News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-02-09

listened with puZZled unconcefn, more
wondering thar afraid.
It was then about three i'll the morn
ing: the moon shone brightly, and moth
inc higher than bunch-grass grew by the
road for two or three miles; yet [ stood
still quite two minutes, blinking my
nearsighted eyes, before discovered
something dark extending beyond the
road on both sides and moving rapidly
toward me.
Almost another minute passed, when,
with a sudden throb of terror, [ grasped
the truth-it was a drove of Spanish cat
tie.
From an unreasoning impulse of de-
Tending myself, [ did the most insane
act possible. I swung my gun to my
shoulder and discharged both barrels;
with horrible distinctness the shots
pealed out on the still night air, and the
fierce drove, which moment before had
been intent on water or pasturage, now
rushed forward with roar of rage that
almost paralyzed me.
1t was a terrible situation, moment
of despair, glance int the face of
frightful death. There seemed to be no,
refuge; neither tree that could climb,
nor bush where [ could hide, only the
telegraph pole, beside which [ stood,
reared itself above me. I threw down
my gun and began to climb; few knot
ty protuberances at the base favored me,
and though had little skill in exercise
of this sort, some strange power seemed
to give me intelligence and address far
beyond my nature. Great drops of
sweat stood all over me. [ felt ring
ing in my ears, as though a thousand
gongs were beating; time no longer ex-
isted for me; every thought, breath, SEN
sation was crushed into an agony of eff
fort, until at last [ reached the top of
my frail refuge and clutched the wire
in my hand.
l tried to steady my nerves amid the
horrible uproar, and at length forced
myself to look down. Through a cloud
of dust 1 saw sea of wide, branching
horns, heads tossing, tails lashlng, huge
bulks bending and rearing.
I had hoped that when they saw that
I was out of their reach they would
move on, instead of which their anger
seemed each moment to increase, and
they fairly foamed with rage.
l could see them look up at me with
glaring eyes as they paved the earth,
believing with baffied fury.
The telegraph pole was stout and well
set, but it shook SO with their blows and
iostling that feared each moment that
it would fall
Fifteen or twenty minutes had passed
before it occurred to me that my red
blanket, plainly visible in the moon
light, was the exciting cause of their an
imosity. 1t was no easy matter to un-
hI1t OF crfh |
succeeded, and allowed it to drop to the
distance among the herd, but in my in
secure position that was impossible.
They plunged at it and tossed it with
horrible ferocity, and in a few moments
it was bitten, torn and trampled into in
distinguishable fragments.
And still they did not move on.
They became somewhat quieter after
time; many of them wandered from
the road and made short bites at the
brown grass; but the majority stood
wedged bout the pole, looking up at
me with relentless hatred, as patient as
if they knew the limit of human suffer-
ing, and were content to wait, being
sure of their victim
| lived years of torture in each hour
that crept by; the thin wire cut into my
hands until they were torn and bleeding
from the wrist to the fingers; to relieve
them [ occasionally rested my elbows on
the top of the pole (there was no cross
piece, helping the strain on my arms by
pressing my knees against the wood,
until every muscle in my body was
wrenched to the utmost; the pains in my
back, especially, were almost insupport-
able.
At first, was conscious only of terror
and of suffering, but as time dragged
slowly on my mind began to wander.
Scraps of conversation heard in the past
and long since forgotten. REQUIRED to me;
they were wholly trifing and disconnect-
ed, but they came back with every tone
as clear and distinct as if they had just
been uttered, sometimes followed by
light laughter, which [ recognized as
that of childish playmates.
One peculiar hallucination took pos
session of me. When very small l had
hands bled freely; he had cut himself
with his sharp knife, and the blows of
the rattan reopened the wounds; it i'm
pressed me very much at the time,
though l had not thought of it for years.
Now, however, [ could not shake off the
impression that [ was that boy, and that
with my bloody hands [ was clinging to
the rattan, which constantly cut deeper
and deeper.
Occasionally [ would start and realize
my situation, looking down with despair
on the long, branching horns below, and
endeavoring to relieve my rigid muscles
by such slight change of position as was
possible; then all would grow dim, and
again [ was the truant, with bleeding
hands, grasping the rod of punishment.
| could hear plainly, as [ heard that day,
the hum of the school-room, the third
division droning their geography, Millie
Gaines's lisp when she missed on Yuca-
tan, and then the sudden hush as the
blows fell on his hands-my hands.
At last, in one of my starts of con-
sciousness, 1 saw broad streak of pur-
pie in the east, while the moon overhead
was almost faded out i'll a thin, pink
haze that had spread over the sky. [
watched the light grow and the colors
change for some minutes, too numbed
and hopeless to think; shudderingly, [
glanced downward.
[ Igasped, looked at the glowing sky
again, and forced my senses to awaken;
again [ looked down, half doubting-the
herd was gomez
During those two hours of unspeak
able agony not sound had passed my
lips; now | uttered loud cry, and
slipped to the ground. I remember no
more?
When, days after, next had feeble
perception of what was going on about
me, the first thing 1 saw was my aunt
James pale and careworn face.
Towing Rats at Sea.