The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-04

fifty feet high and fifteen feet thick,
and il rocks so easily that it would be
an excellent place on which to put a
baby to sleep, were it not for the fact
that few mothers could reach the top
with their babies in their arms.
1t is SO smooth and steep that not
many boys have been able to climb it
as far back as the memory of man
goes. If you happen to know anyone
in Harwinfield,. you can subStantiate
what I am going to tell you. 1t has
always been said by the local country
folk that if a bow could reach the top,
turn around three times and then jump
to the ground, clearing the stone in his
descent, he would be able to double
money or anything else he could pick
up-
You may imagine that, just as in the
vicinity of Captain Kidd's buried treas
ures, boys are forever digging, so there
had always been Harwinfield boys who
were crazy to reach the top of Rock
ing Rock, turn three times and jump.
And then the riches of the world would
be theirs. But the rock was as slippery
as ice on the top. and there was barely
room for q small foot, so while every
few years a boy would be found able
to reach the apex, he could do no more
than slide off again and land, with
more or less bruises, on the other side.
But John Angevine was as venture
some as any boy that ever lived, and
he had good deal of the Rocky Noun
tain goat in his makeup. He was a
French Canadian, who had come with
his father and ten brothers and sisters
to Harwinfield when he was two years
old.
From his babyhood he had heard of
the legend connected with the rock.
and he early determined to reach the
4 A
for the jump? Well, he would think
about that when he got up. 1t might
not be necessary.
John was ten years old when he first
reached the top of the rock. The other
boys cheered him until he tried to stand
up and failed, and then they jeered.
Bows are not unlike their fathers in
some things.
John slid down and landed in a heap
on a. pile of hay at the foot of the rock,
but he was not daunted. He prac-
ticed standing on one foot on a fence
post until he was able to balance him.
self on crowbar stuck in the ground,
and then he tried the rock again.
1t had been noised around about that
he was going to try it, and every boy
in Harwinfield and few from East
Canaan were on hand to see how it
would turn out. 1t was on a Saturday
afternoon, just before haying time.
Are you go'n' to try the Jump
asked his particular friend, Con Stag
gers.
Tell you when get up" said John.
Then he rubbed chalk on his shoes, as
he'd seen acrobatS do in the circus,
and began the climb. Up he went, al
most as easily as a fly would have
done ii, and inside-of a minute he had
reached the top. He slowly raised him
self to standing position on one foot.
Then he began to turn.
Bully boy, Johnr' GOO boy,"
Keep it upr' You'll do it, Frenchyp'
Once, twice, thrice he went around.
NOW, jump" said Con, but at this
point Johns nerve forsook him. He
knew that to jump and clear the rock
meant a passage of over fifty feet in
the air, with the probability of
broken leg at the end. He was not
quite old enough to love money enough
to give a leg for it. So he slid down
the rock in time-honored fashion, and
landed in the hay.
why didn't we do it, John?" asked
Con, almost in tears.
"Mebbe you have the power, any
way" drawled Hank Vinton.
John took a 2-cent piece out of his
pocket and rubbed it between thumb
and forefinger, and-in a twinkling he
had two of the fashioned coins.
well, you don't know what fun is,
If you weren't there. 1 was, because
I was a boy then, and l lived there,
and I was one of the first to get my
pennies changed into as many more.
We didn't stop until our pockets were
bullying with pennies-that seemed I'M
heard of wealth to us, whose fathers
were Woodworking farmers, to whom
quarter of a dollar represented more
than $40 does to folks nowadays. had
to go home at o'clock, so didn't have
a chance to spend mine, but most of
the other boys went to Hiram Hayden's
store and called for Jackson balls and
Union balls and Haggis chewing gum
and imitation tobacco made of slippery
elm and licorice root.
Old man Hayden was aStOnished at
the orders, and, like the ban in simple
Simon he said: SHOW me first your
penny"
And then came an awful disillusion-
izing. Every penny beyond the ones
that the boy had had originally, was
bad. You never saw such a mad lot
of fellows in your life. Con Staggers
told me about it. Thew would have
thrashed John numerically if Hiram
hadn't interfered. He was quite an
old man, and when he heard the bows
story he said that it was all because
John hadn't jumped. we've got the
paower to double things. but We hain't
got the paower to make 'em good"
And ii was so. John could make two
of any one thing, but he couldn't get
the good out of the new thing. OF
course it was lots of fun for us all, hut
1T was exaSpef-af ting too For instance