Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-03-27

The crowd made way Ter nm Ter
pass, an he strobe through an out er
the house before one Nv US could
speak.
well, arter that thar was a good
deal Of talk about Purcell. Thar was
them as said he was a COW ard. but |
tole EN- that they neenreT try t. make
me b'lieye that en- man es could look
like that man looked was er coward.
SO / TUX ter noticin' him purity clost
after that. / seen he warn't socherblr,
Sc / never pestered him. | aXed Hick-
man er bout him an he said he liked
him mighty well.
1T jist seem like he was allus on the
lookout to do somethin' fer somebody.
IF anybody was sick he was the fust to
hear of it an 20 to nurse EN-; eli any
body GOT hurt he allus knew iist what
ter do. Stranger, | couldn't begin to
tell Yer how many folks he'd helped in
that way No trouble warn't too great
fer him ter take ter relieve suherin'.
Well, we'll; l think il was erbout five
years ergo las fall er crowd nv us fell
lers was going down ter the south in
the country iookin' fer stray cattle.
Purcell was along lookin' fer some of
Hickman's branded ones. Is we come
nigh ter Monk Morrison's we saw a
powerful commotiOn goin' on in the
corral At fust we couldn't make out
what The racket was, the cattle were
snortin an cayortin' an bellerin' SO.
We pushed up clost ter the fence.
by George, they're KILN Monkr
one Nv the boys said. Sho nuf thar
was Monk down on the ground in the
pen. Yer see. he'd lariated mad
COW, and she had got the better Of him
and was teariu round the corral drag
gin Monk after her, an all the cattle
was in STIR, stampiu' an kickin an
hookir' like mad. 1t ermost makes
my hair stan on end ter think about
it. We all Jest sot thar on our ponies,
not one NV us KNOWN what ter DO.
"All Of a suddint we seen Purcell
jump into the midst NV the mad beasts.
Fer a mint we couldn't see what was
happenin, the cattle stirred erbogt so;
but presently we seen Purcell a-holdin'
on ter Monk. He'd cut the lariat an
was comm out with jim. We hoped
the pair NV 'em over the fence. Monk
was purity badly bruised but he didn't
seem ter have no very serious hurt,
But in mint we seen it was all up
with Purcell. He Jest fell down by the
fence an lay thar ez limp ez er rag,
the blood a spoutin' from his lef' side
where a cows horn had stuck, | seen
his lips er movin', an | bent down
clost ter hear what he had ter say.
Monks got a wife an chillun' he
said, AN | thought eff | saved his life
it nd sorter be es eff I'd saved theirs,
too, that is the only way-give life,
give life
The boys TUX Monk over ter the
house, but we didn't try ter move Pur-
cell; he was too fer gone. We jest
waited thar with him till he was dead.
I'VE buried him on er little rise NV
ground, not fer fun Monks house
Monk said he wanted him ter be thar.
An long toward spring, when one NV
the boys was goIn' east, we all throwed
in an got him ter bring back a tomb
stone fur Purcell. It's a mighty purity
thing, stranger-we wanted a purity
one. Ef yer'll ride over thar termorrer
yer KIN see it fer yersef.
AN yer say yer come to sarve er
warrant on Purcell-er warrant fer
murder? Well. yer kin 90 back an
say that he's been called ter er higher
court than theirs, an eff ever man
paid debt for a life that man was
Purcell. - Patience Oriel IN Phaade}-
pbia Times.