, 1885-02-10
TRYING THE FLAIL
A Boys VIVID EXPERIENCE WITH THE
PRIMITIVE IMPLEMENT.
Right I'm the Midst OF tho cirelIns Ra.h"
End OF the First Round-An I'm
oantroiiabie Demon
Final Triumph

The ~hzndusaiden came to tho kitchen door
At last and wound her msilow horn, tho hun
CRY men went to dinner, and trembling with
eagerness, approached tho fiai1, as II leaned
against the tanning mill Somehow It looked
taller and grimmer than when it was gyrat-
ing about in the air, in graceful curves.
ellipsoa and ~parabolas. shook hands with
tho short leg, and tho touch chilled ms. /
felt as l think a man must feel when he stops
into the ring and shakes hands with slug9er
Sullivan
A fian looks quiet enough 1t ssems gen.
tia IL Is not at all tho sort OF q whip a
Christian man would fog his little son
with, but In It's hour Of onse It has a quiet.
come wherein -iove-1ies-drcaming expres-
sion, that Is desperately wicked, and de-
ceitftd above all things. A fail is your
true patrician. 1t Is cordial and actively
useful with the equals, but It rosonts any
familiarity from Its inferior In the grasp
Of its mnstars, It Is as clay in the hands OF
the potter; gripped by the unwnry and
swung by the u~ninitinted. IL Is as a brick in
the hands OF a rioter. or a stone thrown by
n lovely woman.
Some feeling OF this kin began to Cypress
me as l examined the simple, primitive
mechanism OF tho fail. There has never
been any improvements in the construction
OF this implement Tn fail sprang into be-
ing, Minerva-lIke, full grown, Of mature
nge, and complete armor, sound in wind,
limb. and condition The first fail. like the
first birds nest, was a perfect model for all
postority. A whipo II oak or hickory, with the
lash a little shorter than the handle, and
nearly as heavy: lash and handle loosely
swung together with a thong that holds like
a mortgage.
But nothing scares a boy very long. /
Picked up the fail. IL was heavier than / SUD-
posed it to be. / raised the simple imple-
ment above my head. Igave the same bold,
careless swing-I know l did-that Uncle
Fred used, and right in the midst of the
first circling rush, without hesitation, re-
morse, warning or conjunction Of con-
science, 1 was knocked down.
First event for the fail
When / got up, the fail lay there on the
hoor- II had not changed. II was the same
calm, impasHive old fail l rubbed my
head, felt carefully OF the lump, and de-
cided hat l ouldn wear my Sunday hat
for two weeks, and consequently
wouldn't have TO go TO church, and then /
grappled the fail again. / shrugged my
shoulders TO protect my head, and led the
german. / never saw any quiet thing fly
around as that fail aid Twice l saw il 20
sweeping past my face. Once it smote mo
in the back with a resounding hump that
made mo think, then and there, It had broken
my heart And all this time l couldn't got
the bulge on 1t, TO whanR 1t down on the
wheat / had got 1t started on its fnhuman
circuit and / couldn't stop Il I had raised a
demon 1 could not control It pounded my
ribs sore In two rapid successive strokes:
my arms wsrs twisting out OF their sockets;
it was all l could do TO keep my feet on the
floor; the longer I held on the worse it got
AT last I let go all "holts," threw my
aWFr4a A~~a. su. 49, - - =
my life. 1t just rnined fails, broadside, ond
on, and cris-cross, down on me all the way
across the big barn, unit, with one final
mighty crash, ! fell down on the astonished
dog Hector, trying TO hide himself behind
the straw cutter, a limp, inert, hopeless
wreck OF bowling boy, pitiless fail and ter
rihed dog.
:
swept tho oncirciing space with the fail
in a final effort. In the first and only circuit
the short leg few straight up in the air, then
dropped and tapped me on the head. Then
IL reached out at right angles and smoto a
thrco-gnllon jug Of ancient cider from its
high perch on the tanning mill, sweeping It
into an everlasting temperance revival, then
IL swooped down with the s,Toop Of a hawk.
camo around and caught me behind the
knees, dropped me on the floor
with a thump that made me heart
sick for a week, and in that humii-
ating position tho men found me. l was
sitting on the fail Ny enemy was at my
feet but / was not vain-glorious in my
triumph. And when grandfather said,
severely, That boy has been at tho cider,S
l sighed in bitterness OF spirit, because 1
knew better than he did, how energetically
had been at it.
And the day never came when 1 could
use a fail Before the dawn OF that trL
umph, the threshing machine began to break
the logs Of men with its far reaching
tumbling rod, and the fail went out OF
business.