The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1875-07-16

I kept5 up, = dog trota for = half mill, sand
then / came down to : walk, sstEaddling
ont as, man must do when his steps is .
halt: dozen feet long. That sort Of tray.
elm is Ill we'll enough for d while, but in
time itzgets tmonotononG like, and i was
on tho pint Of throwing mp the Job, when
spied more pumpkins than Il ever seed
iaamy life. At q place where the river
narrowed, some 81 tic logs lid managed
TO- catch themselves, somehow, ind tho
pumpkin procession was stopped. There
there they VAS Ave hundred thousand:
Of 'em, humping and piling up in = style,
that was D. sight to; behold Ny heart
give big bound for I kn0wed the dea-
cons pumpkins was there, and + thought
could identify the biggest r orter had
boat, but there wasn't any, and the
fruit WAS jammcd so tig ht that it looked
to me as If they would bear my weight.
When reached it and tried it, sure
enough it, was as firm as rock, and i
picked my way out to the centre, where
l fancied L seen one Of the deaoon's, pets.
It was rather ticklish work to
reach it, but I got it at last, and then
was sure it was the indentical prize the
deacon's wife axed me to yet for her.
But it amt any small job to row pump:
kin up stream agin current running ten
miles an hour, and you cant pick one up
and carry 'em off, for they're tso big to
reach round, unless run q rope through
'em and string it round the neck, the
same as you'd carry bass drum.
II stood there out in the middle of the
o. -11nGs~np lo~~ o. h. ~os1n hot
was growing bigger and bigger every
minute, and meditatin' what was best to
do when all at once l heard . shout,
,Crar the track thar, or yees'll git hurt.
Looking up, what should l see but q
shanty afoat, with the Irishman sitting
on top smoking his pipe as free and easy
like as if he was under tree on
shore? hadn't more than
time to see him when his shanty pitched
INTO the dam of pumpkins. and the whole
caboodle broke loose and started down
stream agin. When I seen how things
was going made a rush for shore. The
first step took ! was over the deacon 9
pumpkin, and the blamed thing turned
over with me like creased log, aud down
I went. When come up the pumpkins
bumped against my head, and when I
struck out to swim my hands and feet
knocked agin 'cm. I had just got full
steam up and was striking out for shore.
when there was q collision between a
pumpkin and my nose, and I'm certain it
was the deacon's pumpkin that mashed
my smeller so fat it never got over it.
1t seemed to me that the thing was alive.
It kept bumpin' and bumpin' at me till !
had to dodge to save my brains being
knocked out. When looked about for
that 1rishman that had raised all the
mischief, there he was, sitting on top OF
his honse smoking his pipe, as happy as
a clam, When I reached land again
called out to MIN, and asked why he
didn't leave the shanty and come ashore.
Whist, now! said he; don't you saa
I'm movin? My goods are all inside,
and I'm superintendent the job
''Then, as he was floating on, he asked
me what was doing out in the stream
when he showed me loose. 7 told him
that | was hunting for particular pump
kin that belonged to Decon Goodrich.
He asked me if I worked for the gentle.
man. and when told him did he ad.
vised me to go back to him as quick as
could, and the deacon would be sartn Of
having bigger pumpkin.head than any
that was in the river; and do you know
stranger, that I sometimes think thai
Irishman was more than half rirht %