Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1891 — The Boy Got It. [ARTICLE]

The Boy Got It.

It was in a passenger coach on the Delaware and Lackawanna road. A woman who had a seat alone had a covered basket on the other half of it. Across from her was a mother and her boy, the latter about eight years of age. Ho had been asleep, but awoke just as the woman with the basket got comfortably seated. For about two minutes he wondered over the contents, and then he settled down to the belief that the basket held half a peck of fried cakes. The thought made him hungry, and he whispered to his mother: “Ma! Ma! I want it!” She was leaning against the window, and half asleep, and she made no reply. “I say I want it!” exclaimed the lad. “Yes, Charley,” she sleepily replied. “I’m hungy!” “Yes.” “Will she care?” No answer. “I say, will she care?” “Don’t bother mamma now, dear.” “But can I get it?” “I—l guess so.” The owner of the basket was looking out of the window. The boy watched her for two or three minutes, and then carefully slipped out of his seat to the one in rear of hers. . From that point he could reach the basket, and he lost no time. A peg held the cover in place, and he drew.it out and carefully pushed his hand under the lid. It was only fairly in the basket when there was a spit and a hiss, followed by a wild yell from the boy, and the next instant a thumping big tom cat, which had nearly bitten a finger off, leaped out of the basket upon the boy’s head. It stayed long enough to draw blood from half a dozen scratches, and then bounded to the floor, ran down the aisle, and leaped out of an open window. The boy’s yells roused the car in an instant, and his mother soon had him in her arms. It took several minutes to explain the situation, aud then the woman with the basket added: “I was a-takin’ that cat up to my sister Mary. So it was my basket the boy wanted, eh ? I heard him teasin’ and teasin’, and his mother said he could have it, and I guess to swum he got it, and all there was in it!”