The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-03-24
TABS BATTLE.

contain bas reliefs representing 1.-The en-
tombment and 81 the resurrection"
tabs BATTLE.
| Thaddeus Granger, better known as
| "Tad, was hero, real hero, though but
! - years had passed over his resolute young
head with its mass of curling hair and bright
brown eyes. Even from his infancy he had
constantly been in mischief of an adventur-
GUS sort, and when first toddling about the
| door or barn yara--his father being farm
er--he had had combats innumeIable with
vicious ROSTERS aud blood thirsty ganders,
! goslings, and sticks and stones we're his
weapons Of offense and defense. AS he
grew older, his warlike spirit sought
broader field, for his onslau5hts upon the
feathered bipeds of the farm were apt to
lead to unpleasant interviews with his moth
er, both humiliating to his dignity and pain
full to his feelings. Nothing delighted the
little rascal SO much as tales of adventure
and stories Of hal -!r .adlh escapes. so that
when he had managed to fight his way
through half a dozen years, he had settled
an African explorer, with strong lean
ing toward the latter, due in great
measure to the severe injuries received
in endeavoring to scalp neighbours cat.
And this inclination grew to a certainty in
his own mind, as year succeeded year, and
his brain became stored with accounts of
contests with the savage deniZens Of track
less jungles. His bows and arrows, his
wooden ton1ahawk and spears were almost
constantly in his hands, and he learned to
use them with remarkable skill, till even
his father began to look more leniently upon
his boyish escapades and to talk of the
time when Tad would be hunting royal Ben
gal tigers.
But the boys adventures were not all
vague and visionary, for only the summer
before, when he was eleven years old, he
had rescued the schoolH1istress from the
sanguinary attack of a bull, which by some
means had broken loose upo.' the highway
and became Infatuated at the scarlet shawl
Worn by the teacher. Tad had seized Il
stout bean-pole and skirmished around the
monarch of the pasture with SO much agili-
ty and with such rapid thrusts and blows
as to bewilder and completely conquer the
way and that way in his blind rage, unable
to gore the spry little urchin, and finally
venting his feelings in prolonged roar as
| he shook his battered nose.
All these encounters, however, sank to
significance i'll comparison with what hap
pened to little Tad one fine summer after
noon. It was in laying, and Mr.. Granger
was busy With his gang Of men III clearing
field Of its well ~cured and fragrant bur-
den, when the handle Of a pitchfork
snapped in his stout hands, and the farmer
called his boy, who was industriouly en-
gagged in capturing bumble-bee's nest, to
run over to neighbours and borrow, if pos
sible, fork to replace the one broken,
as it SO happened that he had no spare
ones.
Little Tad quilted his battle with the
venomous insects reluctantly, He had re-
ceived but one sting, and had nearly ami
hilatsd the buzzing guardians Of the sweet
treasures. But business before pleasure.
So hastily chewing a few blossoms
of white clover and applying the
impromptu poultice to the smarting
AS he turned in from the road at the
neighboring farmhouse big watch dog
chained to his kennel growled savagely.
Tige, as the animal was called, was noted
for his strength and ferecity, and even the
valiant Tad had fought shy of him, though
his owner of late years had never allowed
him to run at large. The men folks were
away, but girl in the kitchen told the
young applicant to 60 to the barn and take
whatever implement of the desired sort he
could find. Tad turned his nimble foot
steps toward the barn, pausing moment
to fling club at the growing dog, who
tugged vainly at his chain. The boy rattled
and searched among the various farming
tools at the rear of the long barn. floor,
finding nothing but two tined fork of an
tiquated make with blunt prongs and clum
sy handle.
AS he turned toward the half opened
door by which he had entered, he heard the
powerful dog struggling with his chain;
then something snapped, and in another
instant Tige, the most dreaded dog in the
settlement, bounded in and dashed toward
the boy, whom the canine instincts of the
Watchdog naturally mistook for thief.
One mon ent the boy thought to drop the
pitchfork and scream for help; the next,
the skill and daring Of the tiger hunter
came to him, and the tines Of the fork con-
fronted the dog as the sturdy little form
braced itself for the contest.
If there is any mode of warfare more
disagreable to a dog than another it is a
bayonet charge, and even old Tige thought
discretion the better part of valor, and
checked his headlong rush at the dauntless
boy, to whom all the former stories and
fancies Of wild and reckless encounters had
become dread, living reality. Round and
round they circled; the sunlight shining in
at the wide window over the barn-doors,
tinging the brindle sides of the dog, and