[Illustration: DR. JOHNSON AND HIS CAT.]




APRIL FOOL.


Most small boys are fond of April-fooling people. How often on the first
day of April have we seen the small boy wrapping up a piece of wood or
brick in the shape of a parcel bought at the store, carelessly place it
on the sidewalk as if dropped by a passer-by, and then hide himself near
by and wait for some one to be "fooled" by it.

Dick and Frank Slemmons, one April-fool's day, concluded to get up an
April-fool on a grander scale than usual. They procured an old pair of
pants, a shirt, pair of boots, gloves, a dunce's cap, and a "false-face"
or mask. They took these articles to their father's barn, and by
stuffing them with straw and putting a few extra touches of paint on the
mask, they made a hideous looking Guy. To the back of this figure, near
the shoulders, the boys fastened a string, and when it began to grow
dark they carried it out into the yard and placed it in a sitting
posture on the front fence, to fool people who were passing by. Holding
to the string they hid themselves behind the fence intending when any
one passed to let the figure fall forward as if it were about to drop
from the fence. But they failed to fool anybody, for the first one to
come along was Mike, their father's hostler, who at once discovered the
boys, and, saying "Ah! see the little laddie-bucks over the fince!" he
grabbed the guy and took it along with him.