The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-09

floating on the water, and then il sank.
1 knoWed IL was no use settin' hooks, but
somehow / went on kind o. daZed like.
ana then started for home. but my
boat wouldn't move. 1 showed an oar into
the mud, and il was sort o Jerked 10 one
side, and / just missed gOin overheard.
Ihen i knoWed what was up; old King
Iortle was a-keepin me. I got weak as
kitten, when all OF sudden the boat
snot up stream, and when elected my
senses l set to rOWin fast as my arms
would let me-"
rs that ALP asked. for the old man
stopped talking suddenly and looked
steadfastly in the direction OF which he
had been speaking. for the old elms on
the creek shore were plainly in view. and
l could see. in imagination, all that he
Amt it enough?" he asked. and then
went on as If there had been no Interrupt
ton i went next morning to the place,
ana there wasn't hook on any of my
lines Every one was cut of clean. I was
a fool TO leave 'em. but somehow 1
thought must, and think the King Tur-
tie sort o charms you like a Sarpint does
little bird Well. just as I was gettin'
out o the place the old tortle came up out
O. the water. but not a-lOOkin' as he did
atore. lie sort O. grinned, with his mouth
wide open, and there was my hooks and
old mans beard"
why didn't YOU shoot him?" l asked.
Hadn't no gun with me for one thing,
and wouldn't dared anyway. Why, lad.
he's bullet proof, course, an no man in his
tie II he knows it," and old ThOrnbush
gave me look of contempt and scorn for
asking such a silly question.
did not realize at the time the force
of the conviction in the old mans mind as
to what he had been saying. and most I'M
timely, therefore, was my further remark:
DO you really expect me to believe all
that?"
Old Thornbush's eyes showed all the fire
that was in them. He looked like the big
turtle he had described, and fairly thun-
or a < choose
But do you spOSe I've lived here all my
life and hunted for fifty years and dom
know what I'm a-talking about? If You
don't believe it. go tOrtlin on your own
| hook and find out. and bet you don [
point no gun at King Tortle If he shows
up. Why boy. don't you know that tortle
purity nigh killed my daddyP
saw the man was all in earnest. with
him il was no mere yarn to please chill
dren, and l made amends as best c0uid.
mumbled a Modifying apology, ana the
clouds passed from Thornbush's brow.
What gave rise in the indefinite long
ago to this story is a problem not easily
solved. 1t has been preserved in my own
| neighborhood for several generations.
am disposed to believe II was told TO CO.
lonial children by the Indians. and ii may
be that fragment of shell of huge ma
rine turtle has been found on an Indian
| village site, 100 miles from the ocean, that
! has recently been explored. If this frag-
ment of shell was not brought overland
/ in aboriginal times, then one of these
/ monsters once wandered up the river and
DeCdiHS stIdhueu a. lOW liue. Aheie -
| nothing unreasonable in this supposition,
| considering how far the salt water travel
| ed up stream during last summer 3
/ drought Such an incident as the pres
! ence of a sea turtle would soon become
! known, and in a few years take its place
| in the red mans traditions, and from them
| be handed to the child of the English set
| tier, or, perhaps, to the Swedes or Dutch
/ that preceded us. Be this as Ii may IL
! is strange, If such is its origin, that the
! story has remained without change to the
/ present time, and that it is so general
| iy believed. Happily, cold-blooded analy-
| cation does not rob ii of certain charm,
| and when, some stormy winter night, you
hear ii told by an earnest but over-credu-
| lous old man, the old-time meadows in
| all their wildness are spread out before
you.