Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-07-20
Without saving a wo-d, he turned, |


and ran for the woods as fast as his
legs would carry him. In a very few
minutes he returned, carving piece
of grapevine about half an inch thick,
and five or six feet long. With this in
his hands he bounded into the crowd
at the foot of the tree.
lis it fifteen dollars" he cried. for
any one who gets that hat 2"
at 1Ous fifteen dollars said an
elderly gentleman who stood near the
tree, '.but now it has gone up to
twenty. Can you climb that tree, my
boy!'
II am going to try, sir" said jim
my.
Every well, Them" said the gentle
man Z" the money is yours if you sue
coed.
Jimmy now stepped up TO the tree,
and holding the grapevine horizontal
ly before him, placed the center of it
against the trunk He then wrapped
the vine once around the ire and
bringing the ends back to him, took
one in each hand. He then loosened
the vine a little and pushed it up the
tree as far as ne could reach. Now
holding tightly to the ends, he drew
himself up. The vine firmly bound
around the tree by his weight, did not
slip an inch. This was the way he had
read that the sayages climbed TALL trees.
When he had thus drawn himself up
he wound his legs around the tree ana
held fast until he had loosened the vine
and pushed it up again. And so, foot
by foot, he went steadily up that tall
plne-tree 1t was terribly tiresome
work, and he stopped to rest several
times; butat last he reached the branch
es Grasping the lover one, he drew
himself up, dropped his grapevine
and seating himself on the branch, rest
ed for several minutes. Then he climb
ed up to the hat, disengaged it, and
threw it down. AS the hat, with It's
beautiful blue veil, came floating down,
n tremendous cheer arose from the
people on the ground but, fortunate
ly, Jimmy was not startled by it. AZ
ter resting Il short time, he came down
the, tree. He could slip gradually
down, without any grapevine. As
soon as he reached the ground every
body clustered around him, and the
elderly gentleman who had collected
the money, handed him the twenty
dollars.
Now, my lad, said he, II hope you
will make good use of this
You may be sure Of that, sir" said
the landlord of the hotel. 81 know
Jimmy, and he'll give it to his mother.
As for Jimmy, he thanked the com
pany, and hurried away. But not
home Early in the summer, hismoth
er's only hogan animal on which she
depended for much of her living dur
ing the winter-had died Jimmy
knew that nothing would please her so
much as another hog, and so he went
to Farmer Peters, who he knew had
hogs for sale, to buy her one About
an hour before supper,tim he appear
ed before his mothers door, driving
fine lazy porker.
"Why whose hog is that said she.
It's yours, mother; and | climbed
up tree after it, said Jimmy.
When the story was told, his mother
was delighted; and all that winter,
when they had hams, and spare ribs,
and pork-and- beans, and sausages, and
lard, and hogshead cheese, and scrap
pie, and picked pigs feet, and all the
other things that can be made ont of
line fat hog, Jimmy was very glad that
lie had remembered how the sayages in
the Pacific islands climbed tall trees.
Hcaib 0ad Home.