Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-06-10
m. They are too young. Too

young.
''Too young for what?" we in
CURED.
"Why," he continued ''some little
boys some very little boys-tried to
fool your old uncle" and he empha-
sized the word old, "Fhese littleboys
found an old beech tree down In the
hollow with a snug little hole in it, SO
thew conceived the idea that if they
put some honey in the hole, the bees
would be attracted there, and the lit
tie bows were right Then they knew
that poor Uncle Jake always kept his
eyes open for a bee tree Again the
little boys were right. Then they
thought this poor inotfensive old man
would 60 off to that tree chuckling to
himself, and smacking his lips in an
ticipation. Again the little boys were
right. Then they thought when hegot
there he would pull off his old "wam-
mus" tug and sweat cutting that
tree down, and then the little fellows
would laugh. There the little boys
were wrong. The poor old man no.
ticed that the bees were acting little
queer and bewldered, then he noticed
some footprints in the ground quite
large ones for so small boys, then he
found an old knife that looked
very much like one Tom has carried
for sometime, then the old man fol.
lowed the bees off who were making
a bee line for some other point, and
| Che lowered his voice. if you boys
won't give it away, | know where there
is g, genuine bee tree and when it gets
ripe you come over and we will go and
cut it," Then how he laughed. Pref.
ty soon his fish were Drowned and
beautiful, and how it happened | can
not tell, but he allured me into the
fatal chair, and about midway in ou1
meal it collapsed, and then he laughed
again. For long time thereafter
Tom went by the euphonious title o.
''Honey" and [ ''Bee Tree" / men
ton this circumstance as a partial
apology for what is to follow Fol-
notwithstanding our signal failures
Tom and [ entered into a solemn com
pact that sometime we would get even
with him; and we did. .-
[ think it was the winter that we
were eighteen, for we were both of the
same age, and as we were backwards
in our studies, and as common
schools" were with us thing I'M
known, our parents concluded to send
us to a village some twenty
miles distant to receive the
boon of a wnter's instruction.
Boys will be boys" you know,
but | think as 1T now occurs to me,
that we were pretty diligent; but
when the holidays came and we were
informed that there would be a va
cation of two weeks, we were home
sick enough to trudge through the
snow for visit at home. We found
| the entire neighborhood in a great
state of excitement and connection
over a strange and hitherto-unheard-
of animal that had been seen or rath-
er heard in the clearing" On several
nights, just after a fresh snow, the
woods would reverberate with the
most hideOus and terrible bowls, and
thenext day thefresh snow would show
pOnderOus and enormous footprints
of some terrific beast that puzzled
the Oldest inhabitants as to what it
could be or where it came from
! These tracks indicated that their own
! er was a four-footed monster, but al
so showed that at timesit would walk
upright on two feet. Speculations
were at a high pitch, and conf lectures
and theories numerous. OF course
Tom and [ soon caught the fever
and were as anxious as anyone to
solve the mystery, So we paid a Wis
1t. to our sage and philosopher, Uncle
Jake.
He seemed to be greatly pleased to
see US, and piled all manner of ques-
tions to us as to what we had seen and
learned during our absence. Having
at last satisfied his curiosity we came
to the great unknown and asked him
what Greatly thought twas? "Well!
boys it beats me-" he replied, II was
, in hopes that when you got home
chuck full of knowledge you could ex-
plain it..
"But we never saw it, said Tom.
COR heard it howl" | added.
'FWell! / guess none Of the people
around here ever saw it," said Uncle
Jake, "and as for hearing it howl, you
will hear that soon enough for your
OBLIGATION if we get a fresh snow.
GAS to what it is, hecontinued with
all the gravity of a sage, "It's hard to
tell; however am of the opinion that
it is a species of what is known as the
great 'Asiatic Mastodon. Scientific
men regard the race as extinct but [
am inclined to doubt it and l am of
the opinion that one of them has
crossed the ice at Behring' Straits and
somehow has wandered here" He
then entered into very learned dis
QUESTION of this Wanderful animal and
Tom and [ went home chuck full of in
formation.
The next day it showed, and sure
enough the following night as it seemed