San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-06-02
SUSAN AND THE PANTHERS.
An Episode In the Youth Of an
Astounding Woman.
She Was Interrupted by Two Psnthers-
When Compelled to Take Hand
in the Scrimmage She Didn't
Waste Her Powder.

Waste hor EOWoeEs
Long afore l know'd Susan or had
ever heard Of her yit," said Cuthbert
Miles, the octogenarian basket-weav-
ing hermit of Indian Run, Pa,
"which'd make it sumpin' like seventy
year ago, she had started in to be as
toundin' alreedy, an she was only jest
comm ten year old at that. l never
know'd about it, either, till year or
more arter me an Susan was married,
an had come down from York state
into the Pennsylvany wildernest an
chopped an dug an grubbed out that
clearin' of our'n down the creek. 1
wouldn't know'd it then, nuther, if
me an Susan hadn't got up one night
to 60 out and resxy some of our live
stock belongings from q painter that
had come down out O. the mountains
an set out to levy on calf. We
reskied the calf an got the painters
hide an taller, an after we'd gone
back an went to bed, Susan said that
the painter didn't begin to be as big as
either one O. the two she killed wunst
at one shot, up in Cortl and county,
when she was gal.
"If I'd know'd this one wasn't no
bigger'n it was says she, I wouldn't
a woke you up, Moses says she, but
d slipped out an gethered it in
alone says she.
"'Susanr says l, how you talkp
"Then she didn't say no more, but
couldn't git them two painters at one
shot out O. my mind, an pooty soon I
says:
/ "'Susan,' says 1, how did it happen?'
"'That I woke you upP says she.
"'No,' says 1. The two at one shot
"'Oh!' says she. Didn't tell ye
bout it%
"'Why, nor says. Course notp
"'Must ben, then, cause I hadn't
thort of it, says Susan. It's ben so
long ago that 1 most fergit it, anyhow,
says she, but his is sumpin' like the
way it came around, says she.
Then she told me bout it. Seems
that Susan's mother had sister Hvin'
down at the Chenango Forks, an one
day some one from down there came to
Susans folks clearin' a-horseback to
tell the OF lady that her sister was
sick an mebby wouldn't live till the
next mornin.' Course, Susan's mother
mus go down right away, but Susan's
pap was way from home, an wasn't
'spected back till late that night, or
mebbe not afore mex mornin'. 1t
wouldn't do to go way an leave no.
body on the clearin', fer when the OIL
man came home an found his wife an
darter gone he wouldn't know what to
make of it, an there wasn't no neigh
bors to leave word with,
"'Why, nanny says Susan, I'll
stay till pap comes, an tell him.
"An' Snsan wasn't ten yit, an there
wasn't no one Twin nigher'n five miles,
an there was big woods on every side,
full o bar an painters
"Ain't ye 'feerd, Susan9 says her
nanny.
"'Puhr says Susan. 'Feerd! Iguess
1 wasn't fetched up in the woods to be
skeert by owlsP says she.
"An' so Susan's NANNY went down
to the Forks to see her dyin' sister.
OuSdu uOhc buC CuOICS AouhL Vic CACdI-
in jist as If the hull family was there
as usual, an arter eatin' her supper she
put big log on the fireplace, cause it
was"long late in the fall, an sot down
to put some patches on her pap's hick-
ory trousers, which had been tore con-
sid'able during little tussle the oil
man'd ben havin' with bar the day
afore. Susan's pop was liable to sech
tussels, an Susan usety say that bout
the only reecryation she had when she
wasn't workin' was took up settin'
patches in her pap's trousers or sewin'
up his coat or sumpin'. But he alluz
got the bar, she usety say.
well, Susan she sot down to set the
patches in her pap's trousers that night,
and was stitchin' away at one when
suddenly, off to the right O. the house,
there come out o the woods yell that
ought to ben enough to, from what
Susan told me, to skeer wild Injin
into a fit of shakes that'd rattle his
war paint off.
"a painter, hay? says Susan, bitin'
off another piece O. patent thread an
threadin' her needle ag'in. 'Wull,
says she, he amt comm after none of
our belongings or he wouldn't be a hol-
lerin', an he couldn't git none of 'em If
he was comm arter EN- says she, so
let him yell till his throat's sore, if he
wants to- says she, fittin' another
patch on hen pap's trousers.
"She hadn't more'n stuck her needle
in it, when from the direction of the
creek, on the left o the house, riz up
another yell, so much frightfuller than
the first one, Susan said, that if there'd
ben hull tribe o. Injin's campin'
around there they'd a got up an dug.
1.-TWO on 'em, hay? says Susan,
waxin' her thread some more. One
comm from the east an r'other comm
from the west, an both on 'em mad
der'n bush fires says she. Shouldn't
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