The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-08-20

tlesnake Canon over there plum crazy
: They brought him into town, and al
they could get out of 'em was q STRING
OF the foolishest words We ever heard
OF. lie didn't say much else for 6
good many years Acknowledgements
sit around the town here and get it of
to himself. Went somethin' like this
" Changed all the trees in the
Rattlesnake-moved 'em and mixed
EN- all up. Might "a been dream,
but [ don't think so. Ask Bill-le
knows. Put shot in her. Seen
rock in my time, but no rock like
that. Bill, old fool, gifts scared, and
we kivered her up to come back to-
Didn't blaze no tree, but my old knife's
stlckln' on the moss side O. that tree,
Might a been a dream. Ask Bill
Course you can bet your life that
Ola canon was prospected pretty we'll
after that, but nothin' was found. The
specimen was sold and the money di-
vlded between Bill Wilkins and Mug
gets's daughter, who had to take care
O. him. Wilkins went over into Gala
Veras soon after that and fell down
a shaft about 500 feet deep.
"Well, time went by, and the law
stopped hydrauleeking, and purity
much everyone left the town that
could git out of it, and it amt been
worth a blame sence. Nuggets's
daughter she married Bob Hittel who
was teamster and didn't have much
OF 1t to do neither. They was pore,
but they managed to make living and
Keep old Nuggets besides. Course
ye know the old man couldn't do
nothln' but sit around and talk those
words I told ye of. Everyone was
kind to him, except, perhaps, Jake
Openheimer, who kept the principal
store then. He youster rile him q
good deal and josh him and ask him
when he was goin' to open her up,
but L reckon lie didn't mean q great |
deal O. harm.
Every now and then Nuggets 'ud
wander over into Rattlesnake Canon
and spend nigh onto q day there.
When he'd come back he'd be worse
TUX than ever and go moonin' around
and sayin' those words: Changed
all the trees in the Rattlesnake-
moved 'em and mixed 'em all I'm
Might a been a dream, but I don't
think So.
Bout this time his little gran'son
was CROWN up, and Nuggets began
to take him along with him in his
trips to the canon. Mrs. Hittel she
objected at first, but when she seen
5he boy liked to go and her father was
lead set on havin' him with him, she
1ldn't make no more objections. The
BOY yoused to say that while they was
n the canon Nuggets spent most of
lis time huntin for something he
couldn't find. O
"One evening in the summer time
bout ten years ago-I was here then 7
nyself-Nuggets and the boy KEN '
nto town and gave it a surprise !
nat 1t amt got over sence. You can
elleVe it or not as you want to. but ,
e,d got back his mind all right and
alked as sensibly as I'm talkin' now 7
cont believe he ever was crazy nv
elt-Just think he'd got his mind set
n one thing and couldn't get it off,
ut ne was purity near crazy with il
applness. He'd an old rusty knife o
MS hand, and he kept saying to b
all the time: ''Twarn't no dream fl
ter all-'twarn't no DREAM Seems
hen they was in the canon the bow O
ot to playin' around and crawled O
nder big tree that 'ad been blown W
own and found the knife stickin' in o.
underneath, Course ye know what
lat meant.
"Well, Nuggets is all right now, f. f.
was his claim. He sold it for "
!rty nice sum to couple of bic !"
ming men down below. See those -,
lokestacks in the trees over in the ~
non. Well, there's a fourteen-stamp u
Ill on the spot where the knife was
und. as
Bob Hittel runs this store we're IN
'lttln' in front Of, and Bob's wife NJ
ms her own home. Nuggets has a E n
ortgage on about everything Jake % %
'enhelmer's got left, and the boy Il
9 gran'son, ye Knowles down be-
IN business for himself.
That's about the story old Mo.
is III tell ye when We meet him. ap
me OF it's true know myself for a pl
IT, ana L reckon, mebbe, some of it's pr
Wel' ye know, Nuggets is Mis- pa
lrlan and a purity good liar him gu
f. wi
The stranger arose, stretched him fin
and striding up the street en- gr
inferred the one-legged druggist su
ndlng IN the doorway of his store CO..
Great story I just heard" said the VII
anger. WV
Been talking to the old pioneerq" sp'
Pioneer? Why, he's not fortv- do
er." y an,
No, but he's forty-eighter." EN-
Who is he, anyhow" inc
Him. Oh that, Nr,,1 , rhe