The Portland daily press., 1881-12-14
GRAHAM BRAN
SOLD HERE.

"Then the hull blame thing was as plain as
dav That steer had took in all we'd said about
fatten' him to kill, and all the sports had said
about keepin' flesh down and Graham feed. he
had been takin' violent exercise every day by
runnin' up and down the road, and, to cap 1t
all had concluded to try the Graham business.
That was what he wanted at the store, and
seein' the sign, persisted iu maxim his wants
known. I list ordered bushel of that bran
onicker than Vic Quick could skin an eel and
let him tell it. When / shouldered the bran
and started for home, that steer came very near
eucherin' himself by dyin' with JOY; When 1
told Nose about the cuteness Oh the steer, IL
knocked him all in heap.
"'That steer said ne, is TOO smart 10 ule'
and I'll tell him So
.sFrom that time the steer began to get
fat. and he was in condition to kill in two
weeks.
.fWell, it went along and the steer got to be
big favorite About that time Dutch Franz
got Ii in his head that there never was better
scheme than to stock Moses trout pond WIN
pickerel Franz was workin' there then, ana
he meant well, but he didn't know. 30 one gay
he caught lot of pickerel over IN bloomlh
| Grove pond, and unbeknown to anyone turned
| ,em into the trout pond. The first we know a
the only trout we could get out O. the dam was
| whopping big pickerel. The only thlng tnat
can live where there's pickerel is snappln' t9r,
| Ties. and if they wasn't so humly the pickererd
| soon oobble them The fellers used TO come
and have lots OF fun trolling for pickerel In the
| dam. One day 1 see our steer watchln' cou-
| pie o. fishermen trollin' The next day was
walkin' over that way, and what should see
| but the steer standin' in the water up 10 MS
! flank. He had his face lords shore, and was
switchin' his tail slowly to and fro over the sur
| face. There was pleased expression on MS
! face. stopped to see what the deuce be was
| M to. Suddenly see him give his tail quick
| Jerk, and kerplunkl dropped big pickerel
| down by my feet. Fore got over my surprise
out come another pickerel. There was the iact
right fore my eyes or never could nave ne,
| lieyed it, That steer was standin' there trollln
| for pickerel with his tail, and In less than
twenty minutes he had yanked out thirty.two
| of the biggest ones there were in the dam. Then
| he come out, and jist rolled and rolled on the
bank, and bellered till the tears rolled do"h
his cheeks, the fun tickled him so.
t"Well, he kept that uDfor several days. one
Sunday we missed him. We didn't thlnk
much of that, but when he didn't come home
at night we got uneasy. We hunted the WOODS
made up our minds he was stole. A month or
SO afterward was fishing for pickerel IN the
pond. I caught an old socker, and when L
went to take him off my hook see he had
spur-a regular spur, about two inches
long, aud curved like a ROSTERS comm plump
out O. his back, about eight inches from the
tail.
"sHere's curiosity, certain says l.
"IItook him home and put him in hogshead
o. water. 1t got noised around tne country,
add 40 MANY people fiocked to the house to sec
il that Nose got mad one day and took the
pickerel out and chopped its head off. was
mad, of course, but couldn't help myself. !
took the fish and went to cleanin' it. When
cut 1t open what should find but horn that
belonged to our lost stee-. Then the mystery
was solved. The pickerel in the pond had
tackled the steer on one of his fshin'' exc9r-
sions, surrounded him, run him out into the
pond and drownded him, and then eat him up
The pickerel had caught had swailered one
| - arr ho-ns Tho littla end o. the horn had
nnshed its wav out o. the fishet back, and that
was what thought was spur"
$50 YOU .see," concluded Uncle Ira, thai
steer was too smart too die and too smart &c
IT The breakfast bell rang. and Uncle Ira went