The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-09-05

der pulling, and that time is now
upon us.
1t requires too much activity in
turning quickly from one row to the
other, being that we always carry two
rows, for an old man to be success
at pulling fodder. 1t suits an old
man much better to hoe, SO that he
can stop and lean upon the hoe handle
and rest and measure his shadow for
the time Of day and think Of the pot
that is boiling and Of how the milk is
cooling at the spring and how he will
be ready to 60 for it when the horn
blows and he homcward makes his
way. You can't study in pulling fod-
der. It's up and down, across to the
other row and back again, stumbling,
if you don't look out, and often the
motions give us vertigo, till, as for
me, l am not much on pulling fodder
but used to be.
Yes, I mind me now Of the times
when never man could be found,
white or black, that could turn me
down in the fodder field. | think /
rather got distaste for fodderipg
when was about thirty-three years
old. \ good old ncighbor, Bob
Puckett, down in Pike, had all his
teams engaged and proposed to do
for him what he would have gladly
done for me under like circumstances
take my team and haul his fodder
up from the field. 1t was nothing
more than frolio for me in that day
and time. I soon had the mules
hitched, my big black whip looped on
my wrist and calling my hound pup
we started for Puckett" fodder field.
There were bars in those days, rather
than gates, and while l stopped to let
down set to pass in the field the pup
had went off nosing around as all
hounds will and quicker than | could
tell it he was cutting up the biggest
roukus down in thicket l had ever
heard puppy stir. l listened a mo-
ment and decided that my pup was
getting something more than the
pricks Of briars and that he needed
help and needed it bad. was active
then and was soon bounding across
the corn rows like a rubber ball in
direction Of the thicket l was soon
there-and then / wasn't there.
There2 were snakes in those days
snakes to burn-and there were a
species called the "coachwhip" that
were terror in the land. That was
what was the matter with my pup.
The "ooaohwh;ps' he'd him and what
they intended to do for him for en-
croaching upon their playground was
a plenty. One Of them had coiled
itself around the dogs body in some
three or four coils and the remainder
Of itself it had reached out and grabbed
a sapling-coiling around it as tight
as if it had been vine and growed
there. Thus, you see, one Of them
had my pup anchored fast to the sap
ling while the other one was preparing
to do the whipping act in grand style.
They only seemed to be playing with
the pup up to my arrival getting
ready and laughing, as it we're. The
loose one would stand off, and whirl-
ing about half Of itself in the air
about as an old-fashioned wagner
would whirl his whip, it would cut the
pup with the end of the tail as sharply
as man could have done, and the
f -nge part was that the snake put in
his licks just where he wanted them
to fall. l peeped around bush for
moment, and then says I, all to my
self:
"I'll break up this picnic, sure
am sure the snakes heard me, for
by their acts they as good as said:
"Ill be hanged if you do"
Before / had time to spit on my
hands, or grab rock or anything, and
forgetting all about having my whip
looped over my wrist, here they came.
saw at once that it was no bluff.
They had business in their eyes and
in their movements, too. A fellow
thinks mighty fast at such times-he
has to think fast-and the thought
that struck me like bolt Of lightning
was that they would soon have me in
the same condition that they had the
pup only moment before.
You talk about activity. vas
sure active in those days, but never
in my life did I turn and move as
moved that day. Across the field
went and across the field came the
snakes. only LII tie high PLACES,
they seemed to not hit the ground al
all, but to fairly fly. Heiter, shelter