The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-12-02
A Pointed Reminder.

A party Of adventurous lads, myself
among the number, were out for glorious
holiday. Each had his canvas bag across
bis shoulder, and we stole along the stone
wall yonder, and entered the woods be.
meath that group OF chestnuts. Two Of us
acted as outposts on picket guard, and
another, young Teddy shoopegg by name,
the best climber In the village, did the
shaking. There were five busy pairs OF
hands beneath these trees, I can tell YOU,
for each one Of us fully realized the necessi.
ty OF making the most of his time, not
knowing how soon the warning cry from
our outnosts might put lis all to headlonp
Hight, for the alarm, "Turner's comingi''
was enough to lift the hair Of any boy In
town.
But luck seemed to favor us on that day.
We ''cleaned out" six big ehestnut.trees,
and then turned our attention to the h,ck.
ories. There was splendid tall shell bark
close by, with branches fairly loaded with
the white nuts In their open shucks. They
were all ready to drop, and when the shak-
ing once commenced, the nuts came down
like shower Of hail, bounding from the
rocks, rafting among the dry leaves, and
Keeping up clatter all around. We scram-
bled on all fours, and gathe1ed them by
quarts and quarts, There was no need OF
poking over the leavea for them, tho ground
was covered with their bleached sheils. all
In plain sight. While busily engaged, we
noticed an ominous lull among the branches
overhead,
." "'sst! sst /" whispered Shoopegg up
above; 81 see old Turner on his white
horse daown tho road yonder,"
"Coming this way2" also in a whisper.
from below.
~ dunno yit, but ]est guess you'd bet
ter be glttin' reddy to log it, fer he's hltchin'
bis ola nag t the side O. the road. Yas,
sir, bleeve he's a-cummin.' Shoopegg,
you'd better be gittin' aout O. thls," and he
commenced to drop hap hazard from his
lofty perch. In moment, however, he
seemed to change his mind, and paused,
once more upon the watch. ''Say, fellers, -
he again broke In as we wero preparing for
retreat, she's gone off to 'rd the cedars ::
he ain't cummin' this way at aI." SO ho
again ascended into tue tree-top. and fin
ished his shaking in peace, and we our
picking also. There was still another tree,
with elegant large nuts. that we had oil
concluded to ''inish up on" 1t would not
40 to leave it. They were the largest and
thinnest- shelled nuts in town, and there
were over bushel In sight on tho branch
tips. Shoopegg was up among them In
two minutes, and they were showered down
In torrents as before And what splendid
perfect nuts they werel We bagged them
with eager hands, picked the ground all
clean, and with jolly chuckles at our luck
were just about thinking Of starting for
home with our we'll rounded sacks, when a
change came DER the spirit of our dreams
There was suspicious nCise in the shrub
berry near by, and in moment more we
heard our doom.
"Jest yeu look eeah. yeu boys, "exclaim-
ed high pitched voice from the neighbor-
Ing shrubbary, accompanied by the form
OF deacon Turner. approaching at brisk
pace, hardly thirty feet away. "Don't
yeu think you've got jest about enuGo'
or course wild panic ensued, in which
we made for the bags and dear life, but
Turner was prepared and ready for the
emergency, and ralsinga huge old shot gun,
he levelled it, and yelled, "Don't any on
ye stir ner move, or by Christopher I'll
blow the heads clean ot'n the 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 man who was tritling. l never shall
forget the uncomfortable sensation that
experienced as I looked into the muzzle OF
that atdoubled-barrelled shotgun, and saw both
MANNERS fully raised too. And I can see
now the squint and the glaring eye that
glanced along those barrels. There was a
wonderful persuasive power lurking in
those horizontal tubes so fastened to in
form the deacon that we were mot going
to run"
"Wa'sl, he drawled, ,"it looked a leetle
that aoay, thort, a spell ago." and ho
still kept us In the field Of his weapon, till
at length I exclaimed, In desperation
'Point that gun in some other way. will
you7"
"Wa'al, no J I'm not for pintin' it emmy
whar else jest yit--not until you've sot
them ar bags daown agin, jist whar yc got
'em, every one on ye.' The bags were
speedily replaced, and he slowly lowered
hIs gun.
"Wa'al, ,naow, Tho continued, as he came
up ia our MIDST, 'thls is putty bizniss, ain t
it3 Bin havin' putty lively sort o. time
ten, l sh'd jedge from the looks O. these
ERE bags. One-two-siG on 'em; an I
vaow they must be nigh on teu two an q
half bushel IN evory one on 'em. Wa'al,
naow"-with his peculiar drawl-''ook
eeah:you're = putty industrious lot o.
thieves, I'm 6lest If ye amt" But the
deacon did all the talking, for his man.
oeuvres were such as to render us speechless.
''Putty likely place teu cum s'a-nuttip',
ara't it2"
An nextinRuishable Fire.