ystified.

"I haven't time to tell you now, but I must have a long talk with you
some day. You aint had no sort of bringing up. Do you ever read the
Bible?"

"No, but I've read the life of Cap'n Kidd. He was a smart man,
though."

"Captain Kidd, the pirate?" asked the deacon, horrified.

"Yes. Wa'n't he a great man?"

"He calls a pirate a great man!" groaned the deacon.

"I think I'd like to be a pirate," said Sam, admiringly.

"Then you'd die on the gallus!" exclaimed the deacon with energy.

"No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't let 'em catch me," said Sam, confidently.

"I never heerd a boy talk so," said the deacon. "He's as bad as a--a
Hottentot."

Deacon Hopkins had no very clear ideas as to the moral or physical
condition of Hottentots, or where they lived, but had a general notion
that they were in a benighted state, and the comparison seemed to him
a good one. Not so to Sam.

"You're calling me names," he said, discontentedly. "You called me a
Hottentot."

"I fear you are very much like those poor, benighted creatures,
Samuel," said his new guardian; "but it isn't wholly your fault. You
have never had any religious or moral instruction. This must be
rectified. I shall buy you a catechism this very day."

"Will you?" asked Sam, eagerly, who, it must be explained, had an idea
that a catechism was something good to eat.

"Yes, I'll stop at the store and get one."

They went into Pendleton's store,--a general country variety store, in
which the most dissimilar articles were kept for sale.

"Have you got a catechism?" asked the deacon, entering with Sam at his
side.

"We've got just one left."

"How much is it?"

"Ten cents."

"I'll take it."

Sam looked on with interest till the clerk produced the article; then
his countenance underwent a change.

"Why, it's a book," he said.

"Of course it is. It is a very good book, from which you will learn
all about your duty, and your religious obligations."

"You needn't buy it. I don't want it," said Sam.

"Don't want the catechism!" said the deacon, not without anger.

"No, it aint any good."

"My boy, I know better what is good for you than you do. I shall buy
you the catechism."

"I'd rather you'd get me that book," said Sam, pointing to a thin
pamphlet copy of "Jack, the Giant-Killer."

But Deacon Hopkins persisted in making the purchase proposed.

"Are there any pictures in it?" asked Sam.

"No."

"Then I shan't like it."

"You don't