The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-08-03
Sol TOmlinSOn'S FalCOnry
BY Edwin j. Webster.
IS OIL ToMLINsoN says it was

u
Sunday school book that caused
him to be nursing an injured spirit and
mourning the loss of the finest collec-
ton of fancy breeds of chickens ever
seen in Pike county," observed Deacon
Todgers to the crowd at the corner
grocery. But tell him it was his own
foolishness in trying middle age notions
in this closing year of the nineteenth
century, and also in trusting too far to
the loving kindness and forgiving ma
ture of hawks.
Zone Sunday afternoon Sol went out
to the woodshed and found his boy Tom
reading a book he had drawn from
the Sunday school library. Sol cracked
the boy over the head for reading
novels on Sunday, gave him some
chores to do, and then sat down to
read the book himself. 1t was all about
knights and how they rode about the
country fighting for the color of their
ladies' eyebrows and how they went
hawking and all such foolishness. But
it seemed to impress Sol nightly.
"'And are you, with your blue jeans
and bald pate and white whiskers, go
ing to ride around Pike county on a
"prancing palfrey," and fight for the
honor of your lady, also?' asked him.
OR what particular kind of foolishness
has that book inspired you TOP
''Sol looked hurt.
"'Fudge, deacon he said to me. I'm
a respectable married man without any
''lady loves" as you call them, and my
rheumatism wouldn't allow me to ride
"prancing palfreys" any way. The plan
1 am thinking of is a practical one, and
Que that will bring money to worthy
old man without his working for it. Did
you read what that book said about fall
conry, and how all those old coves used
to catch heron and ducks and other
kinds of birds by the use of falcons?
Well, that's what I'm going to do he
says. earnestly.
But you haven't any falcons OBJ
jected
Flush, Deacon Sol retorted, sort of
impatiently. of course, amt got any
falcons. But what's falcon except a
hawk, anyway, and it will be easy
enough for me to get few young
hawks and train them to catch ducks
and other birds which sell well, but are
a good deal of trouble for tired old
man to shoot
"Well, the first thing Sol did was to
get his boys to work gathering in young
hawks. That was considerable of a
contract for the boys, as neither the
young hawks nor the old birds took
kindly to having their nests robbed, but
the boys gathered in about dozen
young birds.
"Sol had lot of chickens of his own,
and every time he killed one he would
feed the young hawks bit of liver.
Then he would buy up the livers when
ever any of the neighbors killed chick
ems, and feed them to the hawks. Of
course he fed the hawks other things.
but pretty soon those birds had as well
developed taste for liver as some men
have for patty de foy grass or what
ever it is called.
"Then Sol began the second part of
the training. He would put dead duck
on the ground, and carry one of his
hawks over to it, go off ways, and
sort of indicate to the bird that he
wanted the dead duck brought to him.
Hawks are pretty intelligent birds, and
il wasn't long before they appreciated
the fact that every time one of them
brought Sol a duck there was a big
pier' of liver coming.
BY the time the duck season opened
all but six of Soils hawks had died
but he certainly did have that half
dozen trained down to fine point
Their appetite for liver had gotten to
be like that of mans for drink, and
they understood that ducks and only
ducks were what Sol wanted, so they
never interfered with his chickens. BY
and by the ducks began flying south
Then Sol started out to gather in his
harvest.
"'For MONTHS he said to me these
hawks of mine have enjoyed fatherly
care and lived on the fat of the LAND
and the livers of several hundred