Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-08-25

| more skll OF LDtlI own IMAM tuck htu
to say nothing of clothes.
Il is a great place for wild grapes
around and about the DEVILS Rut. Ih'
vines extend from tree 10 tree, some q
them in continuous stretch for fifty fee
or more. It took Joe Crane no longer
than to minutes to think out plan fol
securing the wildcat and all that it i'm
piled. He traced out a vine that had
thrown itself through the tTess TOR fif
teen or twenty yards from its parent
cane. He climb the trees in succession
cutting the vine loose from the branch
vines and tendrils that held it, and at
last had it free. long. strong natural
rope, fully fifty feet in length. The two
boys tested its strength by both putting
their weight on it at once, and hanging
from it. 1t held stanch end safe TO its
native tree. Joe lowered the vine to
the bottom of the DEVILS Rut, and went
down into the ravine, hand over hand
upon it, His intention was to fasten
the wildcats carcass to the vine and
haul it up. But while Sam was waiting
for the signal to pull away he heard
Joe shouting something else.
"Hailo, SAM" Joe's voice came up
from the Rut. ''Drop down here with
the guns! Tha's hole full o more
Wildcats
Sam couldn't drop down with the
guns, so he tied them to long grape
vine and lowered them to the bottom
Then he dropped himself down Joe's
grapevine and joined Joe in the Rut.
Look in yondern' said Joe, pointing
to big hole in the rocks. Sam looked,
ane saw four balls of fire, all in a row.
Each pair o. them balls o. fire, y
said Joe, sis two dollars fer bounty an
two dollars fer hide. That's tootems
four is eieht, and this Teller layin' over
here is iootems two is four, making
twelve, 'cordin' tn Duboll. You take
the two balls on he nigh side, Sam, an
I'll take the two on the off side. When
| say three, let her bim!"
IL seemed a good while to Sam before
Joe said three, but when the word came
he "let her bim,o according to direc-
tons Both guns went off at once, and
the four balls of fire disappeased, but
something else came in sight Two
wildcats bounded out of the hole in the
rocks, over the bodies of the two Joe
and Sam had shot. and while the report
of the q ms was still bowling along the
narrow passage in booming echoes, and
before the boys had time 10 be sur
prsed they found themselves mixed up
on the rocky bottom of the Devils Rut
with wildcats, grapavines, guns and
stones in such a way that the impress
of it on their minds will be fresh and
vivid long after the impressions it made
on their bodies have healed up and
disappeared.
Neither Joe nor Sam can recall Just
how they managed to bring the end
about, but the appearance of the two
wildcats head conveyed the impression
that it was accomplished principally by
the butts of guns. At an rate, when
the rush and whirl and yelling was all
over the boys found themselves sitting
on the bottom of the Rut without much
clothing on to speak of, and with
scarcely spot four inches square from
their shoulders down that didn't have
the marks of wildcat claw imprinted
on it, As they sat there wiping blood
with such bits of shirt and things as
still hung TO them Joe was the first to
break the silence.
THAT hole said he, ''was leetle |
fuller o wildcats than | calkilated on. |
But them last ores make tootems four
il eight more. Sam
Sam said he "know'd it, but made
the apt suggestion that they had better
be digging out of there and making for
home to get patched up. So they
agreed that they had done their share.
and would go holo md send their paps
back after the gun and the wildcats,
They hauled themselves out OF the Rut
by the grapelines and limped home
ward.
1t happened that moi long after Sam
Pomeroy had abandoned operations in
the potato field and joined Joe Crane in
the wildcat hunt, his father strolied
over to the field to see how he was get
ting along Finding the hoe there
alone, Farmer Pomeroy hurried home
to see what had become of Sam. Not
finding Sam, but noticing that the gun
was gone, he started for the woods In
the course of his accommodating he Of
last came upon Sam and Joe as they
were making the best time they could
homeward, tattered and disabled.
'Jist what Der 'spectin'!" ex-
claimed Farmer Pomerov That gun
has gone and busted on you at last
Sarves YOU right, an I'll give yer hide
tannin when | git ye home
Don't know about that, pap" said
Sam. You won't find much hide left
on me to tan. I'm thinkin.'
Then the boys told the wildcat story,
and Farmer Pomeroy helped them home
ON the double quick, turned them over
to their mothers, sent for the doctor,
and he aud Joes father went to the
Devils Rut and brought in the wildcats
and their guns. After Doc. Barnes had
patched Joe and Sam up, he said:
Potato planting vii. all be over,
Sam when you get around again.
$50 l s'pose, said Sam. But then
comes the grass and the rye, Them
wildcats seen me through the planun'
all right. | only wish that me an Joe
could find another hole full o more of
EN-. Thatd help me over hayin' an
| harvest. too. Ed Mott, in n. Y. Sun.