News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-03-08

To other pens must be left the record
Of the runaways' everyday life. These
pages would not hold the true chronicle
of this novel expedition. Here only Is
space enough to deal with the promi-
nent features and string them upon a
particolored thread. Day after day the
fishermen piled their rods. Day after
uay Jne Kettle, ana the skillet, dhu tie
Goals gave forth their dainties. Fish
fries deczed the table one day; a split
rabbit, snured in the canebral1e broiled
to turn, serv I'd for the next; even ten
der shoat yielded up his innocent young
life, and chowders came thick and fast.
But Isam was no longer the chief fac
tor in the daily sins committed. Pain
full as the truth may seem, it must be
told. The portly major became ac-
cessory before the fact as we'll as after.
And worse, he became actively parti-
ceps criminis. He learned to creep in
to the spreading field of voluntary
corn"-which, by the way, invaded the
swamp lands and rose in columns of
surprising regularity-andt to load bag
with the juicy ears. He renewed his
Farly skill and crawled behind snake
fences to abstract dew christened water
melons. In short, he gave way to saw
agery; for the time being civilization
knew him not.
No especial time for breaking camp
had been set, but the time was APP
preaching, and the signs were evident.
The whisky had long since vanished,
and the tobacco was threatening to fol-
low the whisky, when an event occurred
which left tradition that old folks in
middle Georgia yet tell with tear dim
med eyes and straining sides.
The worthy pair had been foraging
for dinner and were returning heavily
laden. The major bore sack of corn,
and Isam led the way with three water
melons. Unless the reader has attempt
ed to carry three watermelons, he will
never know the labor that lsam had i'm
posed upon himself. The two had just
reached the edge of the canebrake, be-
yond which lay the camp, and were en-
tering the narrow path when magni-
ficent buck came sweeping through and
collided with lsam with such force and
suddenness as to crush and spatter his
watermelons into pitiful ruin and
throw the negro violently to the
ground. Instantly the frightened man
seized the threatening antlers and held
on, yelling Justify for help. The deer
made several Intellectual efforts to free
himself, during which he dragged the
negro right and left without difficulty,
but finding escape impossible turned
fiercely upon his unwilling captor and
tried to drive the terrible horns through
his writhing body.
80 Lor, o Lori" screamed Isam.
20 Lor, Mass Craffud, cum holp me
tu'n dis buck loos'."
The laugh died away from Major
Worthington's lips. None knew better
than he the danger into which lsam had
plunged. Not stick, brush, stone or
weapon of any description was at hand
except his small pocketknife. Hastily
opening that, he rushed upon the deer.
Isams eyes were bursting from their
sockets and appealed piteously for the
help his stentorian voice was frantical-
ly imploring until the woods rang with
his agony. Major Worthington caught
the nearest antler with his left hand
and made fierce lunge at the animals s
throat But the knife's point was miss
ing, and only a trifiing wound was in
ficted. The next instant the deer met
the new attack with rush that carried
Isam with it and thrust the major to
the ground, the knife falling out of
reach Seeing this, the negro let go
his hold, rolled out of the way, and with
a mighty effort literally ran upon the
top of branching haw bush, where he
lay spread out like bat and moaning
piteously:
stick ter i'm, Mass Craffud, stick
ter 'iml Wo', deer; wo', deerl Stick
ter i'm, Mass Craffudr'
And the major stuck. Retaining his
presence of mind, he threw his left arm
over the deer's neck, and still holding
with his right the antler looked about
for Isam, who had 80 mysteriously dis
appeared. Something like the hold he
had had more than once in boyhood and
served him we'll in school combats. But
he had never tried to hold full grown
buck, and so he somewhat anxiously
searched the scene for the valiant negro.
The first words he heard distinctly
were: