Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-22
A Warming Conveyed&
Advice ox Nnob County Native Regarding Trapping o9
 Chicken Thieves.

| do 1t than he had to shoot one O my cows," said the man from the Knob country, land yit now he goes and summonses me to be defendant in a lawsuit he's bringin' ag'in me for islander! 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 suit for slandert
 Josiah come in t'other day and he was considerable glum. asked him what was achin' and he says:
 "'It's them chickens O mine,' he says. Half dozen O my best ones was stole last night. Half dozen was stole the night afore that and s'pose that half dozen I'll go ag'in tonight, and then won't have none left he says. That's what the ailin' is, Danl,' says he.
 "Josiah is old Jason's son-in-1aw, and consarned nice young feller he is, too, for all O that. And Jason lives neighbor to Josiah.
 "I'm goin' to put a bar trap. in that hen coop tonight says he, and jest find out who it is that's unpop- ulatin' of it, says he.
 ''I sot and thunk awhile, and then says:
 'Josiah,' I says, before you set a l trap for your chicken thief, let me tell you little recollection about l somethin' that happened in the Knob country somethin' like good many years ago. Then says I; if you want to set your trap, why set it. It won't make no difference to me- I says.
 "'The time I'm referrin' to- says I, 'Sackrider 6 Jupp was in pardner- ship in the shingle splittin' and lad der makin' business, over back O. tho 1 Knob. sackrider had a daughter I Jimmy. She want more than IS when this happened, but she could fill out a calico dress like sugarcake dough run into mould.
 | 'Sackrider's pardner, Judd, was a tiptop, strappin' youngster of a2 or so. He was an orphan on his mothers side, but his poor old father, Abner, was l left to be consolation and comfort to him. The old man lived on the boy, l and had the rheumytis most O the I time, with now and then a call from 1 plumbago in 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 chipper enough when the boy was away in the woods, shingle 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 doin' enough to make the old man comfortable on his way to t'other shore.
 The ground that Sackrider's 8 daughter Jimmy walked on was worth somethin' like $10,ooo 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 chist to pay it, and setch bein" the case, of course, 1t was a. 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 stealth, and setch pastimes 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, "I wouldn't think no more O shootin' sheep thief" says she, sthan !: I would O shootin' skunk, and I git 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 a sheep thief "'"Me neither" says Jimmy. "I'd as soon tetch 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 'em,was for sale. The sheep buyer he sort O. depu tlzed uncle 'LlJer, at the tavern, tC l 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 o1 ] lem had always been took for Caleb and somehow when chickens was levied } on, Caleb's seemed to be the favorit< l brand O chickens that was called for I "'And after the sheep-buyer went 3 away, Ca1eb's sheep kep' a-goin' more g than ever they did. So Caleb he jest 3 made up his mind he'd fix & way to 3 find out who it was that was walkin
 off with his nut Ion, and put a stor to it.
 Actin on his idee he drove what g Bheep was left into an old cabin he n had in the woods, about a mile from ~ his clearin', and shut 'em up. Then he a went home and told his poor old ia
 ther, who was sufferin' tremendous