The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-10-28

They reached Springbrook in four
hours, and carried Joe Thomas much Of
the way. All agreed that he was a
dead boy, and no one was more sur
prised than himself at his speedy re-
covery.
Mr. Davis was almost too disguised
for speech; but after he had gone over
to Granger's and bad spent two CT
three days there, he returned in a diff
contract, and no one was asked to
go back.
Upon his arrival at Changers he had
found the whole neighborhood aroused
to hunt the insane creature down. A
four-year-old girl, the youngest child
Rubino, had disappeared on the after
noon that Daniels party had fed. Bose
had been tracked from the spring to
the roadway where the child had last
been seen. There all trace of both had
been lost, but no one seemed to doubt
that the hound had killed the child
The hunt lasted all day. a region ex-
tending over five miles each way being
traversed thoroughly, and late at night
the deg was cornered at the foot of
a bluff beside Thompson's Creek. On
ly his cleaning yellow eyes could be
seen, but volley had been followed
by bowls showing plainly that some of
the bullets and buckshot had taken eff
feet. Strange to say, however, the ami
mails body could not be found. There
WAS blood en- leaves and grass, and it
was hoped he was dead, but there was
no proof Weeks and months passed,
however, and the only thing certain
was that Bose was no longer the ter
ror of the neighborhood
The next spring, as usual, the Davis
family topped the trees in their large
sugar-bush. "Boughten" or cane-sugar
was expensive and difficult to get Even
the well-to-do still depended chiefly up
on their maple trees for sugar.
Late in April, to close a successful
harvest in the maple grove, Daniel Da-
Wis and his sister Sarah decided to have
a sugar festival. Huge fires were kim
died, the ground was smoothed for
games and dancing, and musicians
were engaged. Plenty of plain but APP
petizing food was provided, and all
the neighbors were invited.
The sugarilky off CT huge kettle of
boiling strip was the event of the
evening. Just before the sugar granu-
lated, portion of the rich strip was
drawn off to be eaten with warm bis
cults.
Next, at the moment the proper
stage had been reached. a second por-
ton of the strip was dipped from near
the bottom of the kettle, where it was
thickest and heaviest, and poured upon
snow to form the delicious maple-wax.
A favorite amusement at sugar fes-
tival seveNty-five years ago was to de-
coy dog into the circle and toss him
a huge ball of the maple wax. He
would seize it, but the instant his teeth
were buried in the sticky mass, they
would be held as if in wise. At the
Davis festival the wax had been rolled
into ball the size of a pippin apple.
and old Nero, the family mastiff, had
been lured from the house to the grove.
The honest-eyed old fellow had been
made a victim of the trick several
times, but he never learned to be wary
He was courageous animal and
had never been known to show the
white feather. Quivering with interest,
he stood while Sarah Davis balanced
the ball in her hand. His eye roved
away for an instant as he turned his
head from side to side. Then he
shrank back not from Sarah nor from
the wax, but from a. point a third Of
the way around the circle. His tail
dropped between his legs the hair
rose on his neck and shoulders, and
with a growl of mingled rage and fear,
Nero for the first time in his life
turned and fed.
In amazement every one looked to-
ward where the dog had seen the OBJ
ject of his terror, and as they did so an
audible gasp escaped from every
throat. There, standing quietly among
them, was the dreaded Bose.
They knew him by his eyes, wild,
rolling, fierce yet, in way, express
sionless. One was filmed over and evil
IDENTIFY sightless, and the scars of many
a wound blotched the brownish-yellow
coat with white. His left front leg
dangled from the knee down, and the
poor creature was a gaunt skeleton.
For a second longer he stood mo-
tionless. Then he raised his muzzle
and howled and stood shifting his three
feet, as he gathered them beneath
him for spring at the throat of the
victim he might select.
From face to face roved that savage,
CT rhtIaoc axyo onI &c caaipo yootn T,ho,