Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-12-03
TWO In A SINK HOLE.
A KENTUCKY PRINTER NARRATES A
THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

Dog He Met With q Mishap-In a DARK
Hole with a Fierce wild Beast-The
Escape and Recognition.
Pretty much everybody in the crowd
had told a story of the gun or dog or
fishpcle except a printer who looked
about as much like q hunter or fisher
man as he did like an angel.
'tIt's your turn now, Muggins, said
the reporter.
IL never hunted anything but board
ing houses ove in Brooklyn, he said,
with a wan and lodging kind Of air, as
IL people threw things at him whenever
be tried 10 tell a story.
But before you came here is what
we want to know about" put in sew
eral, and you've either got to tell q
story or a for the drinks every time
anybody else tells one"
He moved about uneasily and pushed
his chair back from the table, drawing
1t close mp again Immediately and final
" resting his hands clasped or the board
In front of him.
well, gents" be said with the wan
and lodging look still in his eyes, ''let
me think a minute. Before / came here
] lived in Chicago, where / was hunted
instead Of hunting. Before that / was
in New Orleans, where / only hunted a
job. Before that ! was in st. Paul,
where / was hunting a warm place all
the time. Before that I lived in Boston,
where it was too frigid to hunt, and be-
fore that, quite q long time before that,
] lived in old Kentucky, and, gents, j
did hunt there. Nothing but a coon,
mebbe, or q fox or a possuIn or as little
as q squirrel or only a dove in the dusty
road, but it was finer than anything on
earth.
81 was only q boy, and perhaps that
had something to do with it, but / didn't
know any different then, like | do now,
and it was just the finest On earth and
no mistake" And his wan face lighted
up as if he were looking through the
open gates Of paradise. 81 recollect l
had a dog that was considerable Of a
hunting dog, but he was an unrestless
kind Of d cuss, and when he freed any
thing be would do a lot of barking at
first, but if somebody didn't come
mighty quick he would give it up and
go moseying alorg after the next thing
in sight. One night | was out with him
after ccons, and about 0 O'Clock ! heard
him bark like he was over in a clump
of woods about a half mile away. l
knew ] wes going to have TO get to him
pretty quick if l found him there at all,
and / started across q field toward the
woods as fast as | could go. 1t was a
stubble field with sink holes like you
find eli over Kentucky in the limestone
parts, and the place was dark, though
the moo was just beginning TO show
above the woods. / was thinking more
about what the dog had than anything
else, ard as / went banging through the
field. all at once / seemed to drop off of
the earth and fall into q cellar, and then
/ knew / had tumbled into a sink hole.
They are never very deep or dangerous,
and ! wasn't afraid of being fatally
hurt, but it took the sand out of me
right quick, and / went down through
the weeds and stuff, not knowing just
what had happened. OF course I hadn't
much time to think, and when I hit
bottom / had still less, for instead Of
lighting on the ground CT stones or
thicket, / lit Oh something alive. 1t was
a wild animal Of some hind, ] didn't
know what, and | was scared till my
hair began to feel fanny On my head.
when / went down, I went hard,
and l kind Of knocked i'lo wind out of
the varmiEt at first, Int in Is ..acond it
began to yowl and snap and spari and to
twist under mo and try to ret out ard
to raise the dickens generally. In the
meantime / was yelling and sqrawking
and trying to scare tho blamed thing,
because / thought it was a wildcat, and
1 knew a boy Of my size didn't have
any show with q wildcat il the varn,iut
ever took a notion TO fight, and / knew
pretty well that n wildcat was about as
sure 70 take O notion to fight as any
thing on earth. / don't know exactly
what / did in that hole or how / did it,
but l remember it seemed about a month
of Sundays that / was all unused mp in
there with some kind of q wild animal,
and finally the thing got from under me
and scooted as fast as it could for the
top of the sink hole. / followed after it
as quick as | could, for / became Drawer
when1 saw it run. and when I got up
on tho level the moon had come ont,
and ! could see the varmint fairly skin
ming 1t. out for tho tall timber. 4 yelled
at it with all my might. though J. didn't
run afterlit very fast. and began to call
my dog. On the second call the varmint
stopped. and / began to get ready to skin
out myself. when / got a better look,
and. by the great horn spoon, gents, it
was my dog. l called him then, and he
came back to me. and / could see for
myself that he had holed something
down there in the sink, and his barking
had been smothered and sounded away
of to me. and of course when I dropped
in on him unexpectedly like that he
didn't know anything about it, and mel
ther did /, and there we was. IN any
event. gentlemeR, I" concluded the for
mer Corocracker. that dog come trot-
ting back to me, and when we met face
20 face in the moonlight he sorter look.
ed at me, and l sorter looked at him.
and don't i.now which one Of Us felt