Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-08-25
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
A JOB WHICH SAM PoMERoy CORDIALLY
HATED,

HATED,
When | was fishing down ON Barley
RIM 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
Jim's boy joe The circumstances that
led to his call ur in that neighbolhood,
as near as | could get it from authentic
sources, were substantially as follows:
FOurteen-year-Yold Sam Pomeroy
was industriously planting potatoes in
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirteen-year-old Joe
Crane came along
'Planlin' taters, Sam?n said Joe.
Sam said be was.
What do you git fer dom il2'' asked
joe
Don't git nothin' fer dom it re-
pied Sam. Fer not dom it | get
liked
Then there was silence for a moment.
BY and by Joe SAID: ITS too wet TO
plant 'taters. They'll rot E"
Don't seem TO strike my pap that
way said Sam. aud he planted along
Silence for a spell. Then Joe said:
''Tha's wildcat up here apiece,
Sam
Go waym exclaimed Sam, straight
ening up and leaning Oh his hoe
Where bouts?'
Just beyond the laurel patch, nigh
the edge O the Devils Rut, Replied
ice.
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.'
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-
nation for knockin' off plantin' +"
"Tha's two dollars bounty now for
the wildcats ears" insinuated Joe.
AN the hide S with two dollars more"
That's SO, y said Sam, shaking his
head dolefully. "Durn the tatters!"
'1ha'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.
Not by a jugful, he won'tr ex-
claimed Sam, dropping the hoe.
where Il meet you, Joe?"
'By the rock spring" replied Joe
Il got pap's gun hid up 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
ut the rock sprinr 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 was two.
One had been seen several times, at any
rate, and q number of lambs had been
killed aud carried of, 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 al 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 be had
been looking for q hawk nest that he
believed was somewhere among the old
pine stubs around the Devils Rut when
he ran across a big wildcat. which ran
mp a tree. crOuched in the fork. and
glared back at him He had thereupon
hurried home. 'Suuck" his fathers gun
and with rare diplomacy induced Sam
Pomeroy to "sneak' his fathers gun
and join i'll a campaign against the
wildcats pelt and ears
lNa MS a. .rt,itae Of ~ hunt
Sam through the laurel patch when
they got there, where he shrewdly suS-
pecled the catamount had his refuge.
while he himself went around the patch
to be ready for the willy game if Sam
routed it out. Sam started the big car
and cot a shot mt it. He broke one OF
its hinu LEGS. but the wildcat bounded
on cut of the laurels on three legs. Ii
came out near joe and he gave ii a
charge from his pap'S gun. and tumbled
it heels over head. Ii fell, linking and
Yelling, right on the edge of the Devils
Rut, and iis diving kicks carried it over
the edge and it fell headlong to the
bottom of the rut.
The Devils Rut, so called, is can,
yon on a small scale Ii is a seam il
the rocks, not over ten feet wide at Its
widest part, thirty feet deep and s
quarter Of a mile long. Joe and San
looked down into the Devils Rut anC
could see the wildcat lying there dead
TO climb down the side Of the opening
was an imporsibiIity, and it looked 4,
if the hunt was to DC 81 fruitIess on,
after all.
We're dishedw said sam. AN In
a heap worse oil than nothing fer al
git now Il be pap lickin
But Sam was 10 much of pessimist
Joe was optimistic If he hadn't beer
he would have lost the wildcats bount,