The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-25


Pis-Thc Young Mare and the Ghost.
stranS" Tale.
1t is not u.tlsIial for the Scottish shepherd
to gravcly say, when his sheep carefully
avoid parti cular locality, that they
must ha'c -'.i IA gcIst there and he will as
sure you tn: th.i,. "tuld kinks and brigs
and ithcr u...T,ii,Iy places which all the dougs
in ScUtliI ,,uii ma get his sheep to gang
by. Int t.I,- ,.uIs Will sometimes see the
geast, tn. .ltt.i then he will ma gang by there
himS /.
UpC.i 49, sion the writer had the op-
portus.4 81 s-.I,tyiIg the superstitious pro-
cliVi, "a rat Newfoundland dog whose
chaYc, 80 i.ttiun with children had been
YER :. ...,yi. with some visitors to his
hou- "a ,hild with II doll large enough
for the ..,. To- AXE in the human characters
tics az !. al and face, surrounding the
drcs, 4 IL proper order AID proportion;
thi', al. II vith such fairyliSe dimensions,
coils;.tu.,,i i.Iystery too profound for the
men,L' l.tuCtIat,oI of Bruin. He was de-
liGhtcI w..I t,Ic rs ISOLATION of the child, it
was Tia. first of its kind with whom he was on
terms of intimate acquaintance He would
follow her about everywhere and lavish upon
her the most friendly attentions; but the doll,
"nonc of it III mine, thank you" and he was
Away careful To keep on that side of his lit
tie friend furthest away from the doll. No
ticing these actions, the writer took the doll
and advanced it toward the dog, who re-
treated with the utmost precipitation, but
finally lie backed into "a corner, and ON
finding his retreat cut OFF, he made dash past
the doll with AN energy which could not have
been more desperate if his life had been
at stake. But the most comical part Of the
circus was the pretense he made of not being
frightened. As soon as he secured an open
line of retreat he would take up position at
respectful distance and skip and caper and
bark in manner which clearly indicated:
"Whos afraid. III there's any dog in this
neigLborhood that is afraid OF fairies he can
not D. discovered in this direction" But the
moment the doll was advanced toward him
he ran, all the same.
DEMoRALIZED PUSSY.
1t IL not uncommon for cats to play with q
soap bubble without appearing to be more
than aStonished mystified by its sudden
disappearance. In one case, however, puss
was ~ dcmoralized at the mystery Us to grow
big tailed and spit ut any soap bubble which
might happen to fall to the hooor and drift
across it. Another, which up to that time
had never seen colored person, fled pre-
cipitatcly from good-looking negro girl that
it tumbled into a grating, from which it could
not he coaxed until hunger overcame its ter
ror, and the oddly of it was that puss herself
was Us black coal.
A farmrr was greatly annoyed by his neigh
boris pig getting into his potato field and
harvesting ON his own account Whenever he
drove the aGgressor out he was forced to lay
down a panel of the snake fence as bacon in
the conscious state is always careful never to
betray the place where it enters bonanza by
going out there, unless he is very hard pressed
by dogs The farmer had diligently searched
for a defect i'll the fence, but failed to find one
where the pig could by any possibility enter,
20 he concluded to watch, and soon had the
satisfaction of seeing the thief enter the end
Of u crooked, hollow log which made a part
Of the fence, one end being in bis field and one
In that of his neighbor. After driving the
burglar out he changed the position of the
log, so that both ends were in his neighbours
field, and concluded to watch the result. Soon
the pig came along and went through the log,
as usual, but upon searching for potatoes ho
found only pasture grass, and after some
little delay he seemed TO arrive at the conclu-
sion that he had not gone through the log ut
oil, so he went through again, and upon
emerging into the pasture field seemed more
mystified than ever; but after a more pro-
tracted search for the potatoes than ever be
fore he seemed to conclude that owing to some
blunder of his own he had not really gone
through the log, SO in he went again and out
into the pasture field, but this time he stood
still as a statue for about half a minute, and
his back, and with two or three tremendous
shifts he set off at the top of his speed for the
house of his owner, and never afterwards
could be induced to approach that part of the
pasture field.
THE MARE AND THE GHOST.
gentleman who is now, the old Greeks
would say. with the gods, pledged his veracity
upon the following statement: when a
youth on my fathers farm near the boundary
.~TI L.. a n
mare which l called Kitty; she was black
Jet. Upon the occasion of a social gathering
Of young people at a neighbours some miles
OIL, rode there on this favorite colt. When
the party broke up towards midnight my
friends advised me to take the roundabout
way home as the short cut led through the
glen, where the headless ghost Of British
officer, said to have been killed by a cannon
| shot III some frontier encounter, was IN the
habit of appearing. laughed at their fears
and took the short cut home. The night was
dark and the shadow of the trees made the
glen darker Just as i got to the spot where
the ghost was said to appear the colt stopped
from the cantcr so suddenly, by bracing her
fore feet. that she almost threw me over her
head, which made me show some temper in
endeav orn. u force her past but she would
not go. After fruitlcssly struggling with her
for some time l concluded to ride back a lit
tie way and get her over her fright, then
turn and go home, but she did the same thing
the second time, and ut the same spot. Again
rode hl :. bat this time could hardly hold
her from raining away, and l had great
difficulty in turning her head homeward this
third time. but finally got her started and
then put her To her speed. In order to give
her no time To- ball, l struck her sharply with
the whip just at the dreaded point, and it
seemed tn ilc that ut a single bound We went
fifty feet through the air, and then she went
like the wind l could not hold her in.
"When We got homo she was teeming with
perspira,ion and trc:nhlin, like n leaf. l put
her in the stable ra.,,.e,t her and covered her
with blankets II Esc., lior iroEl taking cold;
then stOlt To- M room through the back
door So that i.Iy Iathcr would not know how
late had be-, cat Ia the morning l
startle,i ont OF my 81. y by the old gentleman