The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1893-04-18
PLANTIN' 'TATERS.
A Job Which Sam Pomcroy Cor
daily Hated.
How Joa Crane showed Him Pleasant
way TO Get Kid Of It-But Then
IIayin' and IIarvestin'
Are to Come.


When was fishing down on Barley
run Doc barnes came In one day and
said he had 81 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 10 his call up In that neighborhood,
as near rs could get II from authentic
sources, were substantially ms follows:
Fourtecn-year-old Sam Pomcroy was
industriously planting potatoes In .
back field on his fathers farm that
forenoon when thirteen-ycar-old Joe
Crane came along.
'Plantin' taters, Sam?" said Joe.
Sam said he was.
"What do you git fer doin' it9'' asked
Joe.
Don't Kit nothin' fer dom It," re-
piled Sam. Fer not doin' II ] get
licked"
Then there was silence for n mo-
ment by and by Joe said; tits too
wet to plant taters. They'll rot"
Don't seem 10 strike my pap that
way said Sam, and he planted along.
Silence for q spell. Then Joe said:
"Tha,s wildcat up here apiece,
Sam.
90 'wayia exclaimed Sam. straight
ening up and leaning on his hoe.
"Whcre'bouts?"
'sJist beyond the laurel patch, nigh
the edge o'the Devils Rut, replied Joe.
Sam pondcred 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 gun9"
said he. ''I'yc snuck my pap's.
Eyes, I kin sneak 1t 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-
ton fer knockin' of plantin'."
.sTha's two dollars bounty now for
.An' the hides with two dollars more. I"
That's so" said Sam, shaking his
head dolefully. ''Durn the tatersl"
"Tha's circus over In town next
week." said Joe, San 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 meet you, Joe?"
by tho rock spring." replied Joe.
4 "Igot 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
ut tho 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 iInumber Of lambs had been
killed and carried off. and poultry yards
had been thinned out In way that de-
noted the methods Of tho wildcat So
there was no doubt that one of these
destructive providers at least was oper-
ating In the neighborhood. Men had
hunted for 1t and trapped for it, but II
had thus far eluded hunter and trapper.
Tho day Joe Crane appeared to Sam
Pomeroy on the potato field he had
been looking for a hawks nest that he
believed was somewhere among the
old pine stubs around the DEVILS Rut
when he ran across q big wildcat, which
ran up a tree, crouched in the fork, and
glarcd back at him. He had thereupon
hurried home, ''snuck" his fathers gun,
and with rare diplomacy induced Sam
Pomcroy to ''sneah" his fathers gun
and Join in acampaign against the wild.
cats pelt and ears
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 Sam
routed 1t out Sam started the big cal
and got shot at it He broke one OF
its hind legs, but the wildcat bounded
on out OF the laurels on three legs II
came out near Joe, and he gave IL q
charge from his pap's gun, and tumblec
1t heels over head 1t fell, kicking and
yelling, right on the edge Of the Devils
Rut, and its dying kicks carried it ovel
the edge, and it fell headlong tothe bot
tom Of the rut.
The DEVILS Rut, so-called, is can
lyon on a small scale It is a seam II
the rocks, not over ten feet wide at Its
widest part. thirty feet deep and {
quarter Of a mile long Joe and San
looked down into the Devils Rut and
could see the wildcat lying there dead
To climb down the side Of the opening
was an impossibility and 1t looked a.
II the hunt was TO be a fruitless ono
\ after all
Were dishedlr said Sam. tan I'm |