Mexico Missouri message., 1900-07-19
In The Days of Pin Hooks.

In The Days OF Pin HOOKS.
Here is IA story that will interest
the "small boy" 1t is by Ernest
McGaffey in the Chicago Post:
Once upon a time there was a
small boy who lived with his
cousin on farm which lay along
Il wide, white strip of road which
was called "the Government pike"
There was Il brook which ran thru
the farm, past the meadows and
across the fields, disappearing fl
nally in the "big woods" a dark
and mysterious forest, where terri
bic snakes were supposed to Turk.
This little brook was veritable
wonderland to the boys, and in
deed there were many strange and
beautiful things about it. In the
lower meadow there was huge
granite bowlder half sunk in the
water, and around this great rock
schools of minnOws could be seen.
If YOU stood perfectly still the
minnows would stay in sight, their
shining forms looking like silver
in the sunlight. But if you even
so much us lifted Il finger the en-
tire gathering would vanish with Il
whisk of their alert tails and the
picture would he lost. And in the
edges of this pool where the pom
dcrouS stone rested were wriggling
bands of tadpolcs, squirmily NOV
ing in blotchcs of inky blackness.
Then, too, there were agile water
bugs, gliding across the pool
swiftcr than spiders over Il web.
And sometimes Il red winged black
bird would light on Il rusty stake
that stood in the center of the
spot and send out such Il sweet,
clear whistle as only a boy, and a
very little boy, ever hears.
Further toward the red brick
farmhouse and on the edges of the
brook were quantities of blue flag
lilies, with veins in their delicate
petals as fine and blue as those in
baby's wrist. And in the sum-
mcr days there were numbers of
dragon flies, known TO the boys as
"snakc feeders" Some of them
were very small, and blue i'll color:
others black and white, and larger,
and some others, biggest and most
formidable of all, that flew men
acingly toward the boys when they
wandered along the brook. These
creatures were we'll known to be in
the habit of feeding the water
moccasins, garter snakes and black
snakes that frequented the marshy
places along the brook, and they
were therefore objects of terror to
the urchins. Sometimes the Kill
dee plover, gray, restless, and with
piercing cry, sprang up from the
bare pastures and set quivering
wing in the fresh June air. Some
times a crow stalkcd warily about
in the meadows, and always in the
long, warm days the silent, shad-
owy swallows wove atwisting mesh
of flight above the water. Grass
grew to the brooks edge, and vio-
let's. hluebells and the little starry
white growths of miniature flow
crS pccpcd from the green mats of
grasses.
In the brook itself there We're
MANY curiositicS. There were the
crawlish, some of them rusty
reddish hue, and some of them
green. All of them We're fond OF
swimming backward, and they
lived in clay banks, in holes that
were bored in the earth. They
were fond of lurking under stones
in the bottom of the brook, and
the boys captured many of them
by wading in the shallow places
and overturning the rocks where
the crawfsh had taken refuge.
These crawfsh We're desperate fell
lows, too, and had cruel "pinchers'
in the shape of two claws with
serrated edges. These were fas-
tened into the victim with a lever
| 4. .,.,,nn How NhnlIAr''