American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-01-11
SHOOTING A MONOGRAM.


AS MIR. HOSKIN was returning home
ward with his wife from market, and from
the bank where he had made a small de
post, he stopped to fix the sottest part o
the sheepskin over his end of the seat.
e''Julia's kind o. handsome, but we dom
want Phil to bother with her, said Mr.
Hoskin after silently framing himself.
Mrs. Hoskin answered, Eyes, L dom
say but what she looks very we'll"
mo, she dent look very well, Meth
err" was the immediate reply.
Her adoption of any opinion made i,
worthless. and he soon added, "But, af
ter all, don't know bout that. TAKE
her 'arly N the mornin', when a person
ought to be jes' like cricket, an she
pears too slimpsy to beNof any value
in muddy water. She looks wuss 'ns
Yes, so she does ~ said MRS. Hoskir
thoughtfully. I'D never "a EGeved il
o. Phil. But them colds in his head and
that gathered ear was enough to make
him almost insane"
Don't care anything about his head
tered Hoskin. 1.-The fact is, you've spill
him.
The farm of Mr.. Hoskin. who was ma
tive OF New England. adjoined that of Mr.
Diegle, who was a native of Pennsylva
mia, and their houses were halt milo
apart, with cultivated fields between. Mr.
Hoskin had no child excepting Phil. Mr.
Diegle had no child excepting Julia, who
from her window saw Mr.. HOskin drive
up to his gate and wait for Phil to come
and open it. She smiled family as she
likewise saw Phil saunter in an opposite
direction toward the woods, while Mr..
Hoskin got down gloomily and opened
the gate himself.
In the mean time, Mr.. Diegle, seating
himself peacefully between his griH;lstone
and the wOodpile, whetted an axe and con
sidered calmly the folly OF cutting such
unsatisfactory bean-pOles as grew on hi
own land, when he could enter his neigh.
boris woods and get some good ones. lie
was silent man to all , and particularly
so to Mr.. Hoskin, with whom his last con
versation-prompted by an angry anC
trouble ONE question about their line
fence-had consisted of a single sentence
Knowing that nothing creditable to him
self could be said ON that subject, he hat
simply answered, s'If lif py you twenty
fife year, 1 will say no more words to YOU
He had straight, long back, the small
est head, and no legs worth mentioning
but his stomach was a tremendous hemis
phere. beginning at the lowest and larg
est of his chins and ending where hi:
knees were supposed to be. He looked
in profile like the capital d, which
thus stood for Diegle in a double
sense. From the front he likewise
resembled an o, and as his first name
was Oscar, he could ever become his OWL
monogram by simply changing front.
A long shotgun was over Pills shout
der, and Tip was marching at his heels
This firearm was scarcely a fOwling-pie
although sometimes it carried cOnster
nation into a fleet of wild-ducks on thu
creek, or cut away the foliage from a tai
oak tree in which wild pigeons were chok
ing themselves with acOrns-but was jus
what Phil called it, "a thunderin' goot
shotgun"
Tip, like the shotgun, can be best de
scribed in the language of Phil, who sac
he was part bull and part setter, and par
hound and part terrier, and part spaniel
He had other parts, but Phil was not SUR
that he knew what they were. .,,u at las
Phil at first, and .Sfg shotgun, disap
peared at the entrance of the wood, under
IA beech tree whose bark was carved with
letters and dates. the names and ages OF
those who had sported, labored, nutted
idled here for so may years that severa
initials were quite Overgrown.
American husbandry might add mucl
to their interest by ceasing to tell farm
ers that their calling is the most nobl,
under the sun; that they are the mos
favored of men that they are the hap
piest mOrtals on Garth; that the fate o
the human Zee is exclusively in thei
hands. because if people don't have any
thing to eat they cannot live long; that i
is deplorable folly in young men 20 for
sake the chaste pleasure of fattening hogs
the ennobling duty of hauling manure
for the degradations of city life,-by
emitting all this and publishing. in TIL,
space thus gained, a true and well-writter
history of all the line fences in the land
A glance at the line fence between the
farms of Hoskin and Diegle, and study
OF the battles, sieges, fortunes it hat
passed, would have left this opinion in
the mind of the most bigOted believer il
agricultural bosh. 1t was the duty o.
each proprietor to keep One-half of thi
fence in repair: and because each per
formed this duty better than the other
there arose a border war which had re
suited in stolid contempt on the part o
Mr.. Diegle and in distrust on the part o
Mr.. Hoskin.
Phil saw, in the top of a hickory tree
a gray squirrel reaching for sphut, swing
ing head downward from small Drancl
like performer on the trapeZe. An eX
plosion below interrupted the squirrels
pursuit of that particular nut; but wac
remained, as usual, in the shotgun, anC
Phil, Sc ting himself on a log for til.
next half hour, began coaXing powder
into the percussion-nipple with a pin.
Julia paid no attention to her father
who shouldered his axe and sought the
woods without observing the arrival a
home OF his neighbor. That neighbol
noticed him, however, as he crossed tbs
fields. This may be accounted for by as
suming that Mr.. Diegle, viewed from tn,
rear, was larger than horse and wagon
When he came near the spot where Mr.
Hoskin's straightest oak saplings grew
Mr.. Diegle's pursuit, like the squirrels
was arrested by the same explosion. Hi:
knowledge of Phi's shotgun was super
fetal, his minds eye saw not the Gu TOM
airy wad, and he paused but a few minutes
for Phil to pass out of hearing.
Mr.. Hoskin, seeing his neighbor disap
pear mysteriously with an axe on hi:
shoulder, remembered that Mr.. Dieglt
had been seen to pick up a broken pan,
of glass which Phil had thrown into til,
road; that Mr.. Diegle would not make ;
helvc without using broken glass fol
smoothing it; that the wooded land o
MIR. Diegle was destitute of helve timber
that to Mr.. ID egle the making of a helv'
was more agreeable than ploughing
and that a certain choice little hickory
tree, long reserved for Lis own helves
and not on Mr.. Diegle's side OF The line
fence, had lately resolved itself into ;
low stump, PROSTATE top and few
fresh chips.
Helves, Pennsylvania Dutchmen
hickory trees, young lovers and lin,
fences We're luridly mingled in the APP
piehension of Mr.. Hoskin as he stripped
the harness from his horse. He paused IL
pluck three or four brOwn-paper parcels
from under the wagon-seat, and endan-
ger the head OF his wife by hurting then
in rs many different directions; ther
he thrust the harness toward peg inside
the stable door and hastcneI ON q rncnn