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

o. your ketchin' rabbit, wouldn't help
yeh, said he, settling upon one knee and
bending to the work. "Ef there's lit
tie cotton-tail left, I'd like to see him
git fair play" >..:
1 had made one or two unsuccessful
attempts to adjust the string, when Tom
suddenly allowed the tree to fly back to
position, and exclaimed: ''Let's make it
a king-snare, Max! There's a thumpin'
young birch that'll bend like q bull
rush!''
In moment he was halfway up the
tree he had pointed out; then, swinging
his feet away from the bole, he hand
over-handed toward the top, coming
nearer to mother earth with every meas
urement as the slender stem bent with
his weight. When his feet touched
terra frma was able to help, and to-
gether we brought the top to the ground
and adjusted the string.
laid plans for an early visit to the
swamp on the morrow, lest some other
boy should discover and steal the prize
which felt sure of having taken with
the snare; but early on that morning my
uncle requested me to accompany him to
Oldtown, our nearest market, saying
that he would leave me at the school on
his way home.
BY the time we reached the town my
rabbit had become reality that weighed
not less that nine pounds. I contrived
to add to my misery by inquiring of
dealer what rabbits were s'worth a
pound" and wondered what the mean
scamp who had got mine would do with
the money.
Then suddenly remembered that, by
good rights, Tom was entitled to half
the avails. decided to offer him three
quarters of it if he would assist me in
compelling the thief to disgorge.
/ resolved that when I was left at the
school-house door I would make flying
excursion into the swamp, to see what
game had come to the snare; but, to my
disappointment, my uncle got out of the
wagon, accompanied me to the door, and
explained to Mr.. Gibbs the cause of nv
hardness.
When I settled myself at my desk, I
saw Tom at work manufacturing, with
his crippled old jackknife, miniature
baskets of peach-stones for distribution
among some little girls.
elbow about that rabbit?'' whispered.
"What rabbit" he asked. 'Oh-why,
Max, you won't ketch any thing
Iopened my book mechanically. It
was the season when the woods wear
that Sunshine of their own" which
CLOVIS brightest and richest in the low
land foliage. My eyes wandered out of
the window along the path had taken
the day before when I set out on my
trapping expedition.
just where that dead cedar grinned, a
skeleton at magnificent feast of foliage,
I had turned off into the denser thicket.
A little further on was the maple had
unsucoessfully tried to bend, and I
thought could see the branch I had
broken hanging limp and dismantled.
My snare was just beyond. It had
been one Of group whose yellow tops,
a little higher than their neighbors', I
could see waving lazily in the quiet
breeze. There was one top, noticed,
which was not so yellow as the others,
having been partly stripped of it's leaves.
It had peculiar motion of it's own; it
bent and lifted and bent again, and
could it be that weight was pendant
from it?
Supporting myself upon my elbows,
and my elbows upon the form before me,
I managed to alter my angle of vision.
Something was hanging to-no, not
yes, it was, too-it was my king-snare! {
Instantly lowered myself and jammed
an elbow into TOMS side. His eyes shot
into mine, and, with them, out over the
wilderness of reds and yellows to where
my prize dipped disconsolately into it's
gay surroundings.
''By jingor' he exclaimed, with dan
gerous emphasis. But our nearest neigh
bors were hobnobbing over a game of
fox and geese. ''That's a slasher!''s ~
What boy could sit quietly at his desk
with an unappropriated fortune OF his
own winning dangling so dangerously in
sight of forty INSCRIPTIONS claimants?
We begged leave to go out, and in an
other minute Tom and were Creep
ing close under the windows, and then
Sinking away into the bushes. Once
out of sight Of mates and master,
we scampered over boys and through
briers, too hurriedly for general CONVEX
sation, but I managed to tell Tom OF my
inquiries at the market, land whatever
it brings, Tom, halt is yours, you
know" .. .......... -. ..-.5-. &s.
"W'y, I amt got no claim onto It,
Greeny!" he called back, for he was dis
tancing me. '''All l done was to hold
down the tree an help clap on the
string" T." r.. .i L
He got out OF my sight before we
reached the snare, and when I came up
to it he stood, with hands in pockets and
mouth puckered into an unvoiced whis-
tie, gazing up-not at the nine-pound
cotton-tail, but at one Of Mrs. Skillett's
big gray geese. ut is we'll for you,
Tom" thought, THAT you have IL
ready repudiated all proprietorship in
the king-snare!s We walked away to
where the excavated soil Of q ditch
formed 2 high, hard path. 3s.
ST looks 3 Il I'd got myself into hot