The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-08-20
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
A Job Which Sam Poneroy Cor
daily Hated.
How Joo Crane Showed Him IL Pleasant
Way to Get Rid of It-Isut Then
Haydn and Narvcs.in'
Arc to Come.

A'SAi W ttiitt I'M SILuC - LSiNliR
some stitches in Bcn's boy Sam and
Jim's boy Joe. The circumstances that
led to his call up in that ncighborhood
as near as could get it from authentic
sources, We're substantially as follows:
Fourtccn-ycur-old Sam Pomcroy was
industriously planting potatoes in IL
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirtccn-ycar-old Joe
Crane came along.
"Plantin' tatcrs, Sam?" said Joe.
Sam said he WIS.
What do you git fer dom it?" asked
Joe.
Don't git nothin' fer dom it." re-
piled Sam. Fer not doin' it get
licked"
Then there was silence for mo-
mcnt by and by Joe said 'It's 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 Il spell. Then Joe said
'"Tha's wildcat up here apiece,
Sam"
go way" exclaimed Sam, straight
cning up and leaning on his hoe
'Wherc'bcuts?"
"Jist beyond the laurel patch, nigh
the edge o the Devils Rut," replied Joe
Sam pondcrcd in silence for n minute,
with his chin on his hoe, and then, sigh
ing, resumed his planting. Joe broke
the silence again:
Cant you sneak your pap's gun?"
said he. I've snuck 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-
ton fer lnoclSin' off plantin'"
"Tha's two dollars bounty now for
the wildcats ears" insinuatcd Joe.
An the hides with two dollars moro"
That's So" said Sam, shaking his
head dolefully. "Durn the tatersl
"Thu's circus over i'll town next
week" said Joe, IAN faint fur yit till
the Fourth O. July. s'posc your pap'll
give you two dollars, o. course, to take
'cm in"
Not by joyful, he won'tl" ex-
claimed Sam, dropping the hoe
"Whcre'll' meet you, Joc?"
by the rock spring" replied Joe.
81 got pap's gun hid up there"
And Joe went back to the woods,
while Sam took n circuitous route for
home. rs his father was blowing on the
direct route. In less than Il 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 n wildcat
III the vicinity, and u big one, was we'll
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 at 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 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 ''sneah" his fathers gun
and join in Il campaign against the wild
eau 5 pelt ana 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 il 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-callcd, is n can
yon on Il small scale 1t is u seam in
the rocks, not over ten feet wide at it's
widest part, thirty feet deep and q
quarter of a mile long Joe and Sam
looked down INTO the Devils Rut and
could see the wildcat lying there dead
To climb down the side of the opening
was an iinpossibility. and it looked as
j. the hunt was to be fruitless one
after all
"We're dishcd!" said Sam. AN I'm a
heap worse of than no;hi;r', fer all I'll
Eit no:'il he pap's licl,n'!'
Ia. S:irG WIS tCN much Of .. >ssimist.
.ioc waS optimistic II lie l,,i,llt been
h" ~culd hare lost the wildcats boun-