The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-11-09

but I could see none. and the body-well, now,
the body was about tho thickness of . thin dog.
long and thin 1t was-and the noise it made was
terrible. terrible, Well. now, sorr. maybe it was
a fancy. L understand that. Maybe it was
something in my W head-like a fever. But
nanny and NANNY is the time ] have thought
over II, and what bothers ME ~intireiy is that my
mother should have heard it when ii was growl-
ing at me in the ditch"
Even now the recollection of this strange
thing seemed to oyershsdow Patsy with fer
ana trembling. His eyes were distraught; aud
he spoke like one speaking to himself, and de-
scribing something that no actually saw before
him.
'Twan't the size of it, your honor, that
frightened me; sure ii couldn't reach at me
higher than the knee, when il put up it's head
as if it would strike me; but there was some.
thing terrible about it that made me trembIe
from me head to me foot. And when j put
down my stick it would keep back, running
head turned to me, and threatening, and sure
l was afraid to strike it, il l had had the
power, but | was wake with the thrimbling;
and my mother she wouldn't look back-'twas
a Gods truth, your honor. | never WIS in such
. fright as that night, And thin, when
it left the road for the while, | knew
it was there still all the time, by hearing OF its
growing at me; and at such times whin it was
in the ditch l would have hurried on faster.
and got up to my mother. siout my legs were
N1ho w u II Nv, dlu piilo J. " o hlEhlu IL
would coma up behind me- if l was to run
There now, sorr, there may bs an explanation
Il will not say no to that; may be 'swas a
kind OF fever in my head; that sure that
couldn't have made MY mother hear tho beast
whin 1t was growing at mo in the ditch, aud
made her hurry OH. too for she was too
frightened to look back!''
But you haven't flushed the story, Patsy;
what became of Tue beasty"
"Well, twas Il terrible night, your honor,
- 4 "a =, - rn1%. ---.
get to the farm, though my mother kept ahead
Of me with the sheep, aud | was afraid TO over
take her for fear of giving the boast a chance
at me Sure ] think il must have been be-
tween one and two in the morning when we got
up to the farm; and tho beast kept following
mc-aometimes in sight, and sometimes in the
ditch-all the way, until we were nearly to the
door; and then it turned and went away down
the hill again, aud ] saw it as lar as tho lake,
but there ! lost sight Az it. Uiyil a wink of
sleep did | get that night, you may be sure,
sorr; and the next day my mother cautioned
bad luck. ~
six months aficr-si1 or seven
mouths after. My mother aud me We had not
been speaking about what had happened on the
Letternahinch road, for the fright was on me
for NANNY and nanny a day; and my mother
would never spake of it either, for fear Of bad
luck. Well, sorr, one evening I was going into
the ~louse-t'was about supper time-and
was thinking of nawthin' bnt that; and the
door inside was a bit open. Well, sorr, there
was a woman standing talking to my mother
we'll, l knew the woman, she lived at Maskene
that was about eight miles further on the
road-and my mother was asking her to sit
down and rest herself, for twas a long way to
go and she had not passed our way for
NANNY and nanny day. Thank We kindly,
Mrs; Cong says she, but lis lonely road 10
Maskene. and am frightened to be out after
dark since what happened to me Mt Letterna.
hlnch. BE COB, sorr. We may suppose l listened
thin, and her back was TO me SO that she
couldn't see me, and my mother couldn't see
HE nayther because of the door. Well, sorr,
what she said was that two years before she
had been in the market at Letternahinch and
she lad a power o things to carry, and so she
waited for the night mail car, that would put
her down within a mile or SO of Maskene. She
was on the back seat Of the car aud there was
no one else but Tho driver, aud twas a fine
clear night. Well, SOFT, she declared that whin
they were passing a wood about three miles
from Ballynahincb, a terrible beast sprung
out of the wood, and sprung right into
the car, and stopped there beside her, and
the divil a word or a cry conld she get out, for
the fright that was on her. How long the
beast stopped in the car she did not say; nor
was she saying anything OF what it was like:
and my mother seemed too frightened to ask
her any questions. But that was the reason she
made to my mother for going on in the day-
light; and not a minute longer would she stop
in the house. Now, sorr. what can any one
make of tiiatg That was a year aud a hal. be-
fofe what happened ~ me. and at the very
same part of The road"
you hadn't heard the womau's story before
Patsy, and forgotten it. 1t wasn't The com ne
TO the wood on the Lsiternahinch road that sud.
denly brought 1t back 10 your mlui and fright.
ened yon"
Jaw, the divil a bit, sorr! Sure l asked nv
mother about it, and twas thin for the first
time she heard Of ii fop fl,nuyj, ftuoo ,,;,l,,.,
little you'd get her 10 spake about il. Well,
sorr, that's all / know av it. and tits there Iii
lave 1t; but depind on it, sorr, there's more
going on than we know"
This, Patsy's fSyuritc maxim. seemed to both
his companions so iicontrovertible that they
acqulesced i'll silence. AS for Patsy himself.
he seemed rather glad to get away from those
memories. A kind Of gloom had hung over
him while he was recalling the various par
tlculars; perhaps he shared his mothers fear
thatn no good would come of speaking OF such
matters. AT all events, as soon as Ii. began 10
talk OF legends and stories and -superstitlons in
which he was not personally concerned, he
guile recovered his ordinary cheerfulness of
tone; indesd when he came 10 treat Of the
warehouses; that used to hannt these
lakes no spoke IN quite u jaunty and
matter-of-fact way, as If their existence
in the ouldd days admitted of no manner OF
doubt whatever. OF course / was not sur
prised to find the water-horse myth as COM
hAoh III - " 10 III lily OWH country, where
every other loch has it's circumstautiai Legend:
but the curious thing about the Conuemara
water-horses is that they are reported to have
interbred freely with the farm horses around,
and that the offspring were put to work on the
farm as an ordinary affair. But they we're
depended upon whenever they csme near a
lake, for then, unless the farmer was on the
watch; they would most likely make a bolt for
the water, irrespective of what was behind
them. In fact, there WAS a young animal of
this uncanny blood employed on a farm be-
longing to Patsy's uncle. and one day it did
make such a bolt, and was only prevented
from plunging itself and the car and the
driver into a lake by the traces fortunately
hitching chow. was not explained on a rock.
wonder il it was this same uncle who was
the hero Of Patsy Cong's next story. BY this
time, it may be III Unnecessary to say, I had come
to regard my friend Patsy as a rank impostor.
His transatlantic experiences may have given
him a thin veneer of scepticism, which he
thought it fine to parade before the simple
jewellers among the hills; but underneath that
and deep down in his nature there obviously
remained tho ineradicable Coltic belief in =
mysterious and magical world, just hidden,
and no more than hidden, by tho visible phe-
away in Connemara. II only he had belonged
to the wealthier classes, if he had been brought
mp in a library and got his brains bemuddleI
with neo-Plafonism and port wine, there is no
saving to what eminence he might not have
risen as a writer of sentimental history or the
constructor Of : new ethical systom. Here TIL
was tied down to the telling OF cid wives tales
about water-horses and the like.
there's more coins on than we know
says Patsy, surveying the still blue waters Of
the lake in an abssht kind of way. vim sure
OF that. sorr: Itssa rcsitivoS fact. Maybe
wouldn't behave all the stories that are 'ttorld,
but there's something 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 was
to marry. We'll, one evening ~ he was coming
back he stopped to talk to some min that were
blasting rocks near the rosdside; aud I don't