Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-12-25

water with my blamed old king-snare!''
he said. 81 can stan Gibbs lickin' an
MI Skill ett's jawin'. but Simpsons only
.waitin' fur . chance to git red o me
without shown up too small among the
neigh bors, fur they all know that I've
worked fur him faithful all summer.
I've heerd him blow about MI Skillett's
live geese time an agin, but he'll bless
that there dead one ef she complains an
gifts him q 'scuse fur sackin' me iist ez
winters comm on. In summer boy
kin hang up his hat most anywares, but
in winter It's diffrunt."
He stopped even then and threw out 3
Leaf plank to drowning grasshopper.
tried to assume share Of the res.
sponsibility, but he ignored me as II I
had been the veriest baby-I was only.
three years his Junior. Besides, what
could do? Ny uncle seemed unap-
proachable, I was scarcely acquainted
with him, and felt as friendless as Tom
himself. s,s IF .:s.% @
AS we stood there we heard voices far
Their up the ditch. 1t was recess, and
our companions were searching for US.
We went to meet them and led them of
the scent of our game.
We had been in school an hour, per-
haps, and Tom and I were still laying
our heads together to decide upon q
course of action, when there was gem
eral uprising and looking out of win
dows. &c.,.
Along a swamp path galloped Mrs.
Skillet, bearing down upon the school
house like an avenging fury. One hand
grasped the neck of that luckless goose,
while the other hand held in place q
dirty sunbonnet. - +.
She threw open our door with q bang
that overturned q bench whose oc-
cupants generally kept it wavering in
unstable equilibrium, depositing those
small philosophers upon the floor in
various postures of fright and amaze
ment. Then she whirled herself across,
the room, and when that old goose
descended upon the masters desk, ink
bottles, states and ferules left it for o
number pOSlC1On.
She opened her mouth and the cyclone
burst.
The poor old master! No wonder he
held ON to his wig as if he expected it
to be consumed in that hot blast of
abuse. No wonder his shivering voice
played him false as he came down our
line from boy to boy inquiring who had
set the trap.
Expressions of relief began to peer
out of the burrows of his worried face as,
having nearly reached the end, he still
met with denials. He supposed that
some of us were lying, but he could
easily forgive us, so anxious was he to
evade the responsibility which he would
incur with our conviction.
He came to me.
Eyes, SIR" I answered, quaking all
over, 1.-THE trap was mine. I meant to
catch rabbit
Then the relief fed to cover, for, by
virtue think of my good clothes, he
had been used to exempt me from the
rougher discipline of the school. But
Tom provided for him way of escape
Tom who had no rights, no relatives,
no distinction of any kind that any body
was bound to respect.
"Little Greeny didn't own that SNARE"
said he, scowling frightfully, sit was
my tree-I found it, an bent it down,
an sot the snare, an the whole BUSH
ness was NINE"
I believe-I know that I tried to re-
monstrate, but Tom was dragged out
into the arena in front of Mrs. Skillet.
And she-she ragged, her face blazing,
her eyes bullying, and her fists thrash
ing the air.
I can not reproduce that TRADE of old
Sally's, and l am glad that can not
One thing, though, that she said was
that if Tom didn't ''show up with an
other goose before he was an hour older
she'd see that he didn't lay his pauper
bones in Simpsons garnet another
night"
Just then two or three empty hay
ricks went rattling by, routing pro-
testing flock of poultry. She grabbed
by the legs her untimely dead-Thanks-
giving was three weeks in the future
and brought it humping about TOMS
OAOCs U"4OO3 dAA OA0A IuSuOO OuU
to the rescue of it's squaling survivors.
Gibbs vocabulary of abuse was so
meager in comparison with that of the
retiring termagent that he did not at
tempt to follow her line of argument.
He picked up great hickory stick and
began imbering it in a very cruel way.
All eyes were upon him, and no one
saw little Harmony Cushman slip down
off her seat Few saw her making her
way falteringly toward the stage of &C.
ton, steadying her tiny, trembling form
against the benches as she passed. But
every eye, wide open with astonish-
ment, was upon her as, with one little
supporting hand upon a bench, she
plucked at the masters coat with the
other. @'-.. -.-
He did not notice her-he was still
manipulating the instrument of torture
so the brave little creature stepped to
where she could look directly up into
the angry, distorted face that, from her
lilliputian point of view must have
seemed the face of Moloch. :4t.v~ss ].
I'll would give Tommy my Queen
'Lizbeth, would" she said, painting and
swallowing,as she clasped and unclasped