Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-08-25

WHILE making a trip through the
wv mountains of eastern Kentucky
last summer | stopped one day under
the inviting shade of a thick-headed
beech to rest and cool my horse.
Soon l heard soft, measured tramp,
tramp in the thick dust of the road,
and, looking up, beheld an old man
approaching my shade, his chin against
his breast.
He came up, said: "Howdy, stran-
ger" took a seat close by my side and
= -sIait1ell- "A long, deem n-siah "
He took out his jackknife and nerv-
ously whitfield his right shoe sole O
few seconds, then closed the knife
again, rammed it back in his pocket
and looked around at me with an ex-
preston of desperate agony.
Mister" he began, after signing
pause, I'm in heap o trouble this
ere day. Hits the tip-top Of noun
tin of trouble that's bin a-pilin' up
fer the last IS years. I'm jist out
huntin' fer some one to help me let
loose Of 1t little. I'm a-gittin' white
all mixed up in the black of my hair,
an | can't stand up under things as
/ could when there was more sap in
my timber. l want you to advise me
what to do-you are pirty peart-
lookin' little bow-legged feller."
"Well, tell me your trouble, and I'll
put in a hand if L can help you any,"
said, smiling.
"Wall, about Is years ago me an
Tom Snodgrass, near neighbor of
mine, went away off down ter Gin
cinnati TO sell lot of fox an coon
skins.
"Wall, we wanted to have er little
time arter we sold our skins, an so
we got to maxim hog-troughs outen
our stomachs by pourin' a lot Of stump
water-lookin' stuff in 'em called lego
beer. Not bein' use ter anything wuss
than moonshlne whisky we soon got
so ediotically drunk that we couldn't
tell our own names.
"Wall, when the sunlight O. sense
begin to rise on our intellecks ag'ln
/ found every cent Of my coon-skin
money was gone. l was busted. So
1 ser to Tom: Tom SEE I, I'll have
ter borry leetle speck o your money
ter git deck passage back on boat
home
"Tom hesertated a leetle while, then
sed: Bill, l nin't no Wall street my
sef, but, by gum! I'm man, Bill
man clear through from rhyme TO
rhyne-an' I'll be cussed ef | don't let
you have 30 cents. Lots o fellers, ye
Ivft Il n
mans down lots O. fellers tries to keep
his face in the clay, but it amt Tom
SnodRrass-nary time. Here's the
stuff, by gullyH
81 took the money as bat takes
| fly, an sed, sez l: Tom, this thing
don't stop here. You are puilin' me
outin a mighty tight place, an I'll
remember the favor while there's oil
In my lamp. No difference what you
| want outin me hereafter, all yo've got
to do is to holler fer it an ye git IT.
"Wall, about three months arter we
| got back Tom comes to me just as
the 2un was squattin' down behind a
hin an sez: Bill, that ar gal o yourn
| -Snrilda .Jane-she's about the incest
| piece O. femernIne furniture In these
| 'ere hills, an I've decided want TO
add her to the attrackshuns o my
brand-new log house.
| az can't do 1t, Tom l sed, the
fack is, the gal is about to hook up
an make team with John Stacey.
They are TO trot off together next
week.
at can't hep that, Bill he said,
looltin' at me with an eye full of tears,
| q got my heart sot on the gal an
can't git it Off. You must give her to
me at once. ] don't want TO throw up
nuthin' TO you, Bill, but you know
what We sed when / let ye have that
90 cents
"'You shall have her. sed, decided
". 4 never 20 back on feller that
pulled me outin hot water when the
skin was about to slip. Come over to-
morrer an git her.
"The- gal loved Stacey, an so, when
] tole her about the new arrangement,
she filled her apron full o tears, an
sent home Stacey's picter an banker
cher. She married Tom, poor thing.
my wife soon died, an then my gal
Toms wife-mixing the grief Of her
distasteful marriage with the death
of her mother, wilted away like cut
| vine, an died herself two months later.
~ soon married again, gittin' one Of