Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1875-02-10

/, Oeam, anu StOle the cuOlce steaks
r that we were saving for ourselves
Well, when Crowell see that, he be
, gan to get mad. He swore hi
, couldn't stand it, and he hanled ~
/ and gave the crows two barrels Of
} duck-shot. He had in thunderin
charge,-You never see such a
: sight. If it had been raining crows
; the beach couldn't have been
blacker. You see this was in the
} morning. Well, for several hours
the crows were mighty shy again,
but in the afternoon they took
their chances once more and were
around thicker than ever. They
fought among themselves for the
shells and the entrails, but they
gave the sealis a wide birth. They
were smart enough to know what
shooting was for.
"Well, among the flock we no.
ticed lame crow, with q sickly
kind of cav He had come out
from under Crowell's battery with
one leg gone. He was a hard
sight. When we first saw him his
wing was dropping, and he was a
limping along and skirmishing
around for something to eat
with the rest of them. We felt
sorry for him. If you'd seen him
you couldn't help but feel sorry
too. You see the other crows
didn't give him living show. He
would have starved to death if we
hadn't sympathized with him and
seen that he got his share. We
fed him the incest chunks of turtle,
and he got so tame that he'd limp
up within two or three feet and
almost eat out of our hands. We
used to call him Santa Anna, be-
cause you see he had lost one leg.
SWELL" continued Moore, "for
some time Santa Anna turned up
regularly for his rations. He
seemed to be growing weak in
spite of all the building up we
gave him. One day we missed him.
Crowell felt mighty bad. He al
most cried. "Poor Santa Anna"
says he, couldn't roost any place
but on the ground. Some snake
has got him, and that's the last of
him." You see the bird had got
to be great favorite, i felt as
bad about it as Crowell, and no
mistake. Down here in the wilder
ness where you don't see white
man once in years, a man gets
mighty attached to a crow when
he's social-like and puts confidence
in you. Well, all that day the
crows kept coming in and a rip
ping away at the lights and livers,
but poor Santa never turned up.
/ reckon if we talked about him
once we talked about him a hun
dred times.
"The next forenoon, while we
were dressing turtle, we heard
feeble kind of a cav, Here's Santa
Anna again, as sure as you're
born ! and sure enough there was
the little black cuss hopping
along on one foot over the sand.
He cooked his head on one side,
and seemed laundering glad to
see us. We picked ont the richest
part Of the turtle and fed him.
Well, good Lord, you ought to have
seen that crow eat. lie ST. fled
himself so full that he couldn't hol-
Ter. You could see him swell out
like a rubber ball. The other
crows stood off about twenty feet
watching him. The little hombre
got all he wanted and then started
off. He limped awfully for about
fifteen feet, and l heard Crowell
say, Poor little devil I'm afraid
he'll never get WELL Just then
the crow stopped and shook up
his wing. Then-as I'm alive and
a sinner-he dropped another little
black foot, and walked off on two
EGGS as sound as q dollar. The
other crows set up mighty cawing
and all flew off together"
"Well," inquired Hammond,
how did he get his leg fixedp
at wasn't Santa Anna at ALL"
Moore replied. "Some other crow 4
lad played Santa Anna on us. Our
row had been eaten up by a pos
um. We found the feathers af-
erward. "And," continued Moore
urning to me, "you won't believe
ne, but that story's just as true as