Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-08-08
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
a Job Which Sam Pomeroy Cor
daily Hated.
How Joe Crane Showed Him . Pleasan
Way to Get Rid of It-But Then
Hayin' and Harvestin'
Are to Come.

When l was fishing down on Barley
run Doc Barnes came 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
Jims 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 a
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirteen-year-old Joe
Crane came along.
"Plantin' taters, Sam?" said Joe.
Sam said he was.
What do you git fer doin' it?'' asked
Joe.
Don't git nothin' fer dcin' it," re-
piled Sam. Fer not doin' it I get
licked"
Then there was silence for a mo.
ment. BY and by Joe said: ''It's too
wet to plant Eaters. 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 a wildcat up here apiece,
Sam"
"Go '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 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've snuck my pap's."
Eyes, ! 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-
ton fer knockin' off plantin'."
''Tha's two dollars bounty now for
the wildcats ears" insinuated Joe.
AN the hides with two dollars more. "
That's so" said Sam, shaking his
head dolefuliy. 'Durn the tatersl"
'Tha's circus over in town next
week." said Joe, IAN faint fur yit till
the Fourth o July. s'pose your pap'll
give you two dollars, O. course, to take
EN- in"
mot by jugful, he won'tl" ex-
claimed Sam, dropping the hoe.
"Where'n / meet you, Joe?"
by the rock spring." replied Joe.
81 got pap's gun hid up there"
And Joe went back to the woods,
while Sam took e circuitous route for
home, as his father was blowing on the
direct route. In less than a 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 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 a way that de-
noted the methods Of the wildcat. Sc
there was no doubt that one Of these
destructive providers at least was oper'
ating in the neichborhood. Men had
hunted for it and trapped for it, but il
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 a big wildcat, which
ran up tree, cronched in the fork, and
glared back at him. He had thereupon
hurried home, ''snuck" his fathers gun,
and with rare diplomacy induced Sam
: and join in a campaign against the wild
cats pelt and ears
Joe, as the arbiter of the hunt, SEM
Sam through the laurel patch wher
they got there, where he shrewdly sus
r pected the catamount had his refuge
, while he himself went around the patel
to be ready for the willy game il Sam
: routed 1t out. Sam started the big cal
. and got shot at it. He broke one o.
! its hind legs, but the wildcat bounded
/ on out Of the laure1s on three legs. L
= came out near Joe, and he gave it {
r charge from his pap's gun, and tumbleC
( | it heels over head 1t fell, kicking ant
= yelling, right on the edge Of the Devil
t Rut, and its dying kicks carried it ovel
y the edge, end it fell headlong to the bot
Q tom of the rut.
The DEVILS Rut, so-called, is can
yon on a small scale. 1t is a seam IL
J, the rocks, not over ten feet wide at it:
/ widest part, thirty feet deep and 1
Q quarter of a mile long. Joe and San
looked down into the DEVILS Rut ant
& could see the wildcat lying there dead
II To climb down the side Of the opening
g was an impossibility, and it looked a
r II the hunt was to be a fruitless on
after all
q "We're dishedi' said Sam, IAN I'm
v heap worse off than nothin', fer all II
), git how'll be pap's liclxin'I"
% But Sam was too much Of pessimist
Joe was optimistic If he hadn't bee
he would have lost the wildcats boun
!, ty and its skin, perhaps, but both h
= and Sam would have returned HON
y with more skin of their own than the.
did, to say nothing of clothes.
III 1t Ia a great place for wild grape
q around and about the DEVILS Rut. TIL
vines extend from tree to tree, some @
them in continuQna atrstRh A0z 9eA