Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-11-17
A POINTED REMINDER.


tered the woods beneath that group of
chestnuts Two of US acted as out
posts on picket guard, and another,
Young Teddy Shoopegg by name, the
best climber in the village, did the
sha ing. There were i've busy pairs
of hands beneath these trees, can tell /
YOU. for each one of US realized The ne
cessity of making the most OF his time,
not knowing how soon the warning
cry from our outposts might put Us all .
to beadiong fight for the alarm, Fur |
ner's comngl' y was enough to lit the
hair of any boy in town.
But luck seemed to favor us on that
dav. We cleaned out" six big chest
nut-trees. and then turned our attention
TO the hickories. There was splendid
tall shagbark close by, with branches
fairly loaded with the white nuts In
their open shucks. They were al
ready to drop, and when the shaking
once commenced, the nuts came down
like a shower of hail, bounding from
the rocks, Iattling among the dry leaves
and keeping up chatter all around
We scrambled on all fours. and gather
ed them by quarts and quarts. There
was moo need of poking over the leaves
for them, the ground was covered with
their bleached shells, all in plain sight.
While busily engaged, we noticed an
ominous lull among the branches over
head.
mSstl 'sst !" whispered Shoopegg up
above: Il see old Turner on bis white
daown the road yender."
"Coming this way 2" also in whis-
per, from below. :,
III dunno yit, Dut | jest guess you'd
better he gittin' reddy to leg 1t, Ter
he's hitcbin' his old nag't the side o
the road. Yis, sir, / bleeve he's "a
cummin'. Shoopegg, you'd better be
eittin' aout o. this, and be commenced
to drop hap-hazard from bis lofty
peacb. In moment, however, he
seemed to change his mine, and paused
once more upon the watch. say,
fellers,n he again broke in, as weae
preparing for a retreat, "he's gone of
to'rd the cedars he amt cummin' this
way at alp SO he again ascended
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 "fnish up on" 1t
would not do to leave it. They were
the largest and thinnest-shelled nuts
in town, and there were over bushel
in sight on the branch tips. Shoopegg
was up among them in two minutes.
and they were showered down in tor
rents as before. And what splendid,
perfect nuts they were! We bagged
them with eager hands, picked the
ground all clean, and with jolly chuck
les at our luck were just about think
ing of starting for home with our we'll
rounded sacks, when change came
DER the spirit Of our dreams. There
was suspicious noise in the shrubbery
near by, and in moment more we
heard our doom.
Jest yeu look eeab, yeu boys" ex-
claimed high-pitched voice from the
neigbboring sbrubbery, accompanied
by the form Of Deacon Turner, APP
preaching at brisk pace, hardly thir-
ty feet away. Don't yeu think you've
got jest about enuff o. them nuts 2"
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 raising a
huge old shotgun, he levelled it, and
yelled, "DonT any on ye stir ner move
or by Christopher III blow the heads
clean of'n the hull pile on ye. I'd
oshot ye quicker'n lightnin'."
And we believed him. for his aim
was true, and bis hole expression was
not that OF man who was trifliDg. /
never shall forget the uncomfortable
sensation that | experienced as look
ed into the muzzlc of that dor ble-bar-
relied shotgun, and saw both ham,
mers fully raised too. And ! can see
now the squint and the glaring eye
that glanced along those barrels.
There was wonderful persuasive
power lurking In those horizontal
tubes so | hastened to inform the
run"
"Wa'al," be drawled, ''it looked q
leetle tibet way, tbort, spell ago y
and he still kept US in the field Of his
weapon, till at length / exclaimed, in
desperation,
Point that gun in some other way,
will you ?"
"Wa'al mol I'm not fer pintin' it
emmy whar else jest yit-not until
you've sot them ar bags doawn agin,
jist whar We got 'em, every one on ye "
The bags were speedily replaced, and
he slowly lowered bis gun.
"Wa'al, naow," he continued, as he
came up in our midst, "this is purity
bizniss, amt it? Bin havin' purity
sort o time ten, sb'd jedge from the
looks o. these ERE bags. One--two-
sir ON 'em; an / vaow they must be
nigh on ten two an half bushels in
every pleggy one on 'em. Wa'al,
naow"-wth his peculiar drawl-
'llook eeah: you're putty ondustri-
Gus lot o. thieves, I'm blest il ye amt
But the deacon did all the talking, for
his maueuvrcs were such as to render
US speechless. Putty likely place teu
cum a-nutin', amt 7" Pause. Putty
nice mess o. shellbarks ye got thar,
tell We. Quite sight o. chestnuts in
yourn, amt they 7"
There was only one spoken side to
this dialogue, but the pauses were elo
quent on both sides, and we boys
kept up deal of tall thinking as we
watched the deacon alternate his glib
remarks by the gradual removal Of the
bags to the foot of q neighboring tree
This done, he seated himself upon d
rock besides them.
THAR" he exclaimed, removing
his tall hat and wiping his white
fringed forehead with a red bandana
IL