The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-13

| cONpN, ii always bliCIC SIlI ilCdi
my house and | don't want EN- shot
up. Minks bothering you any?' he
| inquired of Dead Shot
| ''Well you're lucky. | Amt had an
| egg all winter-can't keep nothin' but
| one old hen that is too tough for me
and the minks too. Killed six for
| me last week.
| why don't you trap en- asked
=! Dead Shot.
| They're too burned smart! Blamed
| if I don't believe that pcsky thing up
| by my house has got as much sense
as that un that killed the dog down
Milburnie way"
whats that-killcd a dog?" asked
| Sprig o the Law.
| That's what / said. You don't
| mean to tell me that you've never
heard of the mink that killed the dog
| Where've you been living-and you a
| lawyer, too.
Sprig o. the Law felt crushed but
| confessed his ignorance and Woodsman
| Joe, substituting quid for his pipe,
| delivered himself Of this tale of trea-
| son, strategems and sp0ils, the Whlie
| we listened and puffed our pipes and
| kept a watchful eye on the settlers
working slowly towards the distant
| cover of the meadow--the tale of
| The Mink That Killed the Dog.
| .'D'you know Bill HenderSon-him
| that used to run the shoe shop down
! below Milburnie? Don't know Bill!
| Well, twas him that owned the daWs!
| THAT was a long time ago and I've
! had to do with minks all my life, but
| / never saw d mink that was mink
! like that one before or since. | tell
| YOU he was the pcskieSt critter that
you ever heard of--peSky and sassy
and smart! Why, there want any man.
ner of use to try to trap that mink
| ut a
run him down with a dog either: he'd
! lust play with the best dawg that
ever happened. And appetite! That
mink felt imposed on if he couldn't
Kill half a dozen chickens night.
Wouldn't just Kill 'em and leave EN-
| like an ordinary mink-but drag EN-
off too, Bold. too, brave as q wild
cat. Why everybody got to knowing
| that mink personally All you had to
do was to walk out without your gun
or dawg and he'd come right out on q
rock and talk it over with you, so
to speak But if you wanted to see
him, you'd have to leave your gun ana
| dog at home-otherWise he Wouldn
be receiving company.
at got so bad after while around
| those parts that nobody even tried to
keep any chickens except Bill Hen
derson Bill had one old hen left
and the only way he managed To keep
her was to make her stay under the
| house with his little yellow flee, Tow
| ser.
along in February he got a set
| ting of eggs and Got the ole hen TO
setting on them right in a box along
| side of the dog. The ole hen had
been setting about four days when
one night Bill woke up just before
day hearing the biggest rumpus that
ever was under the house. He could
hear Towser fighting and snarling and
biting and the ole hen was SquaWklng
and Tapping and the devil generally
was to pay. Bill thought it must be
a Tom-cat and he GRABBED his gun and
run and peeked under the house lie
| could just see Towser turning over
and over and he could hear that he
was having big trouble with whatever
! he was fighting With. Bill would nave
shot but ToWser was so mixed up
with his company that he was afraid
he'd kill him if he did. He couldn
get under the house himself and all
| he could do was to stand there and
| listen 10 the rucuS
After a while things got mighty
still and Bill heard Towser give Gu
rious kind of cough and he thinks it's
all up with the Tom-cat when all of
| a sudden out runs the biggest mink
YOU ever saw right between Bits
| legs and scared him that bad he pulled
| the trigger of his gun by accident and
| Just missed blowing off his foot. But
when he got over his scare, he found
| out that Just by pure luck he had
put the whole load in that blamed
mink and blowed daylight clear
| through him. ] tell you he was big
| one-big as dog,
| presently ToWser come craving
out from under the house but he was
| lust a kind of imitation dog he was
| cd II
clean gone and his throat was cut
| all to pieces. He jest kind of dragged
| himself up. Bill says, and Smelt that
| mink once and turned over and died
| right there,
Now Bill is a philosophical kind
| of a cuss and when he saw that Tow
| ser was dead, he was as much inter-
ested as he was sorry. SO he hung
| him and the mink up together by the
| door and quit work and sat down to
| think it over. Whenever any body
came by, he'd stop EN-:
| Now it's all right and proper for
| a dawg to kill a mink if he can kotch
him. he'd say, but how do you figger
on mink what kills a dawg? faint in
natur' you'd say-but thar's the mink
and thar's the dawg.
| Along in the evening Jim JudSon
| comes along back from his fish-trap
| with a Ratchet and dip net and three
| hOrSe-fSh and two or three drinks
under his shirt and Sill he just nat
| urally got him enthused about that
mink. They tells me, says Bill, that
| mink skins is selling fer twosdollars
apiece i'll Raleigh, and this is xtro
| binary mink. .Shore he's sort of
| chawed and shot up but he'll be
mighty vallyble for his historical
| associations
| "Upshot was that they traded for
| seventy-five cents for the mink and
| jim, having no money, paWnS his dip
net and Ratchet and pays the horse
! fish down as security for three days.
| Count of the mink bein' SO tore up,
| he puts him on pole and starts in to
| Raleigh to sell him TO the museum.
| On the way he meets up with friend
with a bottle and by the time they got
| to Raleigh they were both pretty well
| soshed up and that mink had come
| to seem a regular gold mine. When
| he left Bill's jim would have taken a
| dollar easy but by the time he got to
| Raleigh he was talking twenty-five.
Naturally when they got to Raleigh
| they walked into a bar and had some
| more corn Ticker and got to showing
| the mink and Dragging about him and
| his fight with the dawg and what they
| GOING n fo1, him the mn