Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-01-29
rhe MuIe ana ,he Rees


was visiting a gentleman who
lived in the vicinity of Los Angel
Os. The morning was beautiful.
The plash. of the little cascades
about fairgrounds, the buzz of bees
and the gentle moving of the foliage
of the pepper trees in the scarcely
preceptible ocean breeze made up 4
picture which | thought was COM
plete. 1t was not. A mule wander
ed on thescene. Thescene, / thought,
could have got along without him.
He took a different view.
OF course, mules were not allow
ed on the grounds. That is what
ne knew. That was his reason for
being there.
| recognized him. Had met him.
His lower lip hung down. HeloOk-
ed disguised. 1t seemed he didn't
like being mule.
A day or two before, while / was
trying to pick up a little child who
had got too near this mules heels,
he kicked me two or three times
before / could tell from which way
was hit. / might have avoided
some of the kicking, but to my con-
fusion | began to kick at the mule.
l didn't kick with him long. He
Out-numbered me.
He browsed along on the choice
shrubbery. / forgot the beauty of
the morning. Remembered black
and-blue spot ON my leg. 1t looked
like the print Of a mule hOOf. There
was another on my right hip.
Where my suspenders crossed there
were two more, as | have been in
formed. They were side by side
twin blue spots, and seemed to be
about the same age.
/ thought of revenge. / didn't
want to kick with him any more.
No, but thought, if i had him tied
down good and fast, so he could not
move his heels, how like sweet in
cense il would be to first saw his
ears and tail smooth off, then put
out his eyes with a red-hot poker,
then skin him alive, then run him
through a threshing machine.
While / was standing thus think
ing, and getting madden and mad
der, the mule, which had wandered
up to a large beehive got stung.
His eyes lighted up, as if that was
Just what he was looking for. He
turned on the beehive and took
aim. He fired. In ten seconds the
only piece of beehive | could see
was the size a man feels when he
has told joke that falls on the
company like piece of sad news.
This piece was in the air. 1t was
being kicked at.
The bees swarmed. They swarm
ed a good deal. They lit on that
mule earnestly. After he had kick
ed the last piece of beehive so high
that he could not reach it any more,
he stopped for an instant. He SEEM
ed trying to ascertain whether the
10000 bees which were singing him
meant it..
The mule turned loose. | never
saw anything to equal it. He was
envelOped in a dense fog of earnest
ness and bees and filed with en-
thusiasm and stings. The more he
kicked the higher he arose from the
ground. / might have been mis-
taken, for was somewhat excited
and very much delighted, but that
mule seemed to rise as high as the
tops of the pepper trees. The pepper
trees were twenty feet high. He
would open and shut himself like
frog swimming. Sometimes, when
he was i'm mid air, he would look
like he was flying, and l would
think for a moment he was about TO
become an angel. Only for a mo-
ment. There are probably no mule
angels.
When he got, up to the tops of the
pepper trees / was called to break
fast. / told them didn't want any
breakfast.
The mule continued to be busy.
When mule kicks himself clear |
of the earth, his heels seldom reach |
higher than his back; that is, a |
mules fore-legS can reach forward |
and his hind-legs backward until /
the mule becomes Strengthened out /
into line of mule parallel with the |
earth and fifteen or twenty feet /
therefrom. This mules hind-legs, |
however, were not only raised into /
"A line but the bottom of the hOOfs .
almost touched his ears. /
The mule proceeded as If he de-
sired to hurry through.
had no idea how many bees
hive would hold until ! saw that
beehive occupied on that mule.
They covered him so completely
that / could not see any Of him but
the glare of his eyes. l could see
from the expression Of his eyes that
he didn't like the way things were
going.
That mule still went on in an alb
sorbed kind of way.
Not only was every bee of the dis
turbed hive on duty, but / think
the news had been conveyed to the {