Story of a Bad Boy Author:Thomas Bailey Aldrich Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE STORY OF A BAD BOY CHAPTER I IN WHICH I INTRODUCE MYSELF This is the story of a bad, boy. Well, not such a very bad, but a pretty bad boy ; and I ou... more »ght to know, for I am, or rather I was, that boy myself. Lest the title should mislead the reader, I hasten to assure him here that I have no dark confessions to make. I call my story the story of a bad boy, partly to distinguish myself from those faultless young gentlemen who generally figure in narratives of this kind, and partly because I really was not a cherub. I may truthfully say I was an amiable, impulsive lad, blessed with fine digestive powers, and no hypocrite. I did not want to be an angel and with the angels stand; I did not Not a Chenib think the missionary tracts presented to me by the Rev. Wibird Hawkins were half so nice as Robinson Crusoe; and I failed to send my little pocket-money to the natives of the Feejee Islands, but spent it royally in peppermint-drops and taffy candy. In short, I was a real human boy, such as you may meet anywhere in New England, and no more like the impossible boy in a story-book than a sound orange is like one that has been sucked dry. But let us begin at the beginning. Whenever a new scholar came to our school, I used to confront him at recess with the following words : " My name 's Tom Bailey ; what's your name ? " If the name struck me favorably, I shook hands with the new pupil cordially; but if it did not, I would turn on my heel, for I was particular on this point. Such names as Higgins, Wiggins, and Spriggins were deadly affronts to my ear; while Langdon, Wallace, Blake, and the like, were passwords to my confidence and esteem. Ah me ! some of those dear fellows are rather elderly boys by this time — lawyers, merchants, sea-captains, soldiers, authors, wha...« less