Morning journal and courier., 1885-03-28
NO. 73.

tle 1t is not at all the sort of a whip a
Christian man would fog his little son with.
but in its hour of ease it has quiet, come
where-my-l Notwithstanding expression that
is desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. A fail is your true patrician It is
cordial and actively useful with its equals,
Eat it resents any familiarity with its inferi-
ors. In the grasp of its masters it is as clay
in the hands of the potter; gripped by the
unwary and swung by the uninitiated it is as
brick in the hands of rioter or a stone
thrown by a lovely woman
Some feeling of this kind began to oppress
me as I examined the simple, primitive me-
chanlsm of the fail There has never been
any improvement in the construction of this
implement. The fail sprang into being, Mi
nerVa-llke, full grown, of mature age and
complete arTnor, sound in wind, limb and
condition. The first fail, like the first birds
nest, was perfect model for all posteIity.
A whip of oak hickory, with the lash a
little shorter than the handle and nearly as
heavy; lash and handle loosely swung to-
gether with thong that holds like mort
gage.
But nothing scares boy very long. I
picked up the fail. 1t was heavier than 1
supposed it to be. I raised the simple i'm
plement above my head. I gave the same
bold, careless swing| know 1 did-that
Uncle Fred used, and right in the midst of
the first circling rush, without hesitation, re-
morse, warning OF compunction of conscience
[ was knocked down.
First event for the fail.
When got up the fail lay there on the
floor 1t had not changed. 1t was the same
calm, impassive old fail. rubbed my head,
felt carefully of the lump, and decided that
[ couldn't wear my Sunday hat for two weeks
and consequently wouldn't have to go to
church, and then I grappled the fail again.
[ shrugged my shoulders to protect my head
and led the german. l never saw any quiet
thing fly around as that fail did. vice 1
saw it go sweeping past my face. Once it
smote in the back with a resounding
thump that made Inc think, then and there,
it had broken my heart. And all this time
I couldn't get the bulge On it, to whang it
down ON the wheat. 1 had got it started on
it's inhuman circuit and I couldn't stop it. I
had raised demon l could not control. I
pounded my ribs sore in two rapid successive
strokes; my arms We're twisting out of their
sockets; it was all l could do to keep my feet
on the floor; the longer held ON the worse it
got.
At last let go all s'holts," threw my arms
over my head and started to run for my life.
1t just rained fails, broadside, end on and
cris- cross, down me all the way across the
big barn, until, with one final mighty crash,
fell down on the astonished dog Hector
trying to hide himself behind the straw cut
ter a limp, inert hopeless wreck of howling
boy, pitiless fail and terrified dog.
I swept the encircling space with the fail
in final effort. In the first and only circuit
the short leg flew straight up in the air, then
dropped and tapped me on the head. Then
It reached out at right angles and smote
three-gallon jug of ancient cider from its
high perch the tanning mill, sweeping it
into an everlasting temperance revival; then
it swooped down with the swoop of a hawk,
came around and caught me behind the
knees, dropped me on the floor with thump
and made me. beart-Sipk for week and in
that humiliating position the men found me.
1 was sitting on the fail. Ny enemy was at
my feet, but was not vainglorious in my
triumph. And when grandfather said se-
verely, EsThat boy has been at the cider" I
sighed in bitterness of spirit, because knew
better than he did how energetically 1 had
been at it.
And the day never came when 1 could use
fail. Before the dawn of that triumph the
threshing machine began to break the legs of
men with its far-reaching tumbling rod, and
the fail went out of business.