The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-12-20

lHey Will tcli you, SUOt deer one QaV.
1t fell, and he stepped up to it to cut
its throat. As he was standing astrde
the deer he supposed was dead it rose
suddenly and went bounding down the
creek, with Silas on its back. clasping
its neck and vociferating loudly that
help would be welcome. Job Fenk,
who was hunting along the creek, saw
the deer in its wild flight and empticd
the contents of his rifle into it, He
not only killed the deer, but bored
Silas Grub with his rifle ball as well.
Not long after that a specter deer.
bestrode by specter rider. appeared
at intervals in the woods, dashing
wildly down the creek until it reached
the spot where Fenk's rifle had done
its fatal work, and there always van
ished. Then folks took to calling the
creek Spook Run and the gully Spook
Run gully, and by and by a lumber
company put a big dam across the
creek and log shoot three miles long
through the deep, dark, crooked,
ghostly gully. down which the logs
were sent from the woods TO the mill
dam as swift as the wind, and down
this shoot came dashing, astride a log,
daredevil Bill Topson, having drunk
more than generously of log driver
rum and wagered that he would make
the fearful ride. He made it, includ-
Ing the wild plunge from the mouth
of the gully to the pond, fifty feet be-
hn fal-
pond after his awful ride and plunge,
his hair, which had been black when
he started, was as white as snow.
'And it'd "a been queer if it hadn't
turned white" any of the Passadanky
narrators will tell you. HE rid that
log them three miles in less than four
minutes"
But the reason this feat of Bill Top
sons has particular place of honor in
the chronicles of Old Passadanky is
because it was the elimination of the
career of Old Beelzebub as a wonder
working bear. When that bear was
less than year old, Jephtha Virgins,
the pelt gatherer, killed its father and
mother and chased the orphan cub for
days, with the hope of adding its pelt
TO the other two, but failed in his pur-
pose. After awhile that orphaned bear
returned to the vicinity of its old home.
and, as everybody will tell you up
there, IT came back with a grudge
against Jephtha Virgins.
That bar came back" they will say.
"and II he hadn't "a come, thered
been more sheep and pigs along the
Old Passadanky than there was for
the next three or four years. And he
was so overpowerin full of Satan that
folks give him the name Of Old Belize
bub. And Jepthy Virgins had good
reason TO be sorry he ever pelted that
bears father and mother, for what
happened to him when be begun to get
the orders for black sheep pelts?-
ders that came in thick and fast, al
though nobody never knowed what in
the world made setch q call for black
sheep pelts. What happened then;
Why, black sheep pelts got scarce. /
should say they did! And what made
'em git scarce? That bar with
grudge ag'in Jepthy Wiggins That
vengeful bar jest lugged off all the
black sheep there was in the district.
Not smell of white sheep did he
fetch.
"But that maxim of a black sheep
skin famine in the district wasn't a cir.
eumstance to what that schemin' bar
done in layin' out his plan of vengeance
agin, although 1t was included in it.
He wouldn't "a gone as fur as he did,
though, II lie hadn't happened to see
Bill Topson shoot through Spook Run
gully on the log that day He see Bill
shoot the gully and come plungin' out
of that hole in the rocks down into the
pond, and he didn't fergit it. He re-
:nembered It, and it give him the
hn ~ tSon t2 give wor IeDthv ,Wlgglns what
yit." ~
1t seems that Jephtha Virgins wa,
the greatest pelt gatherer In the Old
Passadanky country, and he had
daughter named Prudence. Paley
Since, likely young woodsman. was
In love with Prudence, and the FEELING
was reciprocal.
Now" as the Passadanky narrator
VIII tell you, "mebbe you mowt won.
der what under the canopy Old Belize.
Dub had to do with that. Nothin'. meb.
pe. 'Tain't likely that he cared snau
whether Paley Since loved Prudence
Virgins. But Jepthy Virgins cared
ne mad other ideas for his daughter.