St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1901-08-31
UGLY MACK. !"
BY SHELDON c. sToDDARD.

Between the men Of Pinerift lum.
Der camp and those Of Camp Seven
farther up the river, there at all times
was strong rivalry. Velvet Joe,.s
The biggest and possibly the roughesi
Pinerift man, averred it existed S'on
gin'ral principles"
Did Camp Seven perform some par
tieularly hazardous feat in jam
breaking, Pinerift took no peace until
it had equaled, and, if possible by any
known means, excelled the Camp
Seven achievement. Had Pinerift the
champion team for hauling, Camp
Seven bestirred itself diligently until
it had matched the champion The
feeling extended even to thecooks and
the chore boys.
Honors had for a long time been
about evenly divided between the two
camps, but at last Camp Seven had
won victory, to its great and osten-
tatious delight. Tom Patengill, the
son Of Camp Seven'sforeman, astrap-
ping young fellow Of Is, had on two
distinct occasions performed feats Of
jam-breaking which even the older
men of either camp found it impossi-
bic to excel. Certainly none Of the
Pinerift young fellows had equaled
the exploits Of young Pattengill, and
Camp Seven cl$imed the champion
ship with noisy acclaim. Heretofore
the Pinerift men had fully held their
own, and this, their first unmistaka-
BILE defeat, ranked.
IF old Turner only had a son, now,
stead O. that gal-boy Of his, that's
afraid Of the waterp growled Velvet
Joe to his mates, in great disgust.
"But shueks!n
s0That's 50, Joe. all right enough, =
assented Pete Adams, a grizzled
driver. Dicky Turner would be
afraid Of victim hisfeet, let alone rid
ing lot Of rollin' logs
Turner, the foreman, himself felt
thelossof prestige that the camp had
received and several times Dick Turn
er caught his fathers eyes fixed upon
him half reproachfully. Dick was q
quiet young fellow, with squareshoul-
ders and a broad, deep chest that
showed plenty Of power toendure.
0nthe whole, he had perhaps more
than ordinary courage, but he had an
uncomfortable aversion toperhaps
it would not be too harsh to say fear
ofthe swift, sWirling waters Of the
river The feeling had been born in
him, and, try as he might, he could
not overcome it.
Well, now, If the critter amt
skeered Of the waterw Velvet Joe had
said, IN tone of mingled pity and
disgust when the truth was first borne
in upon him. And he expressed the
sentiment of the camp. Young Turn
er, the only young fellow in their
camp with sufficient strength and
quickness to attempt to pick up Tom
Pattengill's gantlet, was @skeered Of
ithe water.
Unable 10 understand in the least
this @queerness, 2 as the men termed
it, they had come to feel contempt for
the quiet young fellow. Half hidden,
hitherto, out of respect to the sturdy
foreman, the feeling now began to
show outright. Dick Turner under
stood, and it cut him to the quick, but
he gave no sign.
About year before the foreman
had bought a noted stallion, which
for size, strength and beauty was IA
NOUS far and near The splendid ami
nal also had the well-earned reputa-
tion Of beingin dispositiont ugliest
brute that ever paved the ttrf.
He was said have killed one train
er and to have been under sentence
efdeath therefor when Turner bought
Kim. But the dauntless lumberman
believed be could train the horse into
submission.
But after several futile attempts
and two or three narrow escapes from
death he had acknowledged himself
defeated and had condemned the stall
lion to be shot. Itseened q pity. AT
least 50 Dick Turner thought. Never
had so gallant an animal been seen in
that part Of the country. And the
boys heart, Ike thatof . certain Illus