Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-11-13

place to get into? ?"
"You bet |" exclaimed Bing. "Why,
cap'n, it's just the deadest town you
ever hearn tell on. It growed powerful
fest, it did. Thar was only coyote
hole thar at first, an the city sort O.
growed up around that-a little the
quickest you ever seen. Alters full of
human coyotes, too, arter they'd skeered
off the four-footed ones I've been thar
more'n once, and now I'm gwine agin.
I'm gwine right into that thar town."
"But what do you want to go there
for if it's such a dangerous sort of
place ?" asked the captain.
wall, you see, capen," said Bing,
with species of snort, that's just
whar the rub comes. You see, Crooked
Pines just the deadest sort of town,
and it's the on'y place whar the boys
ever made out to git a white skeer onto
old Bing. They just did that more'n a
year ago. They gobbled my pile fust,
and then they run me clean out of
Crooked Pine, and thus I took to the
mountaings, and I've beeu thar pretty
much ever since. I've had the tallest
kline of good luck, but I sha'n't be COM
Portable in my mind till I've been back
to Crooked Pine. I'm gwine to ride
this ere old mule right into that thar
and we're Almost thar, now."
The captains curiosity was evidently
somewhat excited by what he had heard,
and his long nose was aimed pointedly
up the valley, which was widening out
upon sort of plateau of no very won
derful extent, and there were certainly
evidences of some sort of settlement.
The land around, here and there, looked
even as if at some time or other an effort
had been made to put it under fence and
cultivation.
SIS that the city of Crooked Pine ?"
asked the captain eff the mule-rider.
"No, sir-ree,' % replied Bing" we amt
into Crooked Pine. Not yet we amt !;
but I'm gwine to ride right in thar on
this 'ere old mule. This ere place is
on'y the graveyard, and, tell you, they
need one, for it's just the deadest town
you ever seen"
"Isn't it healthy place ?" asked the
captain, with an uneasy twitch of the
point of his nose.
Healthy ?" exclaimed Bing. "Did
you ever hear of an unhealthy place
among these mountings? Crooked
Pines healthy place, you bet, on'y fell
lers don't seem to live long thar, that's
all. It's just the deadest place you ever
seen, and L tell you they scared old
Ding, Gn0y ulu. DuG Ill SHluc W Iluc
right inthar, L am"
"Thought you said this place was the
graveyard" remarked the captain, veer-
ing his nose slowly around the COM
pass.
"Wall, an SO it is,' said Bing but
over yonder's the on'y patch that pears
to be planted. Look at them sticks :?
Lots of 'em !. Them with hole bored
into 'em means revolver. Them that's
notched so deep all round says how the
feller himself got notched, over to
Crooked Pine. Thar's some on 'em
looks as if the boys didn't know what
hurt 'em. You see, cap'n, Crooked
Pine is just the deadest town but I'm
gwine to ride right in thar onto this old
mule"
And now, as they rode somewhat
more rapidly forward, the captain s
nose became more pointedly inquiring
than ever. Houses there were, scat
tered here and there, with some wild
sort of reference to a possible street,
and some of them were even of that am
bilious sort where one story tries to
climb to the dignity of two. There
were frame buildings, with marvelously-
"halls, " Shades" and miners para
parently' intended for legitimate bust
ness dry goods emporiums," and the
like, not to speak of three or four
banks" and Crooked-Pine branch
mint and assay-ofice.
"That thar's whar they used to keep
the tiger said Bing. cit was right
about thar that the skeer took me. But
whar on yearth are all the boys
gone to?"
Well he right ask, for, although the
captains nose had pointed everywhere,
not the first sign of an inhabitant had
as yet made its appearance.
"What can be the matter?" exclaimed
the captain. care you sure that it was
such healthy place?"
Healthy ?" said Bing. "Wall, now,
you kin Just bet. Anyhow, I've come
and rid right straight into Crooked
Pine. Hullo, if thar amt somebody
stirrin'l Tell ye what, cap'n, was be-
ginning to git a leetle skeered agin,
everything looked SO consarned lone
some"
Even as he was speaking, battered,
grizzled, unkempt, unwashed specimen
of elderly humanity came imping tow
ard them, bearing in his hand rusty
old double-barreled shotgun.
"Look out" whispered Bing to the
captain "thar's no counting onto these
yer Crooked-Pine boys. They're mos
likely layin' low for somethin'."
| Then he added, aloud:
"I say, stranger, whar hev all the
boys gone ter? What's got intel
Crooked Pine %
els that you, Bing?" drawled the
man with the shotgun. ''Why, wha1
hev you been? Nothin' amt got inte.
this yer place-that amt what's the mat
ter-but every ivin' soul 'cept ME ha
got out of it. Old Bing, I tell yer
Crooked Pine is dead town."
GO You don't say l'' exclaimed Bing
with what the captain took for groan
but the latter aimed his nose at the mai
with the shotgun, and asked him:
"What did the town die of, and wha
made you stay here after it was dead !?
"Die of ?" drawled the shotgun mai
-" die of? Why, they've made an
other town, twenty mile away, over ont
the new roleraid and they do say
beats this yer city all holler. Wha
made me stay? Why, stranger, neve
} seen roleraid, and L don't want to
and so, when the boys begun to clar ou
for that thar new city, L just bough
thar improvements. L got some on 'er
powerful cheap, L did, an I won thre