The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1901-09-05
Observation-Disclosures
! OUR TENDERFOOT.
How He Repaid a Camp.Ma
for . Simple Kindness.
BY BOURBON VII SON.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY BOURBON WILSON.

|
IT'S . sure thing that il a man has
any cur in him, the hair of the
brute Is going to show up mighty
quick when you get that man out in
camp. That's the way 1t was with
Hays; he hadn't been with lis a month
before he had given everyone in the
outfit cause to dislike him, even the
"Old Man." who was very slow in such
matters. 1t was back in 1883. We
were down in the eastern part Of Chi
huahua, making the preliminary sur
vey of railroad that has never been
built, and Hays had been sent out
from headquarters in Boston to take
the place Of an engineer the Apaches
had picked up. That he was u ten
derfoot wns sufficient cause for all
hands to wish him anywhere else but
In our party, for tenderfoots always
give trouble; and that he was from
Boston was q grievance additional.
for tenderfoots Of that brand can't be
taught anything-they know 600
much.
Individually our dislike came of
various things; the Old Mans and
mine was because he had been boosted
into his position without having had
to work up, as we had done. And
then he was mortally stingy; would
not come in on our little games of
draw, because. he said, he couldn't
afford to risk the money-and he re-
ceived as much psy as I did. Jim,
our cook, had it in for him because
he had ventured one day to mildly
criticise Jim's make of buscuit,
something none of the rest of US had
ever dared do. although they were
not always edible. And he had found
fault with Jose's method of einching
a saddle, which stung Jose TO the
quick, as ne prided himself upon
knowing all that was TO be known
about a horse and saddle. And he had
been no incautious rs to report Bill
and Tex TO the Old Man for some tri-
vial neglect of their work.
One morning the Old Man and no.
ticed the boys with their heads
punched, talking in whispers, and we
figured It out that things were going
to happen to Hays pretty soon-that
the boys were going to make him
fight or leave the outfit. We were
not mistaken; the fun began that
night while we were eating supper.
We were about half through, when
Hays suddenly laid down his knife
and fork, and got up, then walked
hurriedly away, gasping and wheezing
like . choking horse. Nobody said .
word, but the Old Man reached over.
and, pouring the coffee out Of Hays
cup, discovered small cube Of plug
tobacco At its bottom. A few morn.
ings later, when Hays got on his
horse, he was promptly bucked high
in the air, and when he came down
landed In the midst OF big bunch of
gry-beard cactus. We cheered him,
Of course, and, while he was picking
the needles out of his skin, gathered
around him, making remarks that
seemed to us calculated to make even
q coyote 6ght, but not 80 much as q
scrappy word could we get out of him.
Besides that, Jose caught the herse,
and, leading him up to us, took from
under the saddle a spine Of the some
gray-beard cactus; Hays saw him do
IL, too, and of course knew that Jose
was responsible for the accident. Any
man who would let q Mexican rub 1t
in that way was n. e. we thought
The boys were just getting their
hands in. And so it went on, hardly q
day passing that did not bring some
accident to Hays; it was enough to
make . genuine man lose his nerve,
much more Boston tenderfoot, and
50 he soon lost his color. and would
start and tremble at every unexpected
sound. got sorry for him in spite Of
myself. he looked SO abjectly miser.
able, and had about decided to speak
10 the Old Man and get him to call the
boys down, when the climax was
reached. It was one morning while
We were slowly picking our way uT
a steep mountain that was scattered
about with loose rocks and boulders
Hays, focking to himself, as he had
to do pretty much all the time, had
fallen back about hundred yards
behind the rest of us. Presently Dill
stumbled and fell against boulder a,
big As q barrel, and instantly It start
ed downward on the jump, rising and
falling in long, easy bounds, like 9
jack rabbit going through sage brush
straight toward Hays. He heard the
yell Of warning we sent down, ant
hooked up and saw the boulder com
ing; but, instead Of flattening himsel
out behind ledge rock, as we expect
ed him to do, he stood with his eye'
and mouth wide open, locoed-like
staring up, at us. BY good luck th'
boulder started on n long jump JUS
before 1t reached him, and wen
whistling 20 feet above his head, 81
there really was not anything for hin
to get badly ratified about; but jus
the same, the next thing we knew hi
went down in n pile in as hearty
faint rs any woman ever had.
Disgusting? Well, that hardly eS