The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-01-09
A GOPHER DUEL.

Light Weight Against a Heavy Weight,
and the Light Weight Wins.
Eyer never see er pair gophers fight,
reckon said an old Florida native,
IS ne bent forward meditatively and
Fhot stream of juice through the open
oor of the cabin plumb onto the ear of
IN old razor-back SOW that went grunt-
ing by.
/ After l had answered in the negative
4 he said:
1 reckoned yer Never had, but kin
ser fer pure cussedness and obsti-
them critters will beat any thing,
IRsTcepting gators
~ were sitting in little cabin
among the piney woods of Florida. Our
supper of bacon and coffee was over,
and my host, an old alligator hunter,
mad been moved to make the above re-
parks by the sight of gopher, or land
prtie, waddling along on its ungainly
egs.
Eyer may think it funny that er tur-
Me kin fight, and wouldn't blame yer
II yer did. wouldn't believe it N.Y.
self if l hadn't seen er couple of 'em
gong it hammer and tongs t'other day.
N Yer see, I'd been humping round
'arter gators all day and hadn t had no
luck at all-didn't get any skin. To-
Ward shutdown started for home, Gus
sl9g% luck and wishing I'd never
:, ar 'qat.s.- haan4A,a--s-Ia
u W. to THAT air barren over yender l
MN couple er gophers er padding
oerd each other, and the way they
MADE tn and fly was er caution.
| Old riends,' l said ter myself.
hin me- fur er long time and air
1rigt glad 70 see each other. Reckon
II I'm it downand see.'
I'LL settled on en- old log and
Watchd tn proceedin's. TIL gopher
!SIes ter M was er leetle cuss, ez
nlmpleNz a CON, but the other Teller
was Digsnd kinl er clumsy.
wv helthem c,itters he'd got within
five feet of one auther they stopped
dead short Then hey waddied round
IN er circletheir heads er way out, er
klnder watching eachother. All of er
suddtint th1eetle gope' made er dart
lat tn big ont Fur er mint couldn' t
)see nuthln' tie sand fyed so. Ez soon
ez 1t settled erbit | seed vat tibet leetle
cnss was up tr. He was err irwin to
turn tn fat one on to his back.
Iwasn' no git that time, howsome-
eyer, tn fat un he'd too firm er hold in
tn sand, and the leetle Teller couldn't
budge aim en- irch.
"'Too bad, leetle feller,' | sed to N.Y.
self. You'd better Civ tibet contract up
Iand put in er bid fer er smaller one
But the leetle goph' was game, and
could see bv his face that he wouldn't
Agiye up jest then TIL big Teller 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
aIend blinked his eyes. When tn 'leetle
Wgoph was kinder rested he tackled the
Nold teller agin, and I'll be dod rotted eff
ne didn't keep the racket up fur nigh
hpnto an hour. never sech obstinacv
~ my life. Fin'lly tn fat one thought
T. ID take er whack at it hisself, but,
dts yer soul, he couldn't no more
fal2Fl that leetle goph' then he could
hkn, end when he begun ter hump
!, M md twas jest what TIL leetle Teller
: ~ .. steJJtt-
Fittings went on this way fur about
| five minits, tn leetle cuss watching fur
. chance all tn time ter git tn big one
over. At last he see tn big un sorter
| stumble inter er boiler, an quicker'n
scat his head was under tn big ones
shell and over he went. l jest yelled
right out, | was so tickled to see tibet
leetle feller's pluck. TIL leetle goph'
Ildidn't seem ter mind the noise at all;
he jest snuffed round tn big Teller
er mint, and then scuttled off ter
supper.
carter he was outer sight l turned
tn big one onter his legs agin, fer 1
thought twas too bad ter leave him
thar ter die. reckon thar'l be some
fun when them two meet agin, tho. -
| N. Y. iSun