Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1880-11-04
4 POINTED REMINDKR.
Lively Experience of II New England
Nutiing Party.


Nutiing Party.
Harper's Monthly.
A party of adventurous lads, myself
among the number, were out far glorious
holiday. Each had his canvas bag across
his shoulder, and we stole along the stone
wall yonder, and entered the woods
beneath that group of chestnuts. Two of
us acted aj outpogts on picket guard, and
another, young Teddy Shoopegg by name,
the best climber in the village, did the
shaking. There We retiye busy pairs of
hands beneath these trees. can tell you,
for each cue of us fully realized the
necessity of making the most of his time,
not knowing how soon the warning cry
from our outpo ITS might put us all TO
headiong Hight, for the alarm. Turner's
coming!' was enough to life the hair Of
any boy In town.
But luck seemed to favor us on that day.
We CLEANED out" six big Chestnut trees,
and then turned our attention to the hick-
ories. There WAS splended tall shag-
bark close by, with branches fairly loaded
with the white nuts in their open shucks.
They were eIl re1dy to drop,aud when the
Shaking once commenced, the nuts came
down like shower of hsii. bounding from
the rocks, rattling among tho dry leaves,
and keeping mp elatter all around We
scrambled OH all fours, and gathered them
by quartz and quarts. There were no need
of pokiug over tine leaves for them, tue
ground was covered with their bleached
shells, all in plain sight. While bu5ily
engaged, we noticed an ominous luil
among the branches overhead.
"'Sst 'sst I" whispered Shoopegg up
above; 81 seq old Turner on his whlte
horse daown the road yonder.'
"Coming this way?' also In a whisper,
from below.
81 dunno yit, but I Jest guess you'd
better be gittin' reddy TO leg il, fer he's
hitchin' his old nagt the side o. the road.
| Yis, sir | beeve he's a-cummin' Shoo-
pegg, you'd better be gittin' aout o. this, +"
and he commenced to drop hap-hazard
from his lofty perch In moment, how
ever, he seemed to change his mind, and
paused, once more upon the watch. "Say,
fellera," he again broke in, as we were
| preparing for retreat, 'Ehe's gone off
tord the cedars: he amt cummin' this
way at dU" SO he again assembled into
the tree-top, and finished his shaking in
peace, and we our picking also. There
was still another tree, with elegant large
nuts, that we had all concluded to finish
up on " 1t would not do to leave il. They
were the largest and thinnest-shelled nuts
in town, and there We're over bushel la
sight on the branch tips. Shoopegg was
up among them In two minutes, aud they
were showered down III torrents ~ bt fore.
And what splendid, perfect nuts they
were We bagged them with eager hands,
picked the grouDd all clean, and with jolly
chuckles at our luck were Just ABOUT think
ing Of starting for home with our we'll
rounded sacks, when u change came Ger
the spirit of our dreams. There was a
suspicious noise in the sbrubbery near by,
and in moment more we heard cur
doom.
"Jest yen lock eeah, yeu boys, -
exclaimed bigl pitched voice from the
neighboring shsubbery, accompanied by
the form of Deacon Turner. approaching
at brisk pace, hardly 80 feet away.
Don't veu think yeu've got Jest abaout
enuF O. them nutsa'
of course wild panic ensued, in which
we made for the bags snd dear life, but
Turner was prepared and ready for the
emergency, and raising huge old shot
gun, he leveled it, and yelled, "Don't any
on ye stir ner move, or by Christopher
I'll blow the heads clean of n tine hull pile
on ye. I'd shoot ye quicker'n lightnin'. +"
And We believed him, for his aim was
true, and his whole expression was not
that of a nau vino was triti!ng. | never
shall forget the uncomfortable sensation
that experienced as 1 locked iuto tbe
muzzle of that double. bnrreled shotgun
and saw both hammers fully raised TOO
And | can see now the squint and the glgr.
ing eye that glanced along those barrels
Thera was wonderful persuasive power
/ Ian in, in = al kuu
hastened to inform tha deacon thst 9t
We're mot going to run
"Wa'al, he dra@led, 'it looked ltetlt
thet loap, thort, spell age = and he
still kept us in the field of his weapon, til
! ut length | exclaimed ia desperation,
"Point that gun in some other way, wi!
you 2"
"Wa'al, no I'm not fer pintn' il emmy
whar else jest Wt-not until you've then
ar bags daown agin, jist whar ye got EN-
every one on ye." The bags were speedily
replaced, and he slowly lowered his gun
''Wa'al, naow," he continued, as ht
} came up in our midst, ''this is putty biz
/ Miss, amt itg Bin havin' putty lively
i SORT O time teu, | sh'd i1dge from th,
jedge from the looks O. these ere 6ags
One-two-SiG on 'em; an l vaow they
must be nigh On teu two au' half bu4he
in every plegpy one on 'em. Wa'al, naow'
/ with his peculiar drawl-''lock eeah
you're putty industrious lot o MiegeS
: Pm 6,est if ye amt" But the deacon die
> all tho talking, for his mar eusres were
such as TO render us speechless. Putty
/ likely place leu cum A-nuttin', amt il ?
} Pauses Patty nice mess O. shell bark
l va got thar, I tell ye. Quite site o
cleSthWtS in gonrR, amt tbey?
t There was only one spoken side to tbi
4 dialogue, but tine pauses were eloquent OIL
o both sides, and we boys kept up deal Of
4 tall thinking as we watched the deacoI
b alternate his glib remarks by the gradua
a removal of the bags to the foot OF
!. neighboripg tree. This done, he seated
himself upon rock beside them.
/ "2har," he exclaimed removing hi
c tall hat aid wipiug his white-fringed fore
+ head with red bsndsupa handkerchief
e I'm much alleged. I've been a watchin
8 on ys gittn' these ere nuts the hull artt1
noon. | thort as haow you might lik
to know itn Aud then, as thougl
happy thcught had struck him
= what should he do but dehberatel
4 spit on his hands and grasp hi
4 gun. Look ee.h"-a pause in which b,
! cooked both barrels-'yeu boys WI
h paowerful anxyls teu git aaoay from eeah
a spell ago NAow yeu kin gjt ez lively e
!, you please. l haint got nothu' more 70
= ye teu deu to-day" And bang went on
a of the gun- barrels directly over our heads
E We got and when ouce out of gun rang
4 we paid the deacon wealth of those rar
~ compliments for both eye and ear tha
4 always wcll the boys vocabulary.
\ Onr Dress.
:, How did we come to possess our presen
o form of dress This is one of the man
y questions answered by reviewer in III
y Nature, who had under his notice the cats
y logue of the Gen. Pitt Rivers anthropolo
u gical collection lately noticed in thi
. column. Clothing ut first was almos
q entirely ornamental The exception
's were such articles as belts from which instr
0 ments of various kinds could be suspeude
70 so as o be reaty for use while the hands wer
: left free. A savage does not enjoy th
y luxury OF pocket. Even ut the presel
n day Japaness has 10 Slug his tobacc