CHAPTER XXX.
A CIRCUS IN MR. SPRAGUE'S YARD.
PHILIP timidly made known his request and the bottle was filled. Thesaloon-keeper attended to the order in a matter-of-fact manner. As longas he got his pay he cared very little whom he dealt with.
Philip, feeling ashamed of his burden, came out with the bottle and setout on his return home. He had been delayed by the conversation at thedoor, and he had also had to wait to have the bottle filled, there beingseveral customers to attend to before him. So it happened that when hegot back Mr. Sprague and Oscar were awaiting him impatiently.
"There the boy comes at last, father," said Oscar. "He's creeping like asnail."
Whisky was Mr. Sprague's one extravagance, and he had waited longer thanusual for his customary drink. This made him irritable.
"Why don't you come along faster, you young beggar?" he called outharshly.
"I'll start him up, dad," said Oscar with alacrity.
"Do so!"
Oscar started down the road with a cruel light in his eyes. He likednothing better than to ill-treat the unfortunate boy who had been leftto the tender mercies of his father.
Philip did not understand what Oscar's coming portended till the olderboy seized him violently by the shoulders.
"Why don't you hurry up?" he demanded. "Don't you know any better thanto waste your time playing on the street?"
"I didn't waste any time. I couldn't get waited on at first."
"That's too thin! You were walking like a snail any way. I'll see if Ican't make you stir your stumps a little faster."
Oscar pushed Philip so violently that the little fellow stumbled, andthen came a catastrophe! He was thrown forward. The bottle came incontact with a stone, and of course broke, spilling the preciouscontents, as Nahum Sprague thought them.
"Now you've done it!" exclaimed Oscar. "I wouldn't be in your shoes,young man. Pa will flog you within an inch of your life."
"See what Philip has done, pa!" said Oscar, pointing to the brokenbottle.
Nahum Sprague absolutely glared at the unfortunate boy. His throat wasdry and parched, and his craving for whisky was almost painful in itsintensity. And now to have the cup dashed from his lips! It would taketime to get a fresh supply, not to count the additional cost. His wrathwas kindled against the poor boy.
"What made you break the bottle, you young rascal?" he demanded harshly.
"I didn't mean to," answered Philip, pale with fright.
"You didn't mean to? I suppose it fell of itself," retorted Mr. Spraguewith sarcasm.
"Oscar pushed me," exclaimed Philip. "He pushed me very hard, or Iwouldn't have dropped it."
"Now he wants to throw it all upon me, pa. Ain't you ashamed ofyourself?"
"It's true, Oscar, and you know it," returned Philip with a show ofspirit. "You said I didn't move fast enough."
"It's a wicked lie. I just touched you on the shoulder, and you brokethe bottle out of spite."
"I have no doubt Oscar is right," said Nahum Sprague severely. "You havedestroyed my property. You have broken the bottle as well as wasted thewhisky. You are a wicked and ungrateful boy. Here I have been keepingyou out of charity because your lazy and shiftless father left younothing."
"Don't you say anything against my father," said Philip, his meekspirit aroused by this cruel aspersion of the only human being who hadcared for him since his mother's death.
"Hoity, toity! Here's impudence! So I am not to say anything againstyour father after caring for him through his sickness and burying him atmy own expense."
"I'll pay you back, Mr. Sprague, indeed I will," said Philip, his lipquivering.
"You'll pay me back, you who are nothing but a beggar. Well, here'scheek. You talk as if you were rich instead of a pauper."
"I'll pay you some time--I have no money now--but I'll work day andnight when I am a man to pay you."
"That all sounds very well, but it don't pay me for the bottle ofwhisky. I must give you a lesson for your carelessness. Oscar, go andget the horsewhip."
"I'll do it, dad," said Oscar joyfully.
He was naturally a cruel boy, and the prospect of seeing Philip floggedgave him the greatest pleasure.
There was a small outbuilding near the house which had once been usedfor a stable when Mr. Sprague kept a horse, but the last poor animalhaving pined away and died, as it was believed from insufficient food,it was no longer in use except as a store house for various odds andends. The horsewhip was saved over from the time when it was needed forits legitimate purpose.
"Oh, don't whip me, Mr. Sprague!" pleaded Philip, frightened at the lastwords of his cruel guardian.
He was a sensitive boy, one of the kind that thrives under kindinfluences, and droops under ill-treatment. He had a delicate physicalorganization that shrank from pain, which some boys bear with stoicalfortitude.
It was not merely pain, but the humiliation of a blow that daunted him.
Mr. Sprague did not make any reply to his pleadings, but waitedimpatiently for Oscar to appear.
This was not long. Sent on a congenial errand Oscar wasted no time, butcame out of the building promptly with the horsewhip in his hand.
"Here it is, dad!" he said, handing it to his father.
All this happened in open view of the house and of the public road. Mr.Sprague was so intent upon his plan of punishing Philip that he did notnotice the approach of two men walking with unsteady steps along thehighway and now close at hand. They were the two men who had talked withPhilip in front of the drinking saloon. They had been drinking, but hadnot reached the stage of helplessness.
"I say, Joe," said one, looking towards Nahum Sprague's house, "there'swhere old Sprague lives."
"He's a mean rascal," hiccoughed the other. "I'd like to thrash him."
"There's the kid--the one he sent to buy some drink. And there's oldSprague with a whip in his hand. I'll be dog-goned if he ain't goin' tolick him. It's a beastly shame. I say, suppose we take a hand."
"All right, Bill."
Meanwhile Nahum Sprague, quite unaware that he was likely to beinterfered with, took the whip from the hand of his son. He looked atPhilip very much as a cat looks at a mouse whom she is preparing toswallow.
"Now you're going to catch it," he announced, with a cruel gleam in hiseyes. "Now you're going to see what you get for spilling my whisky. I'lllearn you!"
"Oh, please don't whip me, Mr. Sprague!" pleaded Philip. "Indeed. Ididn't mean to break the bottle."
"Nahum brought the whip down with a swish on Philip'slegs."--Page 285.
_Mark Mason's Victory_.]
"That's too thin! You didn't want to go for the whisky in the firstplace. You said your _papa_," with a mocking sneer, "didn't like tohave you go to a saloon."
"That's true, but I went."
"Because you had to. You are lazy and put on airs, just as if you wasn'ta beggar dependent on me for the bread you eat and the clothes youwear."
"My father bought me these clothes," said Philip.
"Suppose he did? When you have worn them out you'll expect me to buy yousome more."
"What are you waiting for, pa?" asked Oscar impatiently. "If you'regoing to lick him, why don't you do it?"
"I'm going to," said Nahum, and, raising the whip he brought it downwith a swish around the legs of the poor boy.
Philip cried with pain, dancing up and down, and Oscar went into a fitof laughter at what he thought an amusing spectacle.
"That's the talk, dad!" exclaimed Oscar. "You gave it to him good. Giveit to him again."
"I mean to," said Nahum grimly, and he raised the whip a second time.
"Say, Joe, are we going to stand this?" asked Bill.
"Not by a long shot! Follow me, pard."
Mr. Sprague's back was turned to the street, and he did not see thequick approach of the two miners. He was just about to bring down thewhip again upon poor defenseless Philip when he thought he was struck bya cyclone.
Bill seized him by
the collar, while Joe snatched the whip from hishand.
"Why, why, what's all this?" asked the astonished man in dismay.
"Two can play at your little game," answered Joe. "You can stand itbetter than the kid," and he lashed the unfortunate Nahum across thelegs just as Philip had suffered a short time before.
"Stop, stop!" yelled Nahum, who was a coward at heart. "What do youmean? I'll have the law of you."
"That's what you were doing to the kid. I'll give you a dose of your ownmedicine," and Mr. Sprague received a second stroke.
"Give me the whip, Joe!" cried Bill. "Give me a chance at him! Don'tkeep all the fun to yourself."
"All right! Here it is."
Bill used the whip quite as effectively as his friend Joe.
"You stop licking my pa!" exclaimed Oscar, not daring, however, toapproach the scene of conflict.
"I say, kid, what was he licking you for?" asked Bill after the firstblow.
"He said I broke the bottle and spilled the whisky."
"And did you?"
"Yes, but Oscar pushed me and made me do it."
"Who's Oscar?"
"That boy there."
"Oho! so he's to blame for it."
"It's a lie!" retorted Oscar.
"It isn't. I know the kid's telling the truth. He deserves a dose, too.Bring him here, Joe."
Joe advanced upon Oscar, and after a short chase seized him by thecollar, and brought him up to the self-appointed dispenser of justice.
"Hold him tight, Joe!"
Then Oscar felt the whip lash coiling around his legs.
"You quit that!" he howled in anger and dismay.
"One more will do you good. You're bigger than the kid and you can standit better."
A second time the lash descended with even greater force, and Oscarjumped and danced as Philip had done before him, but somehow it didn'tseem to impress him as so funny.
"You'd better give the old man more and then we'll let him go," saidJoe.
"I'll have you arrested!" shrieked Nahum Sprague, but in spite of histhreat he received another dose of the same medicine.
"When you want some more call on us!" said Bill.
As he spoke he flung the whip out into the street, and the two ministersof justice went off laughing.
"If they try to lick you again, kid, come and tell us," Joe calledback.
Mark Mason's Victory: The Trials and Triumphs of a Telegraph Boy Page 30
