Books with title Peck's bad boy and his Pa

A young fellow who is pretty smart on general principles, and who is always in good humor, went into a store the other morning limping and seemed to be broke up generally. The proprietor asked him if he wouldn't sit down, and he said he couldn't very well, as his back was lame. He seemed discouraged, and the proprietor asked him what was the matter. "Well," says he, as he put his hand on his pistol pocket and groaned, "There is no encouragement for a boy to have any fun nowadays. If a boy tries to play an innocent joke he gets kicked all over the house." The store keeper asked him what had happened to disturb his hilarity. He said he had played a joke on his father and had been limping ever since.

This is the complete edition, containing both volumes, of one of the most widely read of all American humor books. "Peck's Bad Boy and his Pa" is one of the funniest books popular American literature has ever produced. The endless array of ingenious pranks played by the incorrigible "bad boy," Hennery, on his Pa and on the grocery man, the outraged pomposity of Pa as he continually struggles to recover his lost dignity, the perpetual ridiculing of middle class institutions, are as entertaining today as they were in 1883.

A funny and accessible book even today, Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa offers a glimpse into how childhood was in the USA back in the old days of the late 19th century. Loosely based on the author's own family life, the allusions to how things were on the Wisconsin frontier in those times, and the folksy expressions and slang of that era evoke nostalgia and fondness for a bygone America. In a time before radio, television or the Internet, most people received lighthearted entertainment from books such as this.

A young fellow who is pretty smart on general principles, and who is always in good humor, went into a store the other morning limping and seemed to be broke up generally. The proprietor asked him if he wouldn't sit down, and he said he couldn't very well, as his back was lame. He seemed discouraged, and the proprietor asked him what was the matter. "Well," says he, as he put his hand on his pistol pocket and groaned, "There is no encouragement for a boy to have any fun nowadays. If a boy tries to play an innocent joke he gets kicked all over the house." The store keeper asked him what had happened to disturb his hilarity.