The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-12-04
BIDDY'S ADVENTURE.

have it on the authority Of Robert
that Henry Howard Burke could be
more kinds Of fool than any other
man "a Carson County. Robert, be-
ing the only man on that range who
answered 10 no nickname nor sub
title, is an authority ] feel bound to
respect.
Whom young Mr.. Burke, fresh from
an Eastern school, came westward to
grow mp with the country, tho live
stock interest was inst then paramount
and all the boys expected to become
cattle kings. SO, some weeks after
closing his school-books. Henry found
himself taken on trial as horse -wrung-
Ter on a cattle-ranch, where his ASSOC
ciates promptly dubbed him "Hen.
He did not like it, and said 80. Where
upon Robert informed him that if
Hen didn't please him, he should be
called Hen no more. "Your name is
Biddy." And Roberts decision was
final.
Like a colt in q harness, Diddy
thrashed about a good bit before he
became somewhat adapted to his en-.
vironment He was the butt of all
the old jokes, the victim Of the usual
impositions, until greener man APP
peared, when he settled down to the
routine of his work like the other
men, except that he usually did the
unexpected thing, and reached his
ends by devious and difficult ways
It was on the occasion of his taking
a short cut over a rough mountain,
with the horse herd, to save a couple
OF miles of smooth road around the
point, that Robert first made the re-
mark set down at tho beginning. l
have an idea that Biddy's versatility
in folly was the result of his greater
intelligence. Robert himself prob
ably knew just enough to be fool in
=. two ways; while, with no more effort,
Biddy had the choice of half a dozen.
But never mentioned this view to
Robert.
The chief work of the horse-wrang-
Ter is to Craze the saddle-horses at
night and bring them into camp at
dawn, where each man selects his
mount for the day. One early even
ing thunder shower caused the bunch
to drift away from camp, and as the
clouds began to break, and here and
there a star showed through, Biddy
realized he had lost his bearings.
Robert said afterward that any other
man would have held the bunch right
there until morning and turned them
into camp half an hour late. But
Biddy had another way. Catching
sight of Antares through the clouds,
he recognized it for the north star,
and knowing he had drifted south
ward in the rain, he drove his hero
for half the night toward the Soutt
Pole, and was half the day getting
back.
And that was the beginning of hi
carrying a compass. On his first triI
to town, he bought pocket compass
and he learned from the county sur
veyor that the local variation of tn
needle was thirteen degrees east. Thu
armed and equipped, he felt himsel
equal to any emergency, and he go
along smoothly enough until Rober
broke his leg.
It was mighty bad break" tn
foreman said; 'Iooked like the bon
was crushed"
Biddy was sent off post haste for
doctor. He took hurried lunch, h
took the best horse in his string, h
took his compass-and that was th
last seen Of Biddy until the third day
His orders were to ride forty miles t
town, get the doctor, and be back
eight hours.
I think Biddy might havea made
in that time but for the compass an
his saddle. ExperimentaIly, he ha