The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-14
oRUNrlNo FROGS IN BATTLE.
Kingston Freeman.


 Marlborough's storytelling old set- tiers were in high glee last evening, They had been telling all sorts of frog and snake stories. The oldest sset- tier" said:
 esquire, l have read this week ahouten how iellers in Kingston he'd been up in Catskill mountains lookin' arter frogs. Some of ther stories they tell sound like pretty good uns. but member little spcrlenoe he'd with a frog wonce, when l were down in South CarlinAy. he'd been out nigh about ten hours along the Saluda river, near Columbia, lookin' for some frog fish.
 Them frog fish Is ugly, and ef yer don't know jis how ter git at 'em they'll give you pretty durned good fight. They hev got head like a 'lasses bar'l and thar body looks like \ bit of flat iron stuck inter ther bar'l. Well, as l was a.saying, was hunting these ere frog fish, walking long ther river bank very cautious like. All of a sudden l heerti a fearful noise--the feArfnllest noise l ever hecrd In my life. l stopped stock still and listened again. At bout ten feet from where l was l seed two of the biggest frogs ever seed in my life.
 "l watched lem tor minute or two, jist ter see what they was doen. Bye-and-by the biggist of ther two got up on his hind fins and waltEcd around ther other one, screaming ter all it was worth. Pretty soon they came together, and cf them frogs didn't fight then frogs don't fight. They'd scream, shout and holler, then they'd holler, scream and shout until thought the whole frog kingdom wus let loose. Aboutcn twenty ve feet away from wher them frogs wus a-flghten seed the sand along the beach begin to move and wabble about, ez ef ther wus something in the ground what wus a-tryen to git out.
 "Prctty .soon l seed the head of frog poke out. Then sixteen other heads bobbed up ter the surface, and the head one started for the fighters. He got up ter where the big frog wus and halted. Long come the sixteen other frogs. All this while, fellers, them frogs wus a-tlghten and a-hol- leren fer dear life. pritty soon the littlest frog give one terrible yell, and quicker than wink them other sev- cnteen frogs pitched inter the fight and in less nor five minutes the big gist wus kilt as dead as Barney Harri- sons hoss what got stinged with a curley fly. The seventeen frogs what rushed inter the fight took tho little fellow and drug him inter the water. It seems ter me now that they wua in ther water there over an hour. How somever, after they he'd washed them- selves, they all marched back inter the sand where see 'ein come from. Abouten two hours after ther fight went and picked up ther dead frog and carried 1t to Columbia.
 "When got to the place where wus a. a-stoppen the landlady said, says she, What you got therer' 'Durned of l know said. Then she called out ther old man and he said, Major, where did you get that feller2' Then told him about what l he'd seen. Nothing to do I must take the frog up to the hotel, close by where the Louis vile X Nashville railroad comes in. Ef 1t hain't that there road it's some other, Case railroad comes in there anyhow. We'll, siree, ef you fellers he'd seen the crowd that collected. After l he'd told the story one man jumped on a chair and said that he'd gin a five-hundred bill ter sec that fight.
 After everybody had seen the frog, an old man, what said he was q news paper man, told me that the frog he'd wus what they calls West India grunten frog. He wus big teller, the biggest kind that comes. This 'ere man said he had seen lem jump over wall 'steen foot high, and not made skip. These grunten frogs is very hungry sort of birds; and this feller what l had, had been looken along the bank of the Saluda river fer to eat when out popped one of these ugly frog fish and tackled him to fight. You see, ther frog fish was hidden in ther sand to git onter anything what happened to come along. l reckon, however, ef them other frog fish hadn't 8 come out just as they did, ther grunten frog would | hev killed the sly devil
 HOne man In Columbia offered me l ten ten-dollar notes for the frog. Did | take them? Well, l guess I didn't. reckoned ef they was so valuable I'd | keep 'em myself. brought ther thing hum with me, and ef you felIers want to see sight in ther frog line you jist come over ter ther house on | Sunday and you'll see somethen 1 what'll make you open yer eyes. keep him in two. gallon glaas bottle. 1