad once. Off it
it wasn't for der family, I put you out al-
ready.”
The threat aa ent seem to have any
great effect on
Probably he had heard it before and had
grown accustomed to it.
Shortly after that he might have been
seen, basket on arm, cap on the back of his
ead, sauntering along at the same lei-
surely gait and with the same innocent look
in his face,
ZS on ‘adjacent stoops had been
peacefully Stumbering just before Petey
came that w:
I could nots swear, that it was Petey who
said “sic ‘em! have an opinion on
the subject.
Instantly two dogs flew out on the walk
in chase of an imaginary cat.
One was a big brindle of uncertain ped-
igree, with a stump tail and one ear minus
a corner,
The other was a shaggy yellow with a
voice like a fog horn and one leg gone
wrong, so that he went better on three than
on the regulation four,
Well, those two collided.
They were both scra
The brindle was the acknowledged | leader
of the half of the block running wes
@ east end, per contra, me the undis-
puted possession of the ye’
They met on the dividing. Tine and there
was war at
Such a barking and growling ana snap-
nig and ki-yelping you never hea:
as the signal for other dogs to ap-
pear trom all directions.
And not only for dogs, but for humans.
First came a ft Irishwoman and a
skinny Duteh d
“Kap dag ‘om, Mrs. Shootsentest, or
t a have ihe lah on yez. It’s a shame how
he do be harashing iverybody.”
“For why | keep my dock the street off,
Mrs, Mulligan? My dock got rights, I bet
your own dock once und
eferydings was quiet ye
“Don't you talk to me, ye Dootch hiker.
It’s yere yaller dag phwat makes all the
trouble.”
“Ach, you makes me sick. I calls der
polices and got your dock put by der pound
mce.””
“4
“Ye’ll not pound my dag.”
“Den took him away once.
Those two were tang most 3 atubly.
scarcely six inches apart, each in a high
key and both with many fourlehes and
gesticulation:
that racket could not go for nothing.
oys of all ages, from six to
sixteen, black, white, sallow, ruddy and
brindled.
There were Dutch, Irish, coons, Italians
and haif breeds.
Some favored the brindle, with the
chewed ear, and some were for the three-
legged yell:
‘They wetted their differences about as the
dogs were doing, by a rough and tumble
scrap.
Then heads came out a windows and
forms appeared in doo:
Meanwhile Petey had ‘Bet down his basket,
and, leaning against a feuce railing, was ab-
stractedly gazing at the sky, with a far,
away look on his innocent face.
He was the last person whom you would
have picked out as the starter of the
trouble.
Finally, when the fracas began to as-
sume the proportions of a riot, along came
a@ policeman,
Somebody kicked the brindle and another
somebody belted the yellow with a barrel
The do logs separated and retreated to
their respective stoops.
rappers suddenly ceased their
wrangling and fled to sundry doorways.
two champion talkers retired be
hind the railings of their individual man-
ions.
“It was ye phwat set the dags an one
aoither in the forst place, ye Dootch scul-
ee Aber ein, it was you what mage dose
docks fight, you Irish loafer womans."
“Here, here, shtop ay that neow or I'll
run ees both in,” said the copper, swinging
S
a
‘And Petey still leaned against me fence
and seemed unconscious of everythi
The copper passed on, quiet was restored
and Petey sauntered on, but as Mrs. Mulli-
gan went in she remarked:
“T don’t know how it is, but ivery time
that Dutch grocery boy comes around there
do be throuble and him as innocent look-
ing as a lamb.”
As for Petey, he never laughed, nor even
smiled, but wen n the same old way,
walking on the bias, bent over to one side
by his basket and never hurrying, not seem-
ing to be put out by anything.
He presently went down the cellar steps
of an apartment house, walked to the rear
and stopped before a row of speaking
He blew into one of these such a blast
that you could hear the whistle away up
on the top floor.
In a few moments a voice came down the
dumb-waiter shaft:
“Well, what you want?”
“Grocer!” said Petey,
high-pitched voice.
“Send it up.”
“Send down the elevator.”
“Can't you pull it down? Look out, you
Dutch slob, you've got my head cau: tent
“Ah, why don’t you get your head out the
way?
“Don't you talk to me like that or I'll
repo:
eyes you will, J don’t think!”
“What's tha
in a mild but
“There yow are! Haul ’em uj
“Haul ’em yourself. The idea ot making
me haul up a lot of groceries. What are
you paid for? I'll just send my husband
around to-night an—ouch!”
e dumb-waiter had exidently come up
quicker than she thought it wou
“Here, what's this? didn't order no -
somes
‘ vores on
Ft ge