St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-09-21

sldHu DclnS uuPeQ ike Indu, ana ~
was perfectly plain that Coleby had
stolen the goose somewhere and took
that ingenious way of throwing the
guilt on some one else.
In fact goose happened to be
missing from the flock of another
neighbor and never was heard of
after, SO far as l know. Thus the
joke was on poor Coleby.
So we lay there in the shade that
summer afternoon, and with "a per-
sistency that never tagged, we sang
in rhythmic monotone:
"Coleby, Coleby, bring back that
goose! Coleby, Coleby, bring back
that goose!"
The anvil rang louder than ever and
the sparks few madly as Coleby's
hammer beat down with fury. He be.
came angrier each minute until at
last, in a blind rage, he ran to the
edge of the pond, brandishing in his
hands pair of tongs.
He swung them around his head
and hurled them at us with the ut
most strength of his brawny arm.
''Take that goose vunce!" he cried,
and the tongs went straddling
through the air and fell ker-chug
right in the middle of the pond.
We boys really knew more about
the history of that goose than any
one suspected or we cared to tell.
ALI Waters had caught her in a
fence corner and had imprisoned her
in his fathers unused stable, and all
to hear what a fuss Coleby would
make, for nothing enraged him so
much as a depreciation committed
on his geese.
Three nights after having taken the
goose, ALI tired of his sport, and
taking her under his arm he carried
her to Coleby's coop. Coleby's coop
was locked. What could ALI do? He
had no intention of keeping the
goose, for he was one of the best fell
lows that ever lived.
"Now,' thought ALT, II will put
poor goosey where she will be COM
Portable for the night, and in the
morning she will go home herself"
The first place ALI thought of was
the upturned boat the fisherman used
for coop, and in five minutes the
goose was comfortably settled on the
ground with the two ducks and drake,
while the three chickens slept on the
roost above.
There! Alf had done his duty, and
it was just in time, for scarcely half
an hour afterward Coleby and the
fisherman met at the coop door, and
each thought the other thief.
The summer days were filled with
the round of boyish pleasures, and, al
though say it with regret, we boys
frequently requested Coleby, in our
most musical tones, to ''bring back
that goose" And Coleby himself be-
came so angry at us that we would
scarcely dare to go near his shop.
But there came an end to our teas
ing and his anger, and this was how
it happened:
Coleby's pond is made by a dam
built across Fall creek just half a mile
above its union with the Ohio. The
dam had been built long time, and
the mill that stood by it was out OF
repair. We boys used it for general
amusement purposes and the fisher
man Kept his boats there.
Below the dam on the side next the
old mill was deep pool, in which we
boys delighted to swim, and into
which we used to dive from long
beam that stuck out over it. This
beam lay on the floor of the mill, from
one side and end of which the wealth.
erboarding had been torn by destruc-
tive hands. From the beams end
dangled rope which secured one o.
the fisherman's boats as it lay on the
water below.
One afternoon ALI and I went down
to the old mill to see the boys dive
We met Coleby's geese as we went
across the common, and they Kissed
at us, for they liked us no better than
did Coleby himself. We cared not q
bit for that, so we went on to the
pond.
Ed. Sawyer, Sam Parker and Tom
1 Rur1mel were to have contest for
the championship in diving, and were
to take the plunge from the long
beam.
When we arrived at the mill, there
sat six or eight boys on the floor along
the open side of the mill, with their
feet dangling over the water that lay
cool and deep six feet below. They
| wera talking of the merits of the boys
who were to dive. Each one had his
champion, and was asserting how
much he would distance his competit-
ors in the contest.
| "Rummcl's going to win," said Bill
Haires. II saw him dive under coal
barge at New Albany last summer and
come up on the other side, and
know Parker or Sawyer can't beat
that" .a~,a
>.Sawyer can" put in Bob Wilkins
getting up and walking to the end
of the beam to look out over the COM
mon, ''and he'll soon show you that he
can, for here he comes, and Parker
is with him."
i We all went to the openside of the
mil, and greeted the boys with cheers