Dog Gone
[In Old Ocean] the nearest person my age to play with was a boy who lived across the street from us. He was a smarty-pants kid that was hard to like. But, we played together. Out in a vacant field we built a laboratory out of boxes and boards and had some chemicals and eqipment out there. We did some simple experiments and had our own little club house. Actually, as I think of it, it may have been Jimmy’s lab, not ours. Anyhow, we played there sometimes. There were lots of dogs in the neighborhood. sometimes they chased us. I was deathly afraid of dogs, because I didn’t want to get bitten by any of them. A day came when the dogs had us cornered in the lab for a long time. It was hot in there, and we wanted to go home, but the dogs wouldn’t leave. They just hung around, waiting for us to come out so they could chase us. We bot a beaker and put some water into it and brought it to a boil. Then we poured the boiling water onto the rump of the nearest dog when we looked out. The dog immediately howled and began running away, and all the other dogs chased after him, and we went home without being chased. It was nothing to be proud of, but we were glad to be rid of the pack. We were really afraid of them.
That same boy had a habit of riding my bike when I was not at home. When confronted with this, he denied it. So, next time I had to go somewhere, I parked my bike in a certain place with it in a certain position. When I came home a little later, the bike was not in exactly the same position I had left it,–just a little bit different. Again, I confronted him about riding the bike, and told him what I had done. He confessed, and promised never to ride it again without permission. He was embarrassed to have been caught, but at least had the character to admit it when he was caught.