The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1903-07-16
A LIVELY
VACATION

wanna, US L ulu ldbb year, Sdlu JOuh
Gilbert, the travelling groceryman,
! 'and | am sorry.
| 81 had real lively, nice time at the
| Haywood farm last season. i hadn't
! been there more than two hours when
! Q couple of jealous pigs got into fight
in the door yard. The farmers 12-
year-boy and the nine-year-old son of
n 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 a monkey,
grabbed the neighbor's boy by the hair
and held his head above the water, yell
ing like 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 its hands.
1.-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
! early peas, and tramped recognition
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
IA day or so afterward, Farmer Hay
wood was out plowing corn, with one
horse TO the plow. The 12-year-old
son who had gone down into the well
after the neighbours boy was driving
the horse. l was following behind
them, gathering worms to go bobbing
for catfish with.
"By and by the horse stepped into
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 and then
away he went across the field as fast
as he could tear, taking the plow and
the boy with him. Farmer Haywood
stood openmouthed and speechless>
a moment, and then exclaimed:
1T beats tarnaton; I've plowed
this field for goin' on to nigh 40 year
and | never knowed it to have yaller
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 halfway across
the cornfield, moving down rows of
corn like a cyclone, when he let go.
THE horse cleared two fences in
his later course, parting from the
plow at the first one, and dashed into
an inclosusS near the house where
some cows We're standing. In that
inclosure was another well, the cueb
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 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-iacket or two, dashed
in among the COWS, and she saw the
disaster his sudden appearance had
caused. She ran to the cowyard, and
grabbing by the horns the heifer
that hung in the well, tugged away
at them with the laudable intention
of lifting her out of her perilous sit
uation.
"When Farmer Haywood and 7
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, with ropes and
tackle, at last hoisted from the well,
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 sec 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.
"'Why!' said Farmer Haywood, I've
had more'n 20 churn dogs on this
farm, and / never knowed one to dc