Litchfield enquirer., 1874-12-10
lProm the atlAnti: No4:niy ABOUT BARREL OF LARD.

N aneis, Pen slaugili.r sas an -xten- slve cattle-deaier, who every fall sent his drovers with herds of beeves to Washing
 ton, Baltimore, and phiiadelphia. Along
 the way he sold | ein .u lots to farmers.
 who stail-fed them through the winter
 andia tiIesspfins and earlya salamef sup plied Our nnarhets sish Tat b..rf. In the
 fall of iS31. ts,e y+Hr .i a gfasst cOinmer-
 ica! crisis .Is visited i:,e for .i- first rilne
 since hal lnarri..,i. and siHppei wlth me
 during his stay in Philadelphia.
 lie was an early settler in Kentucky,
 nd well acquainted with Boone. Kenton,
 and otheeold pioneers. who remained for
 time after he went out. He was tall,
 we'll -proportioned. and. for man of sev-
 enty. erect and of easy carriage. He was
 also a man of temperate habits and sim-
 pie tastes. His chief hobby was blood
 ed stock."s Of course he was an admirer
 of good horsemanship. So one evening
 we went to the circus. When we return
 ed, as opened the street door with my
 latch-key and walked in. he exclaimed,
 ''Whe-e-ew: I smell oysters" Then a sil-
 very voice from the stairway rang out,
 ''Walk into the dining room, Uncle Ben,
 you and Ajax. I'll be down presently. I
 hear the baby stirring; she has some new teeth coming through, but she will soon be quiet" We walked in and found a .tureen of smoking oysters and a pitcher
 of foaming ale, with bread, butter, and
 pickles, on tine table.
 lily wife soon joined us, and we sat
 down to supper. After it was over, and
 the table was cleared and set in it's place
 against the wall, she drew her workstand
 before the gate of glowing coals and sat
 down to her sewing. I then asked the old man to repeat to Sue-that is, my vife-a
 story which he once told me in my boy
 hood So he finished the cigar he was
 smoking and began
 "You see moved out to Kentucky a long time before railroads were thought of, or before the National Road across the Alleghanies was even contemplated. En- igrants from our parts of Virginia then went through Winchester, crossed the mountains. and came to the Ohio opposite the place where the town of Marietta now stands. Here we make hat-boats, loaded them with our stuff, and foated down the river. People in those days sent back furs, bacon, lard, and whisky, all the way to Baltimore and Philadelphia by the same wagon-road we travelled.
 s'Ag you know, was a childless widow CT at forty. when I married your Aunt Polly. According to our Virginia way of farming we merely managed to live com fortably. But, as my father Esed to say, The hogs ate all the corn, and the nig- gers, ate ali the hogs I had not got ahead in worldly goods, and determined to emigrate. So with my new wife. five hundred dollars In gold, three teams fill ed with household stuff, few negroes, and some choice horses and cattle, I join ed Shackelford's train at Winchester one fine morning in September. We travelled along slowly, of course, but pretty com- fortably, camping by the roadside at night and buying horse-feed and provisions at the houses of the spare settlers.
 ''We got to the Little Kanawha and I was driving the hindmost team, one after noon. when my of wheel-horse cast a shoe. We soon passed a blacksmith.s shop. and I stopped to get the shoe put on. The smith was big, gruff. red-head- ed, pock-marked man, and eyed me very closely. It was some time before he could find a shoe to fit, and by the time I got of, the other wagons must have been more than mile ahead. So hurried my team somewhat. to catch up before they made camp for the night. When got to the ford heard a loud, shrilI whistle, and turning and and looking back saw two men cross the road and go into the blacksmith shop. made no account of 1t at the time, but forded the river and drove up the long hill on the west side. It was tough pulling, and had to chock my wheels every hundred yards or so, and let my horses blow. I had gone nearly a mile, and got on level road, when stop ped at fine spring which came out from under a rock as high as the top of my wagon-tent. As was watering my horses, who should step from behind the roke but the ugly blacksmith. I wondered how he came there; he must have taken some near cut to get to the spring before I dld. When this occurred to me. didn't like it at all. Stepping up close to me as set down the horse buckt by the spring, he asked the time of day. I would have pre- tended that l had no watch, but there was my fathers big seal and watch-key dang ling by the chain from my fob: so I told him it had stopped. He then pulled out a battered old silver watch about the size of good-sized tnrnip. and bantered me me for trade did not care to show my old time-piece within his reach. and felt good deal riled at his impotence.
 AAadC "Itu SOuA SLouumOtAcE, SttIu and throwing the bucket into the front of the wagon, I cracked my whip and chir- ruped to my leader.
 ''As I started, he ran ahead, and, crook ing his finger and putting it into his mouth, gave the same devilish whistle I had heard at the ford. Then two men stepped into the road twenty yards before me. recognized the shorter, by his red shirt, as one who walked across to the blacksmith shop when looked back be- fore crossing the river saw there was going to be trouble, so put my hand un- der the wagon cover and drew out my ri- fie, and cooked it. As the blacksmith turned to come towards me, said, Halt, or you're Q dead manr and with that I raised my gun, the barrel fell into the palm of my left hand, and had 8 dead sight on him right between the eyes. One step more aud drew trigger. There was no report, but dull sound-a kind of a 'cluck'-as the pan flew open. My eye fell on the cock, and in an instant under stood it all. The flint had been removed and piece of black walnut to resemble 1t had been put in it's place. This had all been done by the blacksmith, when went down the hill behind his shop to drink at his spring. The fellow had replaced the gun in the wagon just as I left it, to avoid creating suspicion. would have given ten years of my lifetime if I could have held in my hand one of your double-bar- reAed percussion rifles. However, it was my life or my money, perhaps both; SO my rifle, as the foremost ad vanced with long horse- pistol I deter mined to fight it out to the end. On he came. cooking and raising his pistol; but stumping his toe against stone he stum- bled towards me. Before he recovered. my old rifle, as it whirled. came in contact with his weapon and sent it spinning across the road. He dodged q second blow which aimed at his head. and ran to recover his pistol. Here I was, for q moment, like buck at bay. Two ras- calls. one armed with bar of iron and the other with big cudgel, were afraid to come within reach of my clubbed rife. I had but short respite. The red-shirted man soon recovered his shooting-iron and. advancing within five yards, fired. | jumped to one side, bat there was numb. dead feeling in my right arm, and it feli as useless against my side as the sleeve