The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-08-18
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
A Job Which Sam Pomeroy Cor
daily Hated
How Soc Cs1ne Showed Him . Pleasant
Way 20 Get Rid Of lt-But Then
Hayin' and Harvestin'
Are 70 Come.

run Doc Barnes come in one day and
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
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirteen-year-old Joe
Crane came along
"Plantin' taters, Sam2" said Joe.
Sam said he was.
"What do you git fer doin' it3' asked
Joe.
'Don't git nothin' fer doin' it," re-
piled Sam. Ser not doin' IL get
licked"
Then there was silence for a mo-
ment By and by Joe said: "1t'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 spell. Then Joe said:
"Tha's wildcat up here apiece,
Sam"
go 'way!" exclaimed Sam, straight
ening up and leaning on his hoe.
Where 'bcuts2"
"Jist beyond the laurel patch, nigh
the edge O. the Devils Rut, replied joe
Sam pondered 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 pap's gun?"
said he "I'vc 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-
tion fer knockin' off plantin."
"Tha'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 dolefully. "Durn the taters''
''Tha's a circus over in town next
week." said Joe, IAN faint fur yit till
the Fourth o July Is'pose your pap'll
give you two dollars, O. course. to take
'em in"
mot by jugful, he WON'T" ex-
claimed Sam. dropping the hoe.
"Where'll l meet you, Joe9"
"By the rock 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 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 wildcat
in the vicinity, and 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 of, and poultry yards
had been thinned out in a 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 1t, 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 stuts around the DEVILS Rut
when he ran across q 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 ''sneak" his fathers gun
and join in @ campaign against the Wild
cats pelt and cara
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 II Sum
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 laurels on three legs u
came out near Joe, and he gave It q
charge from his psp's gun, and tumbled
It heels over head II fell, kicking and
yelling. right on the edge Of the Devils
But, and its dying kicks carried II over
the edge, and It fell headlong to the bot
tom Of the rut
The Devils Rut, so-called, IL Q can.
yon on small scale. II Il seam in
the rocks, not over ten feet wide at its
widest part. thirty feet deep and q
quarter Of mile long. Joe and Sam
looked down into the Devils Rut and
could see the wildcat lying there dead.
no climb down the side Of the opening
was IN impossibility, and It looked as
u the hunt was 10 b fruitlsss one
aftsr all
"We're dishedi' said Sam. 'an' I'm .
heap worse on than nothin', fer all TIL
81 nows1l b pap's liolkinT'
But Sam was too mush Of pessiniss-
Joe WAS Optimistic. II he hadp't been
- vosh have lost ~ wildcsts besn'