River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-07-09
A LIVE LIZ
VACATION

Gilbert, the travelling groceryman,
land ] am sorry.
81 had a real lively, nice time AT the
Haywood farm last season. l hadn't
been there more than two hours when
couple of jealous pigs got into fight
in the door yard. The farmers IL
year-boy and the nine-year-old son Of
a neighbor were playing mumblety-
peg in the yard at the time the strife
began. They sat on the ground near
the well curb.
"The battle of the pigs scared the
neighbours boy so that he jumped up,
climbed on the curb, presumably TO get
a place of safety, and promptly tum-
bled over it and into the well, which
was IS feet deep, with about four feet
of water at the bottom.
Farmer Haywood's boy set up
yell, and, for fear that no one heard
him, let the bucket down into the well,
went down the rope like monkey,
grabbed the neighbours boy by the hair,
and held his head above the water, yell
ing like a Comanche Indian all the
while. Farmer Haywood's hired man
heard him and rescued both the kids,
while the family danced about the well
and hollered and wrung it's hands.
THE hired man had been working
In the garden when the yells Of the
boy summoned him. He left the gar
den gate open in his haste.
"The battling pigs ceased battling
and promptly hurried into the garden
through the open gate, and by the time
the hired man had safely landed the
two kids from the depths of the well,
the pigs had got away with nearly the
whole of Farmer Haywood's crop of
entirely out of his entire setting of
tomato plants. When Farmer Hay
wood came in and heard what had been
going on he was surprised.
"'Why,' said he, there hain't no.
body ever fell into that well before,
nor even thought o. doin' of it! And
this Is the first time pigs ever spilled
my peas and tomattas crops
"A day or so afterward, Farmer Hay
wood was out blowing corn, with one
horse to the pillow. The 12-year-old
son who had gone down into the well
after the neighbours boy was driving
the horse. j was following behind
them, gathering worms to go bobbing
for catfish with.
by and by the horse stepped into a
yellow jackets nest. Some of the hot
ended occupants of the nest came out
and rested on the horse. Instantly
he began to kick and squeal, apd then
away he went across the field as fast
as he could tear, taking the pillow and
the boy with him. Farmer Haywood
stood open-mouthed and speechless
a moment, and then exclaimed:
cit beats tarnation; I've plowed
this field for gOin' on to nigh 40 year
and I never knowed it to have a yaIler
jackets nest in it before!'
Then the farmer and I started in
the wake of the horse and the boy.
The latter had held on to the lines
until he was dragged half-way-across
the cornfeld, moving down rows of
corn like a cyclone, when he let go.
"The horse cleared two fences in
his later course, parting from the
pillow at the first one, and dashed into
an Enclosure near the house where
some cows were standing. In that
Enclosure was another well, the curb
of which was not as secure on it's
base as it might have been.
''The sudden appearance of the
runaway horse among them scared
the cows. One cow ran against the
well curb and knocked it over. This
permitted a frightened yearling
heifer to back into the top of the ex-
posed well. Her hind quarters went
down, leaving her hanging by her
forelegs to the top of the well.
Farmer Haywood's 15-year-old
daughter was just putting the churn-
dog to work on the machine at the
back of the house when the horse,
still ridden by persistent and pene-
trative yellow-jaclset or two, dashed
in among the cows, and she saw the
disaster his sudden appearance had
caused She ran to the coward, and
grabbing by the horns the heifer
that hung in the we'll, tugged away
at them with the laudable intention
of lifting her out of her perilous sit
uation.
The heifer, having her doubts
about the ability of a 15-year-old girl
to hoist unaided 800 or 400 pounds of
beef out of well, started in to help
her by kicking and pushing with her
hind feet against the we'll wall. This
caused the heifer to lose the hold
her forelegs had on the top of the
well. and down she went all in a.
heap to the bottom. The horse, still
under the promptings of the yellow
Jackets, had gone right on. taking the
Enclosure fence, and speeding through
an adjacent lot without having
stopped a moment to contemplate
the damage he had done.
when Farmer Haywood and I
came painting ON the scene the heif-
er had just made her descent into
the well. With the help of the hired
man and the farmers oldest boy,
Jim, the heifer was, Wa ropes and
tackle, at last hoisted from the well,
a little disfgured, but still chewing
her cud. The farmers daughter went
back to her churning. The churn
dog, probably in attempting to get
out and see what the excitement in
the cow yard was all about, had
leaped over the side of the machine
and hanged himself by the rope that
held him.
"