Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-11-02

d snake, Dut i naQ q Dill OF a Suck IN my h1nQ
and I kept that turned to it. Maybe ithad legs
tho body was about the thickness Of q thin dog,
long and thin it Was-and the noise it made was
terrible, terrible. Well now, sorr. maybe it was
fancy: understand that. Maybe it was
something in my own head-iike fever But
nanny and nanny is the time I have thought
over it, and what bothers me intirely is that my
mother should have heard it when it was growl-
ing at me in the ditch"
Even now the recollection of this strange
thing seemed to overshadow Patsy with fear
and embling. His eyes were distraught; and
he spoke like one speaking to himself, and de-
him.
'Twan't the size of it. your honor, that
frightened me; sure it couldn't reach at me
higher than the knee, when it put up its head
as it it would strike me; but there was some
thing terrible about it that made me tremble
from me head to me foot And when put
down my stick it would keep back, running
along by the side O. ME, but always wild its
head turned to me- and threatening, and sure
! was afraid to strike it, If / had had the
power, but was wake with the thrimbling
and my mother she wouldn's look back-'twas
Gods truth, your honor, never was in such
fright as that night: And thin, when
It Left tho road for the while, I knew
it there still all the time by hearing of its
growing at me; aud at such times whin it was
in the ditch I would have hurried faster.
and got up to my mother, but my legs were
wake with the fr gut, and sure I was afraid it
would como up behind me if / was to rum
Tlcre now, sorr, there may be an explanation
Il will not ray no TO that; may be twas a
kind Of fever ia my head; that sure that
couldn't have made my mother hear the beast
whin It was g'owllug at mo in the ditch, and
made her hurry on, too, for she was too
frightened 10 look back"
''But you haven't flushed the story, Patsy;
what became Of tue beast?''
''Well, twas terrible night your honor,
and that's u fact [ thought we would mover
get TO the farm, though my mother kept ahead
OF mo with the sheep, and was afraid 10 over
take her or fear of giving the beast chance
at mo Sure ! thlnk it mus have been be-
tween one and two in the morning when we got
up to the farm; and the boast kept following
me-sometimes in sight, and sometimes in the
dltch-al the WY, Until we were yearly to the
door; and then it turned and went away down
the hi again, aud Saw it rs far as the lake,
but thers lost sight av it. Divil a wink Of
sleep did get that night you may be sure
sorr; and the next day my mother cautioned
me not to spake Of it to amy one, for fear Of
bad luck
"'Twas six months af'er-sx or seven
moaths after. My mother aud mo we had not
been speaking about what had happened on the
Let'ernahinch 70 I'd, for ,hs fright was Oh me
for NANCY and NANNY day; AID my mother
would never spake Of it either, Tor tear OF bad
luck. Well, sO'r. one evening was going INT
the HOUSEWIVES about supper time--ard I
was thinking of nawlhin' but that; and the
door inside was a bit open. We'll, SOFT, there
was woman standing a;king to my mother
we'll, knew the woman, she lived at Maskene
that was about eight miles further on the
roa and my mother WAS asking her to sit
down and rest herself, for twas ii long way 10
go aud she had not passed our way for
NANNY aud NANNY day. Thank We kindly,
N s: Copg,' says she, suut til a lon.,y road to
Maskcne. aud am brighten ID to be out after
dark since what happened 10 me at Letterna-
hlnch.' Be COB, sorr. We may suppose is eued
thin, and her lack was TO me 80 that she
cou dn't sec ME, aud my m 'ther couldn't see
me nayther because Of the door. Well, so"r,
what she said WAS that two Years before she
had been in the marke at Lettorn 4hinch and
she had rower O things to Carry, and SO she
waited for t'e night mail car, that would put
her down wi hin mile 81 of Maskene. She
was on the back seat Of the Car aud there wa,
no one else but The driver, and twas q fine
closr night. Well, so:r, she decl sred that wi,in
they were passing u wood about three miles
from Ballynaninch, terrible beast sp.ung
out Of the wood, AMI sprung rigut Into
the ca :, and stopped there be.Ide her. and
the divl word OF cry could ehs get out, for
the f,lE>t that was on her. How long the
b. asst stopp 81 ia tao car she diI not say; nor
NIs SEC SaNl' b Any tl1tiS OF VIA IL was ike
and my mother scanned too fry ened to ask
her any qus stlons. But thaJwas the reason she
ma lie to nv motner for going on in tue day
IiE:t; q I'd not il Minute longer would she stop
in the house.. Now, sorr. what can any one
maize Of tnat? TIA, was year and halt be-
fore what Aapptnru t., me. aud at the very
Sine part Of me road
YOU la int heard The woma''s story before.
Patsy, aud forgotten il? 1t wa1n't he com ng
TO tao wool on tho La ternaniuch road hat sud
deuly brought it back 70 your mln1 aud fright
ened YOU"
cav, lie divil BIT, sorr! Sure a<kel my
mother about it, aud twas trim for the first
i.tte you'd get her 10 81 AXE about il. Well
sorr, hats ali l Know av it., aud tits there LII
lave ii; but depind Oh II, surr, there's more
going on Than we Know"
This, Patsy's favorite maxin, seemed to both
his companions SO incontrov-r,ib.e that they
acqufe>ced in silence. AS for Patty himself
he seemed rather ad to get away f ON those
memories. A KIND Of COON had hung owe.
HIM while he was recall ing the y,rious par.
tlculars; perhaps he ss,a ed his mothers feal
that good would come OF speaking of such
matters. a! all events, as soon as h. began t
tai Of legends and etor es and superstitlons III
which he was not personally cOnce rned, ht
quite recovered his ordinary cheerfuntss 81
toue; iEde d when he came to treat of she
water horses that used to haunt these
lakes no spoke IN quite jaunrv ant
mat'er-of fact way, as if their existenc;
GIN the on d days" admitted OF no mArner o.
doubt villa OF course | WAS not sur.
prised 70 find the w4ter-hor.e myth as com
mou here 1t is in my own country, VIII. It
evory other loch has it's circum -tautia legend
but the curious thing about The Conuemar:
water horses that they are reported to have
iu;erbred f'eely VITA the farm uorses around
and that the offspring were put to work on t.,t
t.
lazy animals, these half-breeds, and not t, b.
depended upon whenever they came near
lake, for then, unless the farmer wa on thu
watch they would most likely make bolt ,ol
tho water, irrespective of what was behnC
them. In fact, th"re was a young animal OF
this uncanny blood employed on farm be-
longing to Patsy's uncle, and one day it dill
make such bolt, and was only prevented
from plunging itself and the Car and the
driver into o. lake by the traces fortunately
hitching Chow, was not explained) on a rock
wonder if it was this same uncle who wa
the hero of Patsy Cong's next story: BY thi'
time, it may be I'm necessary to say, had come
to regard my friend Patsy as a rank impostor
His transatlan ic experiences may have giver
him @ thin veneer Of scepticism, which hi
thought it fine to parade before the Simple
dwellers among the hills; but underneath thai
and deep down in his nature there obviously
remained the ineradicahle Celtic belief in
biy HtS'Nuo oIu NcA1us JuSu A1GioH
and no more than hidden, by the visible Pile
nvmena around. Patsy WAS clearly thrown
away in Connemara- If only he had belonged
to the Weather classes, if he had been brough
mp in a library and got his brains bemuddlec
with neo Platonism and port wine, there 10 nj
saying to what influence he might not have
risen as q writer of sentimental history or t"t
constructor of new ethical system Here /
was tied down to the telling OF Old wives taller
about water-horses and the like.
''There's more going on than we know,
says Patsy, surveying the still blue waters o.
the lake in an absent KIM of way sim sure
OF that. SORT. It's positive fact Maybe
wouldn't behave all the stories that are tould
but there's something 49, there's something
There was my uncle, now, that lived at Kin
cree; and he used to be going down to the say
shore, coortin' the young woman that he wa:
to marry. Well, one evening as he was coming
back he stopped to talk to some min that WEIR