Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-04-15
HORSE THAT ATE SUGAR.
BY THOMAS CORY BATES.

Dashing through the main street Of
Calverley village, raising a cloud OF
dust. and rousing all it's peaceful in
habitants from the profoundest mat
utinaI maps, went three or four
mounted men, pulling after them by
halters as many more horses. SO sud
den and so furious was the onslaught,
and so silent the streets after 1t was
over, that the night-capped heads
thrust between the Calverley shutters
could not have believed, save for the
dust that still hung mysteriOusly
in the dewy morning air, and the dim
echoes that came floating back from
the ''hurrying rout," that such noise
had been In front of their houses but
a moment before.
Till far beyond her piercing ken
The hurricane had swept glen,
quoted Mr.. John Savage, the minis
ter, thinking of the falcon in the Lady
of the Lake. 'Iguess they've got to as
safe woods as 'Uam-Var' by this time,
too" he said, as he still continued to
peer through the gray darkness Of the
early dawn, in the vain hope of finding
something to safe his curiosity.
''Hello :" as he saw his neighbor, Mr..
Blinn, the storekeeper, sailying forth,
half-dressed, from his house across the
way. "What's up?"
81 reckon it's them horsethieves
that's been dom so much damage
herein over Tolland way" returned
Mr.. Blinn hoarsely. "I'lI bet there's
somebody after them, too, or they
wouldn't "a made SO much noise as
that"
The street was by this time pretty
we'll astir, and Mr.. John Savage with
drew his head in order to 60 and join
his neighbors.
"Hark." he said, as he reached his
gate and was shaking hands with DR..
Sawin, who lived next door, CLARK!
there comes another crowd. It's the
sheriff and his posse; what'n you wa
ger? ?"
Mr.. John Savage was not ga betting
man." but his teeth were just now
chattering with the morning chill and
his excitement, and he was not meas
uring his words.
Almost before he had finished speak
ing, a group of horsemen hovein sight,
riding at their utmost speed.
The men at Calverley Street rushed
toward them.
Cant stop for talk" bawled out
the head horseman, as he dashed past
he was no less a person than the
sheriff of the county himself ''We're
right on the track of them blasted
horsethieves. How long ago did they
go by?'
"Half an hour" ''Twenty min
minutesl" ''Fifteen minutes!" shouted
back different voices. 1t had really
been about half an hour. There was,
whichever estimate was right, no time
to be lost, for woods quite as extensive
and impenetrable as those to which
Mr.. Savage had alluded, lay just
beyond Calverley, and the horsethieves
knew every inch OF the ground for
twenty miles around, as the sheriff was
well aware.
A dozen of the Calverley men were
mounted almost in less time than it
takes to tell it, and galloping in hot
haste in an attempt to catch up with
the sheriff band. More than a score
of valuable horses had been stolen
from Tolland and Calverley within the
last month, and public opinion was
righteously excited over the matter.
In so old and settled a country as that
about Calverley such crimes as horse
stealing had become very infrequent,
and the people hardly knew how to be
patient with the slow process of Justice
In righting their unaccustomedW wrongs.
II dont't know about introducing
lynch law into New England, said Mr.,
Blinn, as they galloped along, but
declare IWant to see something pretty
lively done to these scamps."
Mr.. Savage, who had been thinking
that he knew now somethinghow Paul
Revere felt, was somewhat startled at
the mention OF ''lynch law
Good Heavenl" he cried, refining
up his horse a little, don't say such
a thing, Mr.. Blinn! Lynch law ?
What an idea But then" recollect-
ing that one of Mr.. Blinn's own horses
had been taken, maybe should have
felt as stirred up as you do if [ had
lost my Roland here. DR.. Holmes
says.
When once the slumbering passions burn,
The peaceful are the strong"
But Mr.. Blinn did not imbibe what
ever culture might otherwise have
been impaired to him by his neighbours
poetical quotation, for he was getting
too far ahead; so Mr.. John Savage
spurred his Roland on.