St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-02-13
A GOPHER DUEL.
a Light Weight Against a Heavy Weight.
and the Light Weight Wins.

| and the Light Weight Wins.
oyer never see er pair gophers fight,
| reckon said an old Florida native,
as he bent forward meditatively and
shot stream of juice through the open
door of the cabin plumb onto the ear OF
an old razor-back SOW that went grunt-
ing by.
After had answered in the negative
he said:
81 reekoned yer never had, but kin
tell yer fer pure cussedness and obsti-
macy them critters will beat any thing,
not excepting gators
We were sitting in q little cabin
among the piney woods of Florida. Our
supper of bacon and coffee was over.
and my host, an old alligator hunter,
had been moved to make the above re-
marks by the sight of gopher, or land
turtle, waddling along on its ungainly
legs.
"Yer may think it funny that er tur-
tie kin fight. and l wouldn't blame yer
if yer did. wouldn't believe it my
self if l hadn't seen er couple of 'em
going it hammer and ton IS t'other day.
"Yer see, I'd been humping round
arter gators all day and hadr t had no
luck at all-dith't get any skin. To-
ward sundown started for home, Gus
sing my luck and wishing I'd never
been born er gator hunter. Jest rs |
cum to that air barren over yendcr I
see 4 couple er Sophers er padding
toward each other, and the way they
made tn sand fly was er caution.
'..Old friends | said ter myself
'Hain't met fur er long time and air
right glad to see each other. Reckon
I'll sit down and see.
$50 l settled on en- old log and
watched tn proceedin's. TIL gopher
highest ter me was er leetle cuss. ez
nimhle es coon, but the other feller
was big and kind er clumsy
when them critters he'd got within
five feet of one nuther they stopped
dead short Then they waddlcd round
in er circle, their heads er way out. er
kinder watching each other. All of er
suddint tn leetle goph' made er dart
ut tn big one. Fur er mint couldn't
see nuthin' the sand fiyed so. 81 soon
20 1t SCtlItu CI Dll SGSu WAL tueG lttltt
cnss was up ter. He was er tryin' to
turn tn fat one on to his back
'Twasn't no got that time, howsomc-
ever. tn fat un he'd too firm er hold in
tn sand, and the leetle feller couldn't
nudge him en- inch.
TOO bad. leetle feller,' sed to my.
self You'd better Civ thet contract up
and put in er bid fer er smaller one.'
..But the leetle goph' was game. and
l could see bv his face that he wouldn't
give up jest then. TIL big feller looked
ez contented ez er mud turtle on er
log, and arter he see what tn leetle
cuss was up ter he lay purfectly still.
end blinked his eyes. When tn leetle
goph' was kinder rested he tackled the
old feller agin, and I'll be dod rotted ef
he didn't keep the racket up fur nigh
onto an hour. / never sech obstinacy
in my life. Fin'lly tn fat one thought
he'd take er whack at it hisself, but,
bless Yer soul, he couldn't no more
ketch that leetle goph' then he could
fly, end when he begun ter hump
round twas jest what tn leetle feller
wanted.
Things went on this way fur about
five minits, tn leetle cuss watching fur
a chance all tn time ter git tn big one
over. At last he see tn big un sorter
stumble inter er holler, an quicker'n
scat his head was under tn big ones
she'll and over he went l jes. yelled
right out, / was so tickled to see thet
leetle feller's pluck. TIL leetle goph'
didn't seem ter mind the noise at all;
he jest snuffed round tn big fcller
er mint. and then scuttled off ter
supper.
"Arter he was outer sight 1 turned
tn big enc cnter his legs agin, fef I
thought twas too bad ter leave him
thar ter die. reckon thar'll be some
fun when them two meet agin, tho
N. Y. Sun.