Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-13
The Parsons Box.
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'.Speakin Of war, remarked Moot
Rivers, the old Maine gnide, as he tip
ned his cracker box hack against the
front of the country store, upon whose
platform company of village loafers
had gathered-''s speakin of war reminds
me of sort Of Quaker parsOn that ust
to come up into these parts every win
ter and travel round among the lumber
camps, holdin religious services That
man WIS the deadest sot ag'in blood
sheddin of anybody l ever see, before or
since. He didn't even believe in war
between man and varmints, sayin that
it was crime ag in God to take the life
he had given any critter of his'n He
wouldn t eat meat becuz it was slain,
and sometimes, 1 can tell ye, boys, the
poor cuss was reel hard put to it for a
bellyful here in the woods whar the
heft of our provender ust TO be wild
meat I've seen him go to bed half fam
ished, when he'd stop at one of my
camps for night and find me out of
everything but tea and venison.
'The parson-as we fellers up here
called him; he was good sort of a
chap, too-was so determined not to
shed the blood of any livin critter that
he wouldn't even fight varmints in self
defense He didn't carry any weppin
besides his AK and jackknife, and these
he only used for cuttin his wood and
buildin his camps What did he do
when pestered by wild critters, then
That's what I'm a-goin to tell ye.
1.-The parson Travelled through the
woods with strong oak box, bout z
feet long and 211s broad, sot Oh Il tobog-
gan. 1t was the stoutest. best built box
l ever see, put together with four inch
screws and bound on the inside with
steel strips and brackets. The top raised
up, lid fashion, and was fastened on by
eight big brass hinges. Inside thar was
chain lock to hold the1sover. down, SO
the devil himself couldn't raise it with
out pullin the box to pieces. Thar were
two or three small holes bored in the
end of the box for ventilation, and I'll
be blamed if that parson feller didn't
ust to dump his duds out in the snow
and crawl into that box whenever
wolves CT painter or bar got arter him,
and thar he cuddle down, as snug and
peaceful as kitten in basket. and
let them critters paw his chist around
ontil they got tired of itt Thar ust to
be scratches quarter of an inch deep
all over that box where varmints he'd
clawed it, and the parson has told me
that sometimes he lay thar for hull
night or a hull day till whatever crit
ter was interested in him got its curl
osity kind of wore off and left in s'arch
of softer vittles. More than oncet he
come within an inch of freeZin and
would have froze if it hadn't been for
the blanket he had in the box with him.
But sartin sure no varmint that roamed
the woods was able to crack the parsons
SHE'LL and he wa n It no hard shell Baptist
neither.
81 s'pose he might have gone on
boxin of himself up that way till he got
all the choppers in the woods cOnvarted
if it hedn't been for an accident that
disturbed his arrangements and kind
of demoralized his principles. I'll tell
ye how it happened.
"Me and him was ON the way to the
Jennings lumber camp, away up near
the headwaters of the Alleguash. 1t
was spiteful cold weather in February,
and we was anxious to reach shelter
before nightfall. The parsons box was
kind of hard draggin up them hills
but he stuck to it and said it want
any wuss than my pack, anyway,
which was true enough, l guess.
"Waal, it got to be along about 8
o'clock in the AFTERNOON, when I'll be
gosh darned eff didn't hear wolf, two
or three miles back, give his long drawn
howl on our traill Now, thinks |, Mr..
Parson and Mr.. Rivers, there's goin 10