Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-02
TEDDY GRANTS COMET.
A Strange Mix-Up I'm the Bucolic Life
of a Maine Farmer.

A Strange Mix-Up in the BucoHc Life
of Maine Farmer.
From the New York Sun.
1t is a custom among down east farmers
to bring their potatoes out of the cellar
and put them In barrels lear the house as
soon as they begin to sprout. In accord
ance with this practice. Teddy Grant of
Prospect Ferry, Me, carried out six BUSH
els on last Monday afternoon, filling two
barrels to the chimes and having nearly a
bushel left over, which he put in a third
barrel. After this he went to drive up the
cows. passing nearly an hour in hunting
for one, which he failed to find. Then he
MIXED, ate his supper and, shouldering his
dip net, went down to the banks of the
Penobscot to catch smelts. He was gone
more than an hour, and in that time Sc
cured about a half bushel of fish, all of
which were found the next day, scattered
through the bushes.
Soon after Grant went fishing the high
way surveyor came along, and found the
road SO bad that he felt compelled to hang
up a light near the slough holes to warn
travellers CT danger. He borrowed a lam
tern from Mrs Grant, and, taking the bar
rel that was partly filled with potatoes to
hold ii above the mud, stuck up his beacon
and went home He had hardly finished
the job when Grants missing COW came up
from the pasture. Seeing :. light in the
middle of the road she wont to investigate
it, and soon had her head far down in the
barrel reaching for potatoes. 1t was well
with the cow until she finished the potatoes
and attempted to remove her head from
the barrel. Then her horns brought up
against the slaves, and the barrel, with
lantern attached, was lifted from the mud.
When the dazed animal had made a few
dozen turns in the road, dashed into a
barbed wire fence and broken down two
small shlde trees, she started off toward
the river at brisk run, swinging her tail
above her back and making the lantern
wabbe like a dssolute will-o the wisp.
The COW was making about twenty miles
an hour and throwing mud like yellow
dog after woodchucks, when she reach ed
the steep part of the hill and met Grant,
who was feeling his way home with the
smelts. Over went Grant into pool. and
over him went the frantic COW. Grant
picked himself up, looked at the receding
COW, yelled twice and made for home, leap
ing all the way and splitting smelts at every
bound.
When he had locked and barred the door
and wiped off a little mud from his cloth
ing, Grant told his wife about the mishap,
and esked her if she had seen a comet go
by during his absence. He felt sure II was
a comet that had hit him, because the
newspapers said that comets Travelled very
fast and were always well lighted, and
these two conditions agreed with the mani
festations he had observed.
His wife then related what the surveyor
had done, and intimated II might have been
the potato barrel and lantern oombt nation
instead Of comet, and as they were both
gone she suggested that he had better In
vestigate some things before announcing
his discovery. Advice of any kind was
wasted on Grant, who insisted on taking
something hot to bed with him, where he
stayed until his wife found the cow caught