The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-08-05
HOW many boys do you s'pose

Il
there are nowadays, Mackinaw,
said the man from over Sinnemahoning
way, who would go out when they
were only IL years old, get lost in the
snow in the depths of the highest and
widest hills that frown down on the
a week or more, and then turn up at
their own home fireside again, fetching
with them 90 wolves and four bears, two
of the bears live, at that? How many
12-year-old-boy are there nowadays,
Mackinaw, who could and would do
that?"
jest as many nowadays, Sinnema-
hone, as there ever was any time," said
the man in the red, blue, purple, yellow,
green and pink Mackinaw jacket.
''Jest exactly as many, and that amt a
consumed one!"
But don't you gather from my re-
marks, Mackinaw," said the man from
over Sinnemahoning way, that there
must have been at least one boy of that
kind, some time?"
II gether from your remarks that
you're goin' to say there was setch boy
some time" replied the man in the
variegated jacket, land you mowt geth-
er from my remarks that that amt
goin to be no reason why l should
change EN-"
Meaning" said the Sinnemahoning
citizen, that you have doubt of my
veracity?"
'Webster's dictionary couldn't sot
the meanin' down higher to the proper
notch, Sinnemahone," replied the man
of the many-hued garment, positively
and emphatically.
''Then it will undoubtedly grieve you
to know, Mackinaw," said the man
from over Sinnemahoning way, re-
proachfully, that in anticipating what
am going to say you are not rejecting
on my veraciiy at all. You are casting
doubt not on the word of me, Mackinaw
but on that of my late remarkable ia.
Their, Reuben Pettibone! 1t will un.
doubtedly grieve you to know that
Mackinaw!"
Not a durn bit!" calculated the man
IN the red, blue, purple, yellow, green
and pink MaclSinaw jacket, reducing
the size of his plug of tobacco by com
modious and vicious bite.
Then l will melt you by an example
of juvenile endurance, combined with
1ilial regard and unselfishness, without
parallel" said the Sinnemahoning
narrator. "Or, If | cannot melt you, ]
will shame you. If l cannot touch you
! will make you feel that you must &C
out behind the barn and kick yourself
for having had it in your heart to cast
a shadow on the word of Reuben Petit
bone, to dab a splotch on the luster OF
his memory-a memory that, wherever
the waters of his own beloved Slime
malone rush or murmur, shines as
bright as new milk pan in the MONDAY
sun! And what am going to tell you
on the word of that remarkable man
occurred when Reuben Pett;bone was
yet three months shy OF IL years old
Mark it well, Mackinaw, and prepare tc
commune with yourself in self-accusing
words of bitterness.
There was a shadow on the house OF
Pettibone at that interesting period OF
my remarkable fathers career. 1t took
the form of mortgage on Grandfather
Shadrack l'ettibones clearing to the
amount of $500. The mortgage was or
the eve of falling due, and, as GRANDPA
ther Pettibone hadn't the money to pay
it, the prospects were that the ancestral
acres would soon pass to alien hands;
hence the shadow on the house of Petit
bone, throwing Grandfather ShadracR
Pettibone into the depths of gloom, and
as my remarkable father sententiously
expressed it, into the all-pervadine
depths The gloom and the dump:
were so oppressive that Reuben Petit
bone, child of nature that he was, spent
most of his time in the woods to keeI
his spirits up. One day in the winter
time he shouidered his gun and sought
the hills. the widest and the highest
hills that lifted their tops here ant
there about the clearings OF Petition,
and Others, that lay along the headwa
tiers. Reuben Petitioners intention ant
expectation was to strike the trail o.
den of some wolves, and he tramped anC
tramped, and wandered and wandered
without having met with sight OF
sound of wolf; and then suddenly snow
began falling.
"'It showed my remarkable fathel
used TO say, in relating, after his Wig
prous style, this adventure of his youth