The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-07-18


COMMONLY fast under deer skin or hnsey-
wolsey hunting-shirt. And yet, nothing
of q coquette, Ann--as oil the circum-
stances showed-had not sought to do
the mischief, Of which, rs it resulted,
she was unwittingly the cause. When /
note, further, that Ann was only 10 years
old, that age when, whether they will
have it so or not, girls are apt to prove
most dangerous in provoking desperate
rivalries on the part of their admirers,
and i have given the principal con-
ditions which led to the hard fight.
which, for the tiNe being, was marked
event In the heighborhood and history
of the Three Forks.
But perhaps I should have stated ere
this the circumstances which preceded
the catastrophe. Happening in the
neighborhood of Three Forks, to get
the veteran surveyor to look into the
particulars of some old land lines in
another part of Kentucky, had stopped
over night with him, and from his merry
quips and pranks l soon found he was,
like Keats old Lord Maurice,
Not whit the tanner for all of his gray hairs.
Riding out together the next morn
ing, we encountered his old comrade
and neighbor, Tom Rose; and l could
not avoid observing that the greeting
between the two was about as dry as
would be the rubbing together of two
brickbats. Sam noticed my surprise in
my looks, perhaps; for it seemed as if l
had been a sort of sharer in the we'll
nigh discourtesy exhibited on the occa-
sion; so he remarked, with curious
and funny twinkle in his blue eye, with
his head cooked to one side:
tom Rose and me had fight
t'other day!'
About what ?" was my natural and
surprised query.
About gall"
Nodding my desire for an explana.
ton, Sam continued
"You see," he said, "Rose was court
in Ann Harlan, and l heered talk of it..
Happening over at her fathers house,
not long ago, l said:
$50, Miss Ann, Tom Rose is courtin'
you, is hep
"'Yes,' said she, laughing.
"'But,' said, you'd better have me,
Miss Ann. I'm older than Tom, but
I'm smarter
"All right was AIMS reply, I'll
have you, Mr.. Plummer.'
"Well," continued Sam. 81 thought
no more of it until few days ago, when
was out in my field stacking oats.
Seeing Tom come marching into the
field on quick step, but still suspect
ing nothing, yet being then just through
with my task, slid down from the
stack, when, without single word, Tom
pitched into me! After mighty hard
fight whipped him, having ended it
by knocking out the only tooth Tom
had in his jaws. That seemed to salts
fly HIM, for he picked up the old snag
and marched out of the field with it in
his hand. Come to find out, he came
over to lick me for cutting him out with
Ann Harlan. And now," said Sam,
very positively, but with fun in his eye,
"the next time l meet Tom Rose at
Ann Harlan's, mean to make him take
her by the ear-as he would horse
that had been adjudged to me-and
hand her over to me regularly, or I'll
whip him again!"
And of these two. gray headed boys
who fought this remarkable battle for
"a gal," one, Sam Plummer, was only
81 years of age! Tom Rose 82!!-need
l add, both widowers?
May not the inquiry well be made, in
view of all the circumstances, where
else on the broad earth, except in Ken
lucky, could such fight occur, :" all
for love-" between two octogenarians?
Does it not indeed show that not in
frequently Truth is stranger than
fction?"
But this was not the last of Sans
boyish pranks. Whether he ever gave
Tom Rose that promised second "ick-
ing" l never heard. But, having occa-
sion to take him horseback Journey
OF nearly $50 miles from his home, near
the Three Forks, In order to verify an
old survey comprising several thousand
acres near the Big Sandy, l remember
that he couldn't be induced to sleep in
bed on the whole trap; but, to truly.
rest himself after each days ride of
thirty or forty miles, he must needs lie
down on the floor of the cabin at which
we stopped, with a blanket or two, his
saddle for pillow, and his feet toasting
at the fire. Such, in his case, was the
force of habit
But, more than all this, on the journey
he challenged almost every young man
we met to "wrestle" with him ;and, when
we arrived at our destination, he first
went three-quarters of mile from the
cabin and clearing into the woods to
find the beginning corner" of the sur
vey, and, going straight to the tree
which marked the spot, he showed the
Ratchet marks he had made upon it
forty-seven years previously. He con-
cluded his exploits in this line by
taking the compass, and again running
out the tract of 1000 acres, doing it
almost as actively as young man
would have done it; and, when left in
the woods by himself, while his assist
ants went off to get something to eat,
and they afterward being unable to
find him, he came splashing home
through every stream in his way, dis
daining to go out of his route, in one or
two instances, even 100 yards, to cross
small bridges over creeks. He wound
up his doings for the occasion by beat
ing some of the "boys" at rifle shooting,