The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-25
SNUCK HIS PAP'S GUN.
SAM ABASDONs 'TATER PLANTIN'
ron WILDCAT HUNTIN.'


From the Chicago Inter ocean.
THE time 1 was fishing on Barley run"
said John Gilbert, the travelling grocery
man, DOC Barnes came into the tavern
one day. and said that he had just been up
to Farmer Ben Pomeroy's and to Jim
Cranes taking some stitches in Ben's boy
Sam and Jim's boy Joe. The circum
stances that led to his being called to that
neighborhood, as near as l could gather
them from authentic sources, were sub
stantialiy as follows: Fourteen-year-old
Sam Pomeroy was industriously planting
potatoes in a back field on his fathers
farm that forenoon, when 13-year-old Joe
Crane came along
Plantin' Eaters, SAM" said Joe.
Sam said he was.
" What do you git fer dom Of it?' asked
Joe.
" Don't git nothin fer doin' of it, re-
piled Sam. Fer not dom CT it I git
licked.
Then there was silence for a moment.
BY and by Joe said:
It's TOO wet to plant 'taters. They'll
rot
=" Don't seem to strike my pap that way
said Sam, and he planted along. Silence
for a spell, Then Joe said:
" There's a wildcat up here a piece,
Sam
" Go 'wayr exclaimed Sam, straighten-
ing up, and leaning on his hoe. Where
bouts? 't=f
d" 'Jist beyond the laurel patch, nigh the
edge O. the Devils Rut,' replied Joe
Sam pondered in silence for a minute,
with is chin on his hoe handle, and then,
signing, resumed his planting. Joe broke
the silence again.
Cant you sneak your pap's gun?' said
he. I've snuck my pap's.'
" Yes, 1 kin sneak it easy enough said
Sam, leaning on his hoe with one hand and
scratching his head with the other. But
pap'll lick me like tarnation for knockin'
off plantln'.'
" There's 50 bounty jst fer the wildcats
ears lnsinuated Joe an the hides worth
81 more
q That's So said Sam shaking his head
dolefully. Durn the taters.'
" There's a circus over to town next
week said Joe, AN faint fur till the
Fourth of July. I s'pose yer papll give
you 50, o course to take EN- in
" Not by a jugful he won't exclaimed
SAM dropping the hoe. Wherein 1 meet
you, joe?
I" BY the rock spring replied Joe. 4
got pap's gun hid up there
"And Joe went back to the woods, while
Sam took a circuitous route for home, as
his father was blowing in a field that lay
in the direct way thither. In less than a
quarter of an hour he and Joe loaded their
guns at the rock spring, and marched for
the place where the wildcat was alleged to
be lurking That there was a wildcat in
4 ~. Iii, IL -~a1I
known. Some said there were two. One
had been seen several times, at any rate
and a number of lambs had been killed
and carried off, and poultry yards had
been thinned out in a way that denoted
the methods of the wildcat So there was
no doubt that one, at least, of these de-
structive creatures was operating in the
neighborhood. Men had hunted for 1t and
trapped for it, but it had thus far eluded
hunter and trapper. The day Joe Crane
appeared to Sam Pomeroy in the potato
field he had been looking for hawk s
nest which he believed was somewhere
among the old pine stubs around the
DEVILS Rut when he ran across a big
wildcat which ran up a tree, crouched in
the fork, and glared back at him. He
had thereupon hurried home, 'snuck' his
fathers gun, and with rare diplomacy, in
duced Sam Pomeroy to sneak his faith
er's gum too, and join in a campaign
against the wildcats pelt and ears.
Joe, as the abiter of the hunt sent Sam
through the laurel patch when they got
there, where he shrewdly suspected the
catamount had his refuge, while he himself
went round the patch to be ready for the
willy game if Sam routed it out. Sam start
ed the big cat and got a shot at 1t. He
broke one of its hind legs but the wildcat
bounded on out of the laurels on the other
tree. 1t came out near Joe, who gave it
u charge from his paps gun, and tumbled
il heels over head. 1t fell, kicking and yell
ing, right on the edge of the Davis Rut,
and its dying kicks carried it over the edge
so it fell headlong to the bottom of the
rut.
The Devils Rut, so called, is a canyon
On a small scale. 1t Is a seam in the rocks,
not over ten feet wide al its widest part.
thirty feet deep, and a quarter of a mile
long Joe and Sam looked down into the
Devirs Rut and could see the wildcat dead
at the bottom. To climb down the side OF
the opening was an impossibility, and il
looked as II the hunt was to be a fruit
| less one after all
We're dished, said Sam, AN I'm heap
worse off than nothin' fer all I'll git now
will be pap's lickin."
"But Sam was a pessimist. Joe was opti-
mistic. If he hadn't been, he would have
lost the Wildcats bounty and its skin, per
haps, but both he and Sam would have re-
turned home with more skin of their own
than they did, to say nothing of clothes
Its a great place for wild grapes around
and about The Devil's Rut The vines ex-
tend from tree 10 tree, some of them in
continuous stretches for fifty feet or more.
II took Joe Crane no longer than two min
utes to think out plan for securing the
wildcat, and all that it implied.
He traced out vine that had thrown It.
self through the trees for fifteen or twenty
yards from its parent cane. He climbed
the trees in succession, cutting the vine
loose from the branch vines, and tendrils
that held 1t, and at last had il free. a long.
strong. natural rope, fully fifty feet in
length. The two boys tested its strength
by putting their combined weight on il
and hanging from it. 1t held safe and
strong to its native tree. Joe lowered the
vine to the bottom of the Devils Rut, and
went down into the ravine upon 1t, hand
over hand His intention was to fasten
the Wildcats carcass to the vine and have
Sam haul il up, but while Sam was wait
ing for the signal 20 pull away, he heard
Joe shouting something else.
Hello, SAINT Joe shouted from the rut.
Drop down here with the guns Tha's a
hole full o more Wildcats