Lonely O'Malley

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Lonely O'Malley (1905)
by Arthur Stringer

Chapter 1

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[Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill]

"Sonny, have you lost a goat?"

"Mebbe!" answered Lonely, non-committally, eyeing the angular and angry-eyed woman in the pink sunbonnet.

"Well, that goat 's et up every blessed one of my black raspberry bushes!" declared the unknown woman, looking at Lonely as though she could willingly have done the same with him.

"That 's too bad!" said the new boy, blinking at the pink sunbonnet.

2180953Lonely O'Malley1905Arthur Stringer

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WELL SIRS, WHAT WILL YOU

LONELY O'MALLEY

A Story of Boy Life

BY

ARTHUR STRINGER

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
FRANK T. MERRILL

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1905

Published September 1905

To Dorothy Violet Wilde

All youth my dearest Dorothy Violet, is divided into three parts,—that earliest blindfold age of infancy, that more wonderful mud-pie age of divers savageries and many imaginings, that still more golden and wonderful age of adolescence. Then, alas, the prison-house of actualities seems to close about us, and we awaken some fine morning to the sad fact that we are, thereafter, to be regarded as only one of the grown-ups. Of this dolorous condition you still know nothing; but when it does come, you will find your three ages of youth each merging into the other, and all grown misty. Of the first, of course, we can recall nothing. The second, alackaday, we all too quickly forget. The third, with its dreams and illusions, we carry along with us only in echoes and broken memories. So, this milestone or two on the long and devious wayside of a small boy's career may, I hope, keep alive in your heart and mine, and perhaps in a few others', some remembrances of those earlier days of life that too soon slip away—of those days when I thought you the nicest little girl in all the world, and you (dare I say it?) openly avowed that lemon meringue was the summum bonum of all existence!

A. S.

12 Plazza Barbirini, Rome, April, 1905

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Well, sirs, what will you? (page 311)

Frontispiece

The boy at the buck-saw

5

Pud Jones was moodily receiving his first lesson in garden-making

8

He emerged from under the driving-shed

11

Armed himself with great care

17

Now, what strange craft might that be?

19

Audacious, jeering, tyrannical

23

Marooned on the top of her chain-pump

33

Are n't you the new baker's little boy?

41

He does n't really look so ver-r-ry thin!

47

Once more up the back stairs

51

Why ain't you a-gittin' some schoolin'?

60

Out in the warm sunshine

67

Marvelous feats on the trapeze

77

Don't talk to me about candy!

81

Stuck out a snake-like tongue at him

89

Now, put this into your face!

101

The Goddess of Liberty and her new page

109

The red bandanna went up

121

She 'll tackle anything from a tom-cat to a terrier!

131

I kin lick you!

137

That big bully out there licked me!

143

Innocent and unsuspecting

147

Shot down his quarry

154

Do you think I 'd better risk it?

165

Dictating a truce

169

Butcher Brennan doused the burning captive

181

Nursing the injured member

183

Pored over the book until the end was reached

191

A matter of conscience to accept no more than one cheese-cake

199

Ate a good part of his newly pasted house-kite

205

Come agin!

209

He was put in the infant class

213

Whipped up over the walnut-trees

225

Just scratched gravel for all they was worth!

229

There has been some foul deed done here!

239

The old constable proceeded to make himself at home

243

The constable gave the story over again

251

Little Pinkie Ball carried fence-boards

265

Silently poled up Watterson's Creek

272

Standing grandiosely exalted on that little upper deck

275

Backed by a masked and scowling man

279

Kin you recollect that craft, Silas?

287

Bore her, struggling and kicking

303

A paper, signed in red

314

You 're captured! cried the delirious pirate crew

329

An improvised skirt-dance

341

With a spy-glass and a shot-gun

357

Pursued by the irate maiden lady

360

Stretched himself out for his nap

367

Each vindictively eyeing the other

377

CONTENTS

Chapter One. In Which Lonely Finds Himself an Outlander

3

Chapter Two. In Which the King is Again Disowned

31

Chapter Three. In Which False Gods are Pursued

59

Chapter Four. In Which there is a Triumphal Procession

95

Chapter Five. In Which the King Comes Into His Own

129

Chapter Six. In Which Lionel Clarence Makes His Escape

151

Chapter Seven. In Which Lonely Gets Religion With a Vengeance

177

Chapter Eight. In Which Lonely Tells a Story or Two

221

Chapter Nine. In Which the Greyhound Steps Forth

261

Chapter Ten. In Which Certain Pirates are Pursued

285

Chapter Eleven. In Which the Greyhound is Overhauled

301

Chapter Twelve. In Which the Biter is Somewhat Bitten

319

Chapter Thirteen. In Which Youth is Stripped of its Glory

335

Chapter Fourteen. In Which, At Last, We Find Our Hero

353

LONELY O'MALLEY

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1950, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 73 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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