The Bossier banner., 1893-12-14

leg, he were pooty nigh the funniest
lookin' critter that ever was He
hadn't no legs, an he hadn't 40 wings.
He couldn't walk, he couldn't fly nor
he couldn't creep nor crawl, yet he
didn't live in the woods, but five mile
away, in the big rocky hollers on top
o Squawkee hill, thousan' foot high,
an he went home ev'ry day.
''Ye mowt wonder leetle about how
the tushwob bier nav;gated, but natur'
knowed her business when she built
the tushwobbler. She know'd that If
she stuck legs on him OF sprouted wings
on him, SOS he could travel jist aa he
wanted to, he'd eat hisself outen house
an home the fust thing he know'd, for
he had an all-pervadin' appe tite, an
would h'isted ev'ry tree tina were in
all that hull kentry up by the roots SO
durn soon that his pastur' would a-ben
gone an he'd a starved. So natur'
rigged him up jist ez l tell ye, an then
she built the bibsnook. The bibsnook
were a tofable queer specimen O.
Sugar Swamp nat'ral hist'ry, too He
! looked sumpin' like an owl, only he
|
Tha want a bone in him nowhere,
'cept his two legs, which was sat square
where his tail d ben if he'd had
one. He had long claws, strong ez d
blacksmith's wise. He he'd bill about
two inches long, shaped jist like them
funny spiles in the tushwobbler, with a
hole in it big enough to fit right over
them spiles. Tha WANT nuthin' else
about the bibsnook that were funny to
look at, not till he sot down to bust
ness A flock O. bibsnooks allus went
along with ev'ry tushwobbler.
'Tha hain't no use me tellin' ye how
the tushwobbler h'isted agricultur'
ahead in Sugar Swamp, fer yer orter
know that clearin' the timber often a
new deestric is the work that keeps
agricultur' back; and the way the tush-
wobbler cleared it by his root h'istin'
beat all creation. Tha's clearin's in
the Sugar Swamp deestric' that'd ben
howlin' wildernests to-day if it hadn't
ben for the tushwobbler clearin' of the
timber off Course, he didn't keer fer
agricultur', but he wanted them root:
, to eat The bibsnook want rugged uE
to get anything to eat fer hisself, but
natur' had fixed that. Tha's more SAP
in the roots O. trees than tha is any
{ where else, and as the tushwobble1
stuffed hisself Oh the juicy roots he
took in gallons O. sap. The sap rur
along an come out O. them spiles q
his'n in streams. Sap was the nat'ra
I fodder O the bibsnook an all he had tt
do were to fl his holler bill over tn,
tushwobbler's spiles an jist let thu
sap run inter him jist like film
9 bucket.
= when it came time to go home t
E roost way upon oil Squawkee, ye'd
see an amazin' thing if yed a be!
= there. The flock O. bibsnooks d elm
up on the tushwobbler an ev'ry one o.
: 'em d hook his claws inter one O then
carpet bag handles. Pooty soon tn
:, bibsnooks d begin to swell, jist lik
, blowin' up bladders, an in less'n fiv
> minutes they'd all be reg'lar BLOOMS
" This d lift the tushwobbler often tn
:, ground an The bibsnoolIs d raise u
:, with him clear above the trees an the
4 sail away with him to his rocky hant
- in the hollers of OF Squawkee. Gosht'
4 mighty, shurff! If they had a tnsl
:, wobbler at the fair mebbe agricultu
Y kin git over it yit! Did they?"
v But the sheriff got up and went HON
r without word, and the only remar
J. made was by the landlord, with h
y mind still on the Midway Pl aisance:
= Thunder" said he. But l wisht 1
: ben therer'-Ed Mott, in n. Y. SUI