Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1898-03-31
me as if he had an idee O. dom some
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one side. The deer was goin' so fast
that he went on by me more'n so yards
fore he could stop and turn. didn't
calculate to stand there and be hooked
into shoestrings by that buck, and
away I dug for shore, hopin' to git
there and climb a tree fore the buck
could ketch me, if he was rantankerous
enough to foller me. He was rantanker-
Gus enough, all right, and he follered
me, but I didn't climb the tree. l have
always kind O. looked up to deer, John.
I've always sot deer down as bein' crit
ters that was high feelin' and wouldn't
stoop to do anything low.
"'But I want to tell it right now that
I'm disappointed in deer! They amt
what I've always cracked 'em up to be.
If that buck had been of the natur' I've
always sot deer natur' down to be I'd
a clumb that tree. But he wasn't, and
tree, and was goin' up it like red squir-
rel, that buck reached up and fastened
onto ME with his jaws just below where
my hind gallus buttons is hitched to my
trousers, and sloshed me down agin so
quick that I can't never tell you now
which end O. me hit the snow first!
Fastened onto me jest es if he was
rothin' more than a snealzin' snarlin'
snifflin', sheep-stealin' dog, inste'd of a
bold and boundin' roebuck O. the noun
tains! Disappointed? Twas never so
disappointed in my life!
"'Then what does the deer do? Moth
in only chuck me clean back on the
pond ag'in, an come a follerin' me as
tight as he could come. He came so
tight that he studded his toes on me,
and went all in heap on the ice him
self. I was up fore he was, and want
to tell you was mad.
Z" ''This is goin' leetle too fur!" 1
says. 81 hain't got no objections to
you havin' the hull O. that pond o your
self if you want it, I says, ''but there
hain't no deer ever lived kin sneak up
and bite me like a durn onery sheep
dog without me hittin' back!"
The deer was a-comin' for me head
ON ag'in, and [ knowed from the way he
looked that he was p'intin' to hook me
down and then churn the innards out
G. me. I'd turned and lodged him and
got up the tree this time if he hadn't
bit me t'other time. That was more'n
could stand, and when he comes a.
prancin' up to me with his head down
to scoop me, l ketched him by the
horns, whopped him over on his back,
and run my knife across his throat fore
he ever knowed what he had run ag'in.
Did I? Well, do you s'pose I'm goin' to
let a deer bite me and then set down and
let him hook and stomp me into hash
besides? Not this year!
Well, sir, the first thing I knowed
this mornin' Gabe Sawyer, the con-
stable, comes over here and says to
me:
"Joe,'' says he, 1--WE got war
rant for you, and I'll have to yank YOU"
"'"Yank mel" says. "What fur?'
"'"Killin' deer outen season. he
says.
81 was so took back that couldn't
say durn word till me and Gabe got
down to the 'squires. Then I up and
told 'em jest how it all happened, but
it the squire didn't bind me over to
pear fore the grand jury, you kin have
my hull blame clearin'. Now 1 jest
want to know what we be comm to? If
the day O. the month amt right you've
got to lay down and let deer chaw and
horn and stomp the daylights outen
you, and leave your wife wilder or
else be held for the grand jury! got
that durn sheep-stealin' dog of deer's
carcass hangin' out here in the barn.
Come and see it,
II went out to the barn. The deer
was big one and no mistake. won
dered how in the world Joe could have
it on it's back so quick. BY and
by, looking the carcass over l found
hole in it's side, just behind the left
shoulder. The hole was fresh, and L
could put my forefnger all the way in
it. The hole was a bullet hole, sure as
guns.
"'Why, Joe,' said, heres bullet
hole in this deer 49,
"Joe came around and looked at it.
He stood minute as if dumb with
Then he struck his fist
against the side of the barn and
shouted: Il *E'% - 49, FL
"'Fll give 500 this here very minute
to know who plunked that bullet in that
deer. No wonder that deer bit me.
No wonder he wanted to hook and
stomp the daylights out O. me. 1 take
it all back. That bullets what done it.
Some prowlin' bushwhacker socked
that hat bullet into that deer, and the pain
o the wound jest sot him crazy, and he
turned in to spit it out on me- And
here been yanlked and held for the