The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-17

the lounge with a wet towel around
her head and the campnor bottle to her
nose, and the wan smile that came to
her face for a minute told me how
hard she had been hit I didn't waste
no time recommending anyoody's stem
ach bitterS OF dandruh eradicator, hut
sitting down to the kitchen table I
wrote the following:
Thou buyer OF hogs and cattle and
| sheep,
Thou dealer in grass-fed beef;
Dost think for thy sa6e my heart It
Because of its burden OF griefl
Thou knowest me not. oh. dealer in
| Thou man with 3 red, red nose;
Thou man with a .imp. like crippled
shrimp
Because of your wooden toes.
go to with thy bride of the brick-6ust'
Thy bride of the saffron hue
With face so yaIler 1t looks like taller
Set out in the morning dew-
I didn't read the verses to Mary. as
she seemed to have fallen into a Irou-
| bled sleep when had finished them.
but they were read to the fdtnar and
mother and they smiled Tor the first
| time in a week
ABE, the object is to make her mad
at Jim. amt it?'' asked the father.
wall, 1 reckon these verses will git
her spunk up in a day or two. and
she'll want at least three more verses
when you come along agin. Does any
thing go with the poetry"
You put horse-radish drafts on the
soles of her feet and give her all the
hot catsup tea she can drink think
you will see a change for the better
in twenty-four hours One of you
should read the verses over to her in
a loud voice every hour, and you must
encourage her to believe that the
country is going to be full of windmill
and wire fence men this fall
Three days later passed the farm
house without stopping, but as I saw
Mary out in the orchard climbing
harvest apple tree 1 think the poetry
had all the effect desired.
1t was known to me before I reach
ed Uncle Tom Smiths one day last
week that his son Jed had somehow
got mixed up with bull and got the
worst of it, but I did not learn the
particulars until Uncle Tom related
them himself
You see, Abe he began, "Jed has
bin havin' the. big-head the awfuIest
kind for the last year or SO. He's
twenty years old, and he thinks he's
smarter than George Washington and
weighs more than Napoleon. One day
about two weeks ago our old bull
began to act up and show his temper,
and cautioned Jed to be careful in
going near him.
Look-a-here, dad he says in re-
ply, that bull is all bluff. He's reg
ular old gutter, but he wants to make
| us believe he's game to the death. If
you'd stand right up to him you'd find
he has no more spunk than a sheep.
I'm not going to let him bluff me down.
What he needs is for somebody to
go over in the lot and take him by
| the horns and flop him on his back
But you keep away from him. I
says He may be bluffin' or he may
| be able to tear down barns
81 didn't say any more to jed con-
tinued the farmer. "thinkin' he had
sense to do as 1 told him. 1t was
in the forenoon and had to go to
town. It seems that as soon as 1 left
the house Jed got ready for a fuss.
He drank a quart of hard cider to git
his mad up, and then went down to
the field where the bull was and
climbed the fence to tackle him.
Mother and the hired man tried to
keep him back, but he Topped his
arms and crowed like a rooster, and
there was no hoIdin' him. Over the
fence he went, with the bull PAWN
and bellerin' and next mint there was
a mix-up. Jed's idea in seizin' the bull
by the horns and twfstin' him over
on his back was good one, but it
didn't work as he reckoned on.