PADUTCH-LIFE-L Archives

From: "Vee L. Housman" <>
Subject: 53-Spoiled Boy
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 11:44:42 -0400

THE SPOILED BOY

Dear Boonastiel:

You are a wise-headed old man, and for this reason I'm
coming to you for advice. I am the father of a boy who is terribly
spoiled. He is an only child, is nineteen years old, has always
gotten everything he's ever wanted, never works, but still breaks
our hearts. I've coaxed, pleaded, and begged him to listen, and
when I scold him his mother interferes. What shall I do with him?

Heinrich Hullerbuck

Well, Heinrich, I think you have a real job on your hands. Let
me see: The boy is an only child, doesn't work, always has
everything his way, is nineteen years old, and you can't reprimand
him? Hut are dich nuch net ga-garrebed? If he hasn't, he should
have been, because the father who has raised such a boy should
have had troubles. The boy is, I think, a "mother's pet," and a
mother's pet is generally a nuisance to the whole neighborhood.
Give a child everything that he wants, and the next thing you know
he'll take all that you have. I don't know of a better way to spoil a
child than the way you've taken, and if he doesn't won are net on
der golya coomed don is es net di shoold. Pleading is all right at
the proper times, but a good apple switch has kept many a boy from
the penitentiary.

When I was a young boy a minister once visited our house.
Of course when a minister visits, the first thing we do is catch a
chicken. After that chore was done we boys would all sit in a
corner like (gibs bubba). The minister had a son. The boy was also
an only child, six years old. The boy wore long curls, had a pale
face and wore a blue velvet suit. The minister's son wasn't at our
place for even an hour when he broke all our toys. He was a little
king, and it made me wish that I were a minister's son. The boy
eventually got to our dog and twisted his tail until the dog bit him in
the nose. When dinner was ready they all sat down to the table
except us boys. We weren't trained for eating in the company of
pastors. The pastor's son sat at the head of the table, and before
grace was even finished he pushed a glass off our table and broke it.
By that time he spotted a fresh custard pie and started yelling for it.
No time was lost in getting him what he wanted. Right after that he
wanted another piece, and he held on to that pattern until he'd eaten
half of the custard pie. At that time having a custard pie for your
guests was considered something, and when they refused to give
him anymore pie the boy began kicking the dinner table until a jar
with cream fell to the floor. The pastor said, "Now, Johnny, you
must not be so naughty or Papa will cry!"

Ge-whiliker-bumm! If they would have only left me at him!
I would have given him the other half of the pie! That boy got
everything that he ever needed except discipline--and today he's
learning the shoemaker's trade in the penitentiary.

* * *

Note: This collection of Boonastiel stories was written by H. A.
Harter in the original Penna-Dutch dialect and were published in the
Keystone Gazette, Bellefonte, PA, between 1894 and 1904. They
were translated and transcribed by Bob James of Alaska and they
are being posted to this PADUTCH-LIFE mailing list with his
permission.

This thread:

• 53-Spoiled Boy by "Vee L. Housman" <>