The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1855-03-31
IA. Lo..asooa,. Daddy .Aet,ns Horse
BY --- L. OF TENNESSEE.

d
"Hold that ERE hoss down to the yearth !"
He s a spreadin hs tail to fly now!" keep
him wher he sis!"i /" Wo! \" Wo, Shave
tail ~ "He g dancing q jig !"f
These and like expressions were addressed to
a ,queer-looking, shortbodied, snial-headed,
whte-haired, hogeyed, funny sort Of o genius,
fresh from some benchlegged Jews clothing
store, and mounted on "Tearpoke," nick
tailed, bow-necked long, poor horse, half dam
dy, half devil, and enveloped all over in a
perfect network of bride reins, cruppers, mar
tingales, STRAPS, surcingles and red fcrretin,
who had reincd up in front of Pat Nash's
grocery among a crowd of wild mountaineers
full Of fight and mean whisky. se4
II say, you darned ash-cats, just keep your
shirts on You never seed rale boss till
rid up! Tarpoke is js next to the best hoss
that ever shelled nubbns an he s dead as
still-worm, poor old Tickytaill"
What killed him, Sut Z" says an anxious
inquirer. .t
"Why, nothin, you tarnal fool: he jist died
so---died standin up, at that. Warn't that
good pluck? Froze stiff: no, not that adj
sackly, but starved fust and then froze after
wards, so stiff that when dad and me pushed
him over, he just stuck out so (spreadng his
arms and legs) like a carpenters bench, an we
waited seventeen days for him to thaw afore
we could skin i'm. Well, thar he was-Dad
and me- counting on his fingers, Dad and
me, and Sail and Jake, E Fool Jake we call
him for short,) and Jonas, and Phineas, and
me, and Callime Jane, Charlotte Anr,, and
Simeon Paul. and Cassius Henry Clay, and
Noah Daniel Webster, and me, and the twin
gals, and Catherine Second, and Cleopatry
Antony, and Jane Lind, and Tom Brallion, and
the baby, and the prospect, and MAN herself,
nll left without ary boss to crap with That
was nice mess for spectacle white family to
be dashin about in, warn't it? Il be durned-
] felt like sorter stealth hsoss sometimes
Well, we waited, and rested, and wished, and
waited, onti well into strawberry time, hopin'
some stray boss mout come along, but dog my
cat ef any SIGH luck as that ever comes whar
dad is, he s so drafted mea1l and lazy and ugly
and savage. vi
-" Well, one night, dad he lay awake all
night, a snortin, a rollin alhd a BLOWN, and u
scratchin, and whisperin at man, and mex
mornin says he,f Sut, II tell you what we II
do: | II be horse myself and pull the plow,
while you drive me, and VIE IL. break up corn
ground, and then the old quilt (that s MANY
and the brats kin plant or let it alone, jist as
they damn please So 5out we goes to the
pawpaw thicket, and ,gpealed a right peart
chance of bark, and mesm and me made gears
for dad, and they becursn him nightly. Then
he would have bridleS; 80 / gifts an old UNI
breller what found---ifs 3 little forked piece
of iron, sorter like into n pitchfork, you
know-aud we bent and twisted it sorter into
bride bit, snaffle shape dad wanted it curb,
as he said he had MT worked for some time,
and might sorter feel his oats and 90 to ca
vortin. Well, when we got. the bride all fixed
on dad, he chomped the bit list like hoss (he
allers was most complicated burned old fool
any how, and nam alters said SO when he
warn't about then pus&S on the gears, and
out dad and me goes to the field, / a leadin dad
by the bride, aud a totin the, eoher plough on
my back. When we come tJ, the fence, i LEI
down a gap, and it made dad smad he wanted
TO jump the fence on oil fousrs, hoss way.
hitched MN INTO the gopher and away he
went, dad leanln iesrard to fnis pullin right
pearl ana we made sharp plfowin, dad goir
right over the sprouts and bushes same as q
rale hoss-the only difference wa : he went or
two legs, Presently we come I'd, a sassafras
bush, and dad, to keep up his character as 3
nuigea sqaar INTO It, and thru it, and tore
aofne'e nest nlgs Onto -, big as ,