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??He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was going

down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. When he

had got out on the shed, he put his head in again, and cussed me for putting

on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I reckoned he was gone, he

come back and put his head in again, and told me to mind about that school,

because he was going to lay for me and lick me if I didn't drop that.

Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged

him and tried to make him give up the money, but he couldn't, and then he

swore he'd make the law force him. ssssssssss

The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away from

him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that had just

come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't interfere and

separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther not take a child away

from its father. So Judge Thatcher and the widow had to quit on the

business. ssssssssss

That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest. He said he'd cowhide me till

I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him. I borrowed three

dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got drunk and went a-blowing

around and cussing and whooping and carrying on; and he kept it up all

over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; then they jailed him, and

next day they had him before court, and jailed him again for a week. But he

said he was satisfied; said he was boss of his son, and he'd make it warm for

him.

When he got out the new judge said he was agoing to make a man of him.

So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and had

him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just old pie to

him, so to speak. And after supper he talked to him about temperance and such

things till the old man cried, and said he'd been a fool, and fooled away his life;

but now he was agoing to turn over a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be

ashamed of, and he hoped the judge would help him and not look down on him.

The judge said he could hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she

cried again; pap said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before,

and the judge said he believed it. The old man said that what a man wanted

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