The Shasta courier., 1865-10-07
A Snake Story.


narrator 5 own style and lingo:
/ Well, mind yerself now, sir, and III tell
yea bit of story that happened to meself
: onst on a time. Ye see. yer honor, | was in
I the West lngies. and in the SSth ut the
same time. | was in Captain Leicester's
company, and he used to take me along wild
hlm shootin'. Well we wint down to q
/ place IN Jamaiky. called Lord Grenada s, to
shoot, and mighty fine place it was entire
". Well, Lord Grenada was q nagur, and
as black as the divvle. begging your honor's
! pardon, but the government made him Lord
Grenada bekase he coaxed the Frinch fleet
! one time into a place they could get aeitie'
| an mr. ont Of, and thin be wint and tould of
\ thim the dirty nagur. and the English tux
the Frinch, and gave him grand place and
title, and begorra, ay you'd only call him
my lord, but you d see the Madary come
on the table.
Well now, ye see, before this Lord Gre
NADIA had been losing a lot Of sheep off his
place, and he TUX it into his ould woolly
pate that his sarvInts was Robin him.
Musha but he was as black as they wor,
but no mather for that. he sint thin tatthe-
rim, horse, foot and dragons, and dis
charged whole lot Of thm But, begorra.
the sheep wint as fast as before, and at last
rumofs KEN that there was the divvle's own
snake rampaging about the country and atm
the sheep. Well one seen it and another
seen 1t, and 1t was as sartin as the pipes in
my mouth but 1t was a snake was attn the
sheep. Then the lord was sorry for dis
charging his sarvints.
Well, the sheep KEEP going. and the lord
hired three of the SSth, with their firelocks,
to Kill the snake. But they wor wild div
wills, and only laughed at him, and got
drunk for three days, so he started them
back to their barracks agin. The dickens a
hair they cared for him or his snake as long
as the liquor was to the fore, and they do say
that the next child Lord Grenada had was
wonderfully white about the gills, Musha
but civilisation is a great invntion.
Well, the captain heerd of the snake, and
by this and by that nothin' would do HIM but
he must have a crack at it somehow. so he
takes me along wild him, and off we wint,
and afther walking some miles we came to a
place where there were three or four paths
running in different directions round a bit of
a hill, where they tould Us the snake fre-
quinted, and the captain tux one path and |
folly'd another, and as | was going along
through the grass for a bit. may niyer av
there wasn't the snake lying across the track
forninst me, and him fast asleep. Well. sir.
at first | thought I'd die wild the fright, for
he was three times as big round the body as
meself. Well, the sweat rowled aft me like
Niagara Falls.
Mind yerself now, sure I was as wake as
wather. Howandiyer, gev him both bar
rels, and ran away ike as if the divvle was
foggin' me wild singing nettles, and the
captain came powdherin' a!ther me like a
four-year old FLY, and he axed me- "What
did | shoot at?'' and ! tould him, and says
he, Come back wild me till we kill him.
9 Sorra bit o. me will 60" says l.
g Didn't | see him raise right up on the end
of his TAIL wild his mouth as wide open as a
sixty four FOUNDER, and him roaring like a
bull in spring time. Sorra foot of me will
co. says l.
'Arrah, stay where you are, my good
man." says he; g but | think We made a
mistake whin ye listed in the Connaught
Rangers
And away he wint to find the Shiny cray
ture; but, begorra. | wasn't going to let
him go alone, 50 | folly'd afther, and whin
we KEN to where the snake was, sure enough
he was thrashin' the grass wid his tail like
forty farmers in August.
" Mind yerself now, sir, says | to the
captain. But the dickens mind he minded,
but jest let fly his two barrels, and | fired
two more, and the snake gev two great flirts
of his tail in the air, and then down he KEN
as dead as thin pickles.
WE'LL" says the captain, Il think
we've done a grand days work, Mae, and
Lord Grenada's lush will suffer for it, any
how"
GTrv;1 civ so1-s g o,- ,-,,, c.o4 4:. ,,
THAT'S like yer impidence,' SAYS he.
laughing; but maybe you're not so far
wrong. Let's go, at any rate"
Well, we tux another look at the snake,
and saw be was ready to be walked, ard thin
we wint up to Lord Grenada and tould him
what we'd done, and maybe the Madary
didn't come out, and the finest Jamaiky rum
ever tasted and maybe | didn't get as
drunk as Dayid's sow and rowled around
among thin pagurs like bunch of rushes
in a gale of wind. And as for the captain.
musha but such a spree ye niyer saw
Begorra, the last | reminder. he and Lord
Grenada was swearin everlasting friendship
to ache other, and whin | woke in the morn
ing they wor both snorin' under the table.
but tie Captain had tie nagur tor pi1Ioc
Well, thin, afther breakfast, meself and
lot of other nagurs wint down and hauled he
snake up to the house, and he was one hun
dred and fifty feet long and eight feet round
the body. Don't be laughin' there; it's true
every word of it. And | stuffed him. and
the captain sent him to Prince Albert for a
Christmas box. though what good there was
in that sure meself doesn't know, only there
be is in Windsor Castle to this day, and I'm
expecting pnsion for it every day this ten
years. But the dickins hair they care. and
now the prince is dead and the captain too.
or We might either of thin. Musha but
wish Queen Victoria knew the rights of it.
and I'd lay a trauneen I'd get the cross.
ANYWAYS Tisn't every day man kills a
snake that size.
THE Pittsburg Post says there is a well
-. 81. II II c;t1 ,-ho is cnr-..-..-