The King of the Park

Eugene and King Boozy.
BY MARSHALL SAUNDERS, AUTHOR OF “BEAUTIFUL JOE,” “CHARLES AND HIS LAMB,” “FOR THE OTHER BOY’S SAKE,” ETC. FOURTH THOUSAND New York: 46 East Fourteenth Street THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY Boston: 100 Purchase Street
Copyright, 1897, By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. Typography by C. J. Peters & Son, Boston. Presswork by Rockwell & Churchill.
I Inscribe This Book TO POLICE-SERGEANT CHARLES WESLEY HEBARD OF THE BACK BAY FENS, AND HIS HUMANE ASSOCIATES, TO MRS. HEBARD, HIS KIND-HEARTED WIFE, AND TO THE PARENTS OF THE DEAR GIRLS AND BOYS WHO PLAY ABOUT THE HOME OF THE WELL-KNOWN KING OF THE PARK.
Marshall Saunders.

THE KING OF THE PARK.
Police Sergeant Hardy stood near the Boylston Street entrance to the Fens, his back toward the hundred and fifteen acres of park land which it was his duty to guard, his good-natured face overspread by a smile, as he watched a young lady taking a bicycle lesson in a secluded walk on his left.
The young lady approached the machine held by her instructor as if it were a horse, then springing nimbly on it, her features became rigid with anxiety as she found that her steed would neither go on nor stand still.
Her heroic grapplings and wrestlings with it, her wild gyrations to and fro in the walk, while her teacher dashed madly after her, were so ludicrous that the sergeant, although he was well used to such spectacles, was obliged to turn away to conceal the broad grin that overspread his countenance.
The next object of his attention was a Gordon setter who was gayly trotting into the park, but who, on catching the sergeant’s eye, at once changed his happy-go-lucky demeanor for a guilty shambling gait.
“What are you doing here, Mr. Ormistead’s dog?” said the sergeant in a stern voice, as he glanced at the animal’s collar. “Where’s your escort?”