Show TALES OF YANKEE ENCHANTMENT l C BOY WHO TOLD STORIES What Happened When an Attempt Was Made Hade to Cure Him Kim Copyrighted by the Author Charles Battell Loomis Jack Holiday HolMay was a great exaggerator exaggerator exaggerator ator Ho Mo o could never neer hear any remark remarkable remarkable remarkable able statement without telling o or of an experience of his own or of or his fa Ca or brother that was even more remarkable If Ie Harrison Morgan said that his father had been on a train that went sixty miles an hour for Cor nearly two hours Pooh tI ats Jack would say SQ My ly father owned a train once that would go SO seventy miles mUes an hour all dav day long lone Oh get set out some rome one would reply ir I I L I I 11 It I I L Lc c 0 J Hob Hoh Said Jack My Father Saw a Kitten Given to Rim Kim That would wear an engine out and the engineer would get tired to death Why you rou silly Hilly of or course my father had the strongest engine in the world and aDd the tender was all filled with en engineers When one got tired another one took his place Or maybe mayb Sam Ormiston would tell of his brother who went up in the Maine woods and caught ten ra trout In a 0 half halt hour Pooh that aint any Jack would say sa My Uncle Tim to catch trout so fast Cast that he had to hire two boys to lo take em era off of the line and andall andall all he did was W i to throw the HOOK Into the water No bait nor Well Vell as some of you know it Is very irritating to have anything to do with witha a person who is always telling stories that are not true You would have haYe grown tired of my stories long ago If you ou had not been sure that every word was wag as g true as mJ any fairy falo story that ever was as told but these friends of Jack knew that he was just making UP P and when they had told stories that they the expected would astonish the rest of their companions and that miserable Jack had something more wonderful to spring right on top of them it vexed them exceedingly eX and they determined to stop atop It H HAll All these boys bos lived in New Ne York up near Central park or Prospect or some park maybe it was Carroll park You tee see I live in the country countr but it was near some park where they have an and an obelisk One day the boys were looking at I these animals There were ere lions and crows and tigers and sheep and hip r and sparrows and rhinos and mice and elephants and canaries canarius and all sorts of beasts that strike terror when they are loose If It you OU dont believe they the strike terror just put a lion Into a school room and see ree the boys oos run or put a cat into a mouse trap and hear the mouse squeal or 01 put a mouse into a sewing circle and hear the women scream or put a spar sparrow sparrow sparrow row into a cage and hear heal the thc canary canan beg bi to be let out Now one of oC the keepers in this me menagerie is an Asiatic of some kind and he is generally supposed to be a ma magician magician Some people say that his great great great father Cather was as Aladdin I dont believe it myself m elt but hut at ans an rate the boys had that he possessed magic powers and they thought it would be an excel e cel lent plan to get him to cure Jack of his exaggerating ex They stopped In front of the lions cage case and Sam said My lI father saw a bigger bl er lion Hon than this in London Hoh said Jack Jsck my father had a kitten kItt given to him by a man out west and the first thing he knew it grew crew up to lobe be a lion H n and it I t was the biggest ever known This lion Hon would look like a baby b beside be It IL ILOh itOh Oh Ob come cease off said eald all the boys bos to together together gether getter Where is the lion Weve Wee known knon v m ever eer since you were a kid and we never saw sav it n itOh nOh ItOI Oh OI I dont mean lately I r mean when pupa papa was R a little boy He sold the lion Hon long ago Juet Just then some seine boys bos swept by th the lion house on roller skates and Sam who no wa was looking out said See those ho e kids go I wish I could Quid skate as fast as that said Jack T I can skate twice as fist fast as that uphill too tA Why Jack Holiday said ld Tracy Get gold fish In n hair pull butterflies out of butter pull rabbit out of oC vest pocket Yes me magic man Good enough said Sam You see we have a a friend here who is a terrible I well wen he know when he is telling a whopper and we thought that If it you could give him a Jose lose of magic that maybe you could stop him You Yoa should have seen the gleeful smile that appeared on the sober face of that Asiatic He nodded his head so 90 fast that Sam was afraid hed break his neck and he ho saId Oh Ob yes es me cure him Me make him do what he be say eay he do it said Sam Then he added a little doubtfully I dont want him hint hurt you see but we fellers are deed dead sick of oC hearing him say eay he can cando cando cando do this and that better than anyone else or that his father Cather is richer than the president He cant skate a little bit and the Ste e says he can skate faster than any of us and lie he any brother at all but he says sas that his brother can cnn play the cornet better than anybody in the big military bands Me know that kind htmL In India too Call Can em cm liars Do you your said Sam Sun rapturously So Sodo Sodo Sodo do we only I thought you might not like the word Well Vell when will vill you be begin gin ein Any time Bring boy Then the fellow turned and affectionately patted the trunk of the big elephant behind him and that great beast lifted him bUn high In the air all just for Cor pure mischief When he set him down the magician said eaid to Jack who had been brought broucht over to him How do Jack shook hands hand with him and while he was do doing doing doing ing so eo the magician said something that sounded to Sam like Then he said All AU right Cure all aU right Good loOd Goodbye Goodbye bye and pointed to the door and the boys all rushed out as boys do Ing and yelling for no reason in the thew world w except that they the were in Ia high I Is spirits s ri i iThe The boys bors were exceedingly curious to toBee eee see how hon the charm would affect the unconscious Jack Tack so EO Sam walked over overto overto overo to t o a very high elm and said saidI I wish I could climb cUmb that Pooh said Jack I lean can shin aim to the theo top t o of that In a second very eo much to his sur stir surprIse prIse p rise and discomfiture he tie e was shin shinning shinning shining ning n ing UP that th t tree and never stopped to t o take breath until he had worn out his h is trousers at the knees and reached the he t top both of which feats he be accomplished accomplished p at the th same time But when he stopped he was a very r 1 He Me Make Magic agic scared boy bo How to get down he did not know nor could the boys bo s suggest t any an way war wayA w wA warA A crowd began to gather g ther Mercy on onus onus onus us How did he get up there It was a tree that would w have been hard for a steeple Jack Tack to olo climb and how boa ouch euch an ordinary Jack as Jack had accomplished it no one not in the se so secret t cret could tell But there he was stas and them there hed stay unless some one went event for him Cut the tree down said one man manfor manfor manfor for there are always people around who think no more move of trees than they do of old ok shoes but fortunately there were vere some there who knew how many years the tree had taken token to climb as high as Jack Tack had in a minute and they the said It would be better far to cut Ja Tack k down than to harm the But by great good luck there here was a aboy aboy aboy boy In the crowd who had a box kite and he immediately flew fi W it and the twine mine passed near enough for lor Jack to catch hold of It Now said Sam I bet I could slide down that twine in two shakes of a lambs tail But I can do it In one ane shake said eaid Jack and he did landing all right on the asphalt pavement pa ment The crowd cheered and dispersed and that was the end of or lesson num number number number ber one You never neer had bad such su h an experience as ne that before did dW you J Jack ck asked Sam Lots of or times answered Jack I told you ou I was a tree climber He cured yet whispered Tracy to Sam Give GIe him time answered Sam Lets go SO down to the lake So they all ran pell pen mell meU down to the lake Jake and there were the swan boats Those look Jook hard to manage Its harder border to run one of oC those than it Is to run a bike said Sam 11 JACK AS A WRESTLER Ledyard You YI U know your ankles are weak and you Ou ou cant skate hardly hard hardan any an anThen Then it t was that Sam made up his mind to see the Asiatic end and ask him if ho he could help them out I He lie found him in the house with a turban on his hit head and a shawl thrown o r his shoulders for the day seemed cold old to him bUn Im although It was as June Sam ran back and got the th other boys and while Tracy kept Jack Tack out of ot hearing Sam Stun said Are you a ma urn magician 1 Yes Yee said the Asiatic nodding his hia head up bP and dow don Me Ie make magic Ii t TaInt either said Beld Jck puffing out his hia lips My father Cather used to have hae those up on our lake Jake in the country count and I can make em go lasier as er than those m men n can n c 4 tf The words were cere ere h out of OC his mouth before the swan boat up to the wharf the boatman jumped out and lifted Jack Jock into the seat seas and he began to propel It around the lake Jake It will ill be understood that these are really water velocipedes and are worked by b moons moans of that turn big bIS paddles so th tr anyone who rides a bicycle will know how to run one although he may lack the requisite strength h But o for Cor once thanks to the magician Jacks muscles were ere strong enough Round Bound and the lake he went at a speed that had er been be n witnessed before and that made him so dizzy diary that he would nave have been glad to stop but he be The boys boyE stood on the shore and cheered and Jeered by turns Then they thel fell to laughing as poor Jack raced Ced r around aro nd his hair streaming in the wind his hia hat In the bottom of or the boat and his feet bobbing bobbins up and down like corn cornIn cornIn cornin In a popper At last he began to show signs of ex Ox and then Sam called out you ou cant stop atop Bet BetI I could stop In two minutes Bet I can stop rl right ht t off are said Jack and did so 60 with a suddenness that threw him out of the time boat upon a little Island in the center of the th lake The boatmen had b bf been en en watching him bUn with the greatest as a and andone andone andone one of or them rowed to the tte island In an sn ordinary boat and brought him to the mainland in a really exhausted e austed condi condition condition tion thin Youre a wonder boy said sald the j C t But There He Was Wak to Stay Unless Some One Went For Por Kim Him in a Jiffy boatman I never saw anyone go as s fast as that nothing said frold Jack true to hla his Instincts You ought to see me wrestle This remark made Sam afterward I j wonder whether the he had bad not suspected that he had been enchanted and want wanted wanted wanted ed to nay Day the boys bos back for playing such a trick on him himAt himAt himAt At any rate as soon as he said it the weariness went from him and anti he be be began began began gan to wrestle with Tracy and had thrown him inside of thirty seconds s He tackled Sam next and each boy In turn until there were ten boys lying winded on the grass But he now found Cound that he stop top wrestling A man and his wife came walking by b and he tackled the man and threw him in a amy Jiffy my Then Thep he set on a park police policeman policeman policeman man and threw him and when an another another another other policeman come cavie to his compan ions aid he threw him But suddenly in the midst of his ac ae active active tive tire exercise he be dropped like a stone white hite and breathless Sam went to tc him and ad asked him what was the mat matter matter matter ter Oh I dont know kow I want wani I to climb nor run the swan boat nor not wrestle vesle but I just had to and my ml heart feels as if I it I were going to stop Welt Weir Jack Jack If Ir yul promise promie not to tC I tell such horrible whoppers in future I I think I can get you ou out of this fix fx Ill Il bet Ill Il tell teU less le s whoppers than that any boy in this his crowd for tor the next nex year er said sid Jack Tack in a weak voice And the next instant very thema stepped out of or a tree trunk and am i said backward backard and Jack got go up as fresh as a a daisy da But now the boys complain that hat he Is Isery L Lr S very ery Uninteresting because beau no matter matta mater r how much they exaggerate he only onh r i says rys My I wish wl h I could do as a well wel as 4 a 3 that tat but he never offers to tell tel them then how much better he be and his hla hl family I could do it I |