The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1904-10-13

Ine non. La1e Gleason OF Delhi,
head helper of Senate Clerk Whipple
and dispenser in chief If Republican
spellbinders in New York, had in his
budget of Delaware county wonders
on his last visit to the Amen Corner
at the Fifth Avenue hotel nothing
that he thought so much of as the
news of the cutting down along the
headwaters of the Delaware some
where of willow tree eight feet in
diameter which had gone hollow at
the butt and stood as a menace to all
who might pass that way.
And the wonder of that tree was"
said he. that it had grown from a
stick "a raftman cut sixty years ago
from willow tree fifty miles down
the river and used as a cane to aid
him on his homeward trip to Della
ware county on foot, and which on
his arrival there, he stuck in the rich,
soft soil on the margin of the river.
There, as 1t Is well known that
willow cuttings will do, it took root
and thrived and became the mammoth
tree now no more. Next to Billy Leary
the willow tree beats all for catching
on and thriving" added the Hon.
Lafe.
Don't know it?" remarked Col.
Jim Jones. in mournful memory of
whom the fishes at the Aquarium
still keep the water salt with their
tears. Don't know it? And the
tannin in willows! 1t would knock
hemlock out of the market for making
leather, II there was only enough will
lows. Let me tell you something
There were pickerel in marshy
pond up in old Steuben and frogs!
My, my! what frogs.
But the biggest of these big frogs
lived in a collection of sloshy bogs
where it was impossible for anyone to
get at them, much to the aggravation
of all who went frogging in that pond,
and particularly to Uncle 81 Stevens,
q robust and honest citizen who lived
near one side of the pond and loved
to gather frogs.
"One day he caught a pollywog of
amazing size, which was just putting
on the finishing touches to make it a
full frog, and somehow the idea struck
him to take it home and see what it
would develop into. He put it in his
spring. and as it grew he made pet
of it.
1T got so it knew ST as well as If
he was a frog, too, and ST found that
he could teach 1t tricks. 1t under
stood everything Uncle 81 said, and
used to go with him to the pond when
he went frogging, hopping along at
his side like kangaroo.
Uncle 81 used in his frog-fishing a
piece of red flannel tied to hook,
and his pet frog would sit and watch
him fit it under the noses of wild
frogs and split it's mouth from shoul-
der to shoulder when 81 would haul
one in. just as if it was laughing at
the fun.
"One day the frogs out on those
swampy bogs had been more aggra-
waiting than ever, and Uncle 81 and his
pet frog had made things blue around
there. In the afternoon Joshua-Si
had named the frog Joshua-seemed
to be keeping up an unusual lot of
thinking about something or other.
Suddenly he made break for the
woodshed. where Uncle 81 always
kept his lines and hooks with flannel
on 'em. Joshua went, humping into
the shed, and pretty soon came hump
ing out again.
HE had one of Sis lines wound
around his body, just below his fore
legs. with foot or so streaming out
behind, that end having the hook and
the red flannel on it. He went bounc-
ing along down to the pond like a
rubber ball fired out of a cannon,
soused in and struck out for the
swampy part where the big and sassy
frogs lived, and where no man could
get, while Uncle 81 just stood and
stared after him with bulging eyes
and open mouth.
"Joshua's gone crazy!' said he.
The strain has been too much for
Joshua, and he's lost his mind!'
And that's the way it looked, too,
but 1t wasn't SO. as Uncle 81 discov-
cred when Joshua came sailing back
by and by, having In tow n frog al