The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1892-09-16
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
A Job Which Sam Pomeroy Cor
daily Hated.
How Joe Crane showed Him Pleasant
Way to Get Rid of It-But Thea
Hay.n' and HnryestIr'
Are 10 Come.

run Doc Barnes came in one day and
said he had Just been mp 10 Farmer
Ern Pomeroy's and Jim Cranes taking
some stitches in Bcn's boy sam and
.iiIu's boy Joe. The circumstances that
led t. his call up in that ncighbnrh"od.
-. noa- as ! could get it from auth, ntic
sources, -vcrc substantially as follows:
Fourtee n-ycar-old sam Pomeroy was
industriousiy planting potatoes in n
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirteen-year-old joe
Crane came along.
''Plantin' taters, Sam?" said Joe.
sam said be was.
What do you git fer doin' it, asked
Joe.
Don't git nothin' Ter doin' it." re-
piled sam. Fer not doin' it l get
licked
Then there was silence for mo-
ment. By and by Joe said: It's too
wet 10 plant 'taters. They'll rot"
.Dont seem TO strike my pap that
way" said sam. and he planted along.
Silence for spell Then Joe said:
''Tha's a wildcat up here apiece,
Sam"
Go way" exclaimed Sam, straight
eniug up and leaning on his hoe.
Where bouts?"
''Jist beyond the laurel patch, nigh
the edge % the DEVILS Rut, replied Joe.
sam pondered in silence for a 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 snucli my pap's."
Yes, l kin sneak it easy enough"
said sam, leaning on his hoe with one
hand and scratching his head with the
other. But pap'n lick me like tarna-
tion fer knocllin' off plantin'."
'.Iha's two dollars bounty now for
the wildcats ears" insinuated Joe.
An the hides wuth two dollars more"
That's So" said Sam, shaking his
head dolcfully. ''Durn the taters''
'Tha'5 a circus over ia town next
week" said Joe. AN 'taint fur yit till
the Fourth o July. / s'pose your pap'n
give you two dollars, q course, To take
'cm IN"
Not by jugful, ne won't" ex-
claimed Sam, dropping the hoe.
''Where'l l meet you, Joe?"
BY the rock spring" replied Joe.
| Il got pap's gun hid mp there"
And Joe went back To the woods,
while Sam took a circuitous route for
| home, as his father was blowing on the
direct route 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 a wildcat
in the vicinity. and Il big one. WAS well
known. Some said there were two.
| one had been seen several timez,, at any
rate, and a number Of lambs had been
killed and carried of. and poultry yards
| had been thinned out in = way that de
| noted the met lodS Of the wildcat 80
there was no doubt that one Of these
! destructive prOwlcrs 1t least was oper-
ating IL the neighborhood. Men had
| hunted for it and trapped for it, but it
had thus far cludcd hunter and trapper.
The day Joe Crane appeared to sam
pomeroy on the potato field he had
been looking for a hawks nest that he
believed was somewhere among the
old pine stubs around the DEVILS Rut
when he ran across a big wildcat. which
ran up a tree, crouched in the fork, and
glared back at hmm. lie had thcreupon
hurried home. ''snuck' his fathers gun,
and with rare diplomacy induced sam
Pomcroy 20 sneak his fathers gun
and join in a 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
10 be ready for the willy game IL sam
routed II ont sam started the big cat
and got a shot at IL. lie broke one of
its hind legs, but the wildcat bounded
on ont of the laurels on three legs. II
came out near Joe, and he gave il a
charge from his pap's gun, and tumblcd
1t heels over head. II fell, kicking and
yelling. right on the edge of the Devils
Rat. and its dying kicks carried IL over
the edge, and it fel headlong 10 the bot
tom OF the rut.
The Devils Rut, so-called. j. can
yon ON a small scale. 1t il seam in
the rocks, not over ten feet wide 1T its
widest part, thirty feet deep and a
quarter OF 4 mile long. Joe and Sam
looked down INTO the Devils Kut and
could see the wildcat lying there dead.
To climb down the side Of the opening
was an irnpo~sibility. and it looked as
if the hunt vas To Toe a fruitless one
after all.
We're diShcd!" said Sam, IAN I'm a
heap worac OFF than nothin', fer all I'll
git now'll bc pap's licllin'.'
But sam was too much of pcsSimist.
Joe was optimistic II he hadn't been
| he wonld have lost the wildcats boun-
ty and its skin, perhaps, but both he
and Sam would have returned homo
with more skin OF their own than they
| did, to say nothing of clothes.
II is a grea: place for wild grapes
around and about the DEVILS Rut. Tho
vines extend from tree To tree, some o
them in continuous stretch Tor fifty
feet or more. IL took Joe Crane M
/ longer than two minutes To think out