Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-08-11
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
A Job Which Sam Pomeroy Cor
daily Ha.Sed.
How Joe Crar.c Showed Him Pleasant
way TO Get Rid of It-But Then
Hayin' and Harvestin'
Are to Come.

said he had just been up to Farmer
Ben Pomeroy's and Jim Cranes taking
some stitches In Ben's boy Sam and
Jim's boy Joe. The circumstances that
led to his call up in that neighborhood,
as near as | could get it from authentic
sources, were substantially as follows:
Fourteen-year-old Sam Pomeroy was
industriously planting potatoes in u
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirteen-year-old Joe
Crane came along.
"Plantin' taters, Saln?" said Joe.
Sam said he was.
"What do you git fer doin' it?" asked
Joe.
Don't git nothin' fer doin' IT," re-
piled Sam. Ger not doin' it get
licked"
Then there was silence for 4 mo-
ment. BY and by Joe said; 'Its too
wet to plant 'taters.. they'll rot"
Don't seem to strike my pap that
way" said Sam, and he planted along.
Silence for spell. Then Joe said:
Ihas a wildcat up here apiece,
Sam"
80 way!" exclaimed Sam, straight
ening up and leaning on his hoe.
"Where' bcuts?'
"Jist beyond the laurel patch, nigh
the edge o the DEVILS Rut, replied Joe.
Sam pondcred in silence for minute,
with his chin on his hoe, and then, sigh
ing resumed his planting Joe broke
the silence again:
Cant you sneak your paps gun?"
said hc,1.I'ye snucl1 my pap's."
"Yes, | kin sneak it easy enough, !"
said Sam, leaning on his hoe with one
hand and scratching his head with the
other. "But pap'll lick me like tarna-
tion fer llnoclkin' off plantin'."
"Tha's two dollars bounty now for
the wildcats ears insinuated Joe.
'An' the hides wuth two dollars more "
"Thats So" said Sam, shaking his
head dolefully. "Durn the tatersl"
"Thu's circus over in town next
week" said Joe, "an' taint fur yit till
the Fourth O. July. s'posc your pap'll
give you two dollars, o course, to take
'em in."
Not by a jugful, he WON'T" ex-
claimed Sam, dropping the hoe.
"Where'il / meet you, Joe?"
"By the roc spring." replied Joe.
81 got pap's gun hid up there"
And Joe went back to the woods,
while Sam took circuitous route for
home, as his father was blowing on the
direct QUITE. In less than quarter of
an hour he and Joe loaded their guns
at the rock spring and marched for the
place where the wildcat was alleged to
be lurking That there was wildcat
in the vicinity, and n big one, was well
known. Some said there were two.
One had been seen several times, at any
rate, and number of lambs had been
killed and carried off, and poultry yards
had been thinned out in way that de-
noted the methods of the wildcat. So
there was no doubt that one of these
destructive providers ut least was oper-
ating in the neighborhood Men had
hunted for it and trapped for it, but it
had thus far eluded hunter and trapper.
The day Joe Crane appeared to Sam
Pomeroy on the potato field he had
been looking for hawks nest that he
believed was somewhere among the
old pine stubs around the DEVILS Rut
when he ran across n big wildcat, which
ran up tree, crouched in the fork, and
glared back at him. He had thereupon
hurried home, "snuck" his fathers gun,
and with rare diplomacy induced Sam
Pomeroy to "snealS" his fathers gun
and join in campaign against the wild
cats pelt and ears.
Joe, as the arbiter of the hunt, sent
Sam through the laurel patch when
they got there, where he shrewdly sus-
pected the catamount had his refuge,
while he himself went around the patch
to be ready for the willy game it Sam
routed it out Sam started the big cat
and got shot at it. He broke one of
its hind legs, but the wildcat bounded
on out of the laurcls on three legs. 1t
came out near Joe, and he gave it q
charge from his pap's gun, and tumbled
it heels over head. 1t fell, kicking and
yelling, right on the edge of the Devils
Rut, and its dying kicks carried it over
the edge, and it fell headlong to the bot
tom of the rut.
The DEVILS Rut, so-called, is can
Won on small scale. 1t is seam in
the rocks, not over ten feet wide at its
widest part, thirty feet deep and a
quarter of mile long. Joe and Sam
looked Gown into the Devils Rut and
could see the wildcat lying there dead.
To climb down the side of the opening
was an impossibility, and it looked as
if the hunt was to be fruitless one
after all.
Were dishedl' said Sam, "an' I'm a
heap worse off than nothin', fer all I'll
git now'll be pap's liclSinV'
But Sam was too much of pessimist
Joe was optimistic If be hadn't been
he would have lost the wildcats Popn'