River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-05-28
A Warming
COnVeyed&
Advice of Knob County Native
REGARDING Trapping of
Chicken Thieves.


cows" said the man from the Knob
country, land yit now he goes and
summonses me to be defendant in
lawsuit he's bringin' ag'in me for
slander Hain't spoke to him nor
mentioned his name in better than
four years, and here he goes and
summonses me to be the defendant
in sHit for SANDER!
Josiah come in t'other day and he
was considerable glum. l asked him
what was achin', and he says:
"It's them chickens O mine,' he
saws. Half a dozen o my best ones
was stole last night. Half a dozen
was stole the night afore that, and
] s'pose that half a dozen II go ag'in
tonight, ard then / won't have none
left he says. That's what the ailin'
is, Dan'l,' says he.
Josiah is old Jason's son-in-Iaw,
and consumed nice young Teller
he is, too, for all o. that. And Jason
lives neighbor to Josiah.
"I'm goin' to put bar trap in
that hen coop tonight says he, and
jest find out who it is that's unpop-
ulatin' of it, says he.
II sot and thunk awhile, and then
I says:
JOSIAH I says, before you set a
trap for your chicken thief, let me
tell you a little recollection about
somethin' that happened in the Knob
country somethin' like a good many
years ago. Them says l, if you
want to set your trap, why set it. 1t
won't make no difference to me,
] says.
"'The time I'm referrin' to- says
]. 'Sackrider & Jupp was in pardner-
ship in the single splittin' and lad
der maxim business, over back O. the
Knob. Sackrider had a daughter
jimmy. She want more than IS when
this happened, but she could fill out
calico d:ess like sugarcake dough
run into a rnould.
'Sackrider's pardner, Judd, was a
tiptop, strappin' youngster of % or so.
He was an orphan on his mothers side,
but his poor old father, Abner, was
left to be a consolation and comfort
to him. The old man lived on the boy,
and had the rheumytis most o. the
time, with now and then call from
plumbago iii the back, and similar
cheerful ailin's.
"'Abner was fine old man, but
there was folks mean enough to say
that though he was always sufferin'
terrible when his boy was around
which the Youngsters name was
Caleb-he was clipper enough when
the boy was away in the woods, single
splittin' and could walk three miles to
the tavern and absorb more rum and
tanzy that any other citizen o. that
bailiwick. That's what there was
folks mean enough to say about Abner,
but you'll find jest setch meddlin' folks
everywheres, Josiah, everywhere
"'Caleb, he never knowed of their
talk, though, and was always worryin'
about his poor old father, and feelin'
sorry for him, and saying that he was
afeared he wasn't dom enough to
way to t'Other shore.
"'The ground that Sackrider's
daughter jimmy walked on was worth
somethin' like $4,000 a squire inch to
Caleb and the price mark that JIMMY
put on Billy was SO high that the Queen
o. Shelby couldn't carried enough
treasures and things in her chis4 to
pay it, and setch bein'' the case, of
course, it was settled thing, all over
the destrict that them two was goin'
to marry one another when the time
come right.
There was considerable o sheen
stealth and chicken stealin', and setch
pastlmes as them going on back o.
the Knob in them days, and nobody
was more dead sot ag'in 'em than
Sackrider's daughter jimmy.
"'Why, says jimmy to Caleb one
day, Il wouldn't think no more a.
shootin' sheep thief says she. than
would O. shootin' a skunk. and I off
mad" says she, every time think o.
one!"
Caleb he said that he did, too. and
that he didn't want nothin' to do with
anyone that belonged to sheep thief
'''''Me neither says Jimmy. I'D
as soon fetch p'isen!" says she.
"'Along early that spring a man
came through there buyin' up sheep.
Caleb had some o the choicest kind o.
sheep, but none of 'emwas for sale.
The sheep buyer he sort o. depu-
tized Uncle 'Lijer, at the tavern. TO
pick up all he could and forward 'em
to him at the Eddy. Now, somehow
or other, of all the sheep that had
been stole in the deestrict the most of
'em had always been took for Caleb,
and somehow when chickens was levied
on. Caleb's seemed to be the favorite
brand o chickens that was called for.