The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-16
PUT UP JOKE
ON THE BUNCH
PERRY WERDEN AND DOC"
SPUR CONTRIVE A JOSH.
1t Would Have Been All Right If
Somebody Hadn't Rubbered-Doc
Puts Up Game Front, but His
Swell Story Falls Flat.

You remember the time we were up
at Camp Werden when they elected
Bob Delahunt sheriff in Stevens
county," inquired Perry Of Lefty
get the job I helped put up on Doc
Spur Of Herman then, tho it was all
on the square with me at the time.
1 guess Doc hasn't forgotten it either.
You know Lefty and Hemmy and
We're at Camp Werden," continued
the big Moose, +" land Doc Spur used
to run out to the camp every two or
three days. So Friday night, after
Bob was elected sheriff, he came out.
and told us the bunch would be along
from Morris the next day. They fig
ure they're going to catch you foul
and find you short of grub he said.
They expect to find you all starving
out here
We'll, any time they looked to
catch us short we had them for fair.
I sneaked into town and got a lot Of
oysters and celery and cranberries and
Stuff like that. We had Worcester
shire sauce and tobasco and all that
stuff at the camp already, SO I con-
sidered we were fixed. I went down
that night and speared thirty-seven
pickerel thru the ice, and we had
pretty near 800 ducks down cellar,
just waiting for some good fellow to
come along. When anybody dropped
in, if he was a lobster, we gave him
a meal and said ON your way but
if he was a good fellow, like some Of
these greenhorns that don't know how
to handle a gun, we'd load him up and
send him home with big bunch Of
ducks.
"The bunch was late getting in Sat-
urday. We expected them about II,
but there was something on in Morris
and they didn't heave in sight till
about 2 Sunday morning. Saturday
morning, tho, Judge Kerr and Pete
Nelson dropped in from Minneapolis
and of course they got the glad hand,
because both of them are the best
company in the world out In the
woods. We were ready for the bunch
when we heard them coming along
the road-four wagonloads Of them
with the commissary wagon in front.
There were Bob Delahunt and his
brother Tuck, and about a dozen of
the other fellows from Morris. We
had ten mallards all picked and in
the oven, and we fed them till they
couldn't hold any more, and then
took them down to the passes and
set them there to wait for the ducks,
because it was just before daylight.
I'VE called them up for breakfast
about 9, and fed them a lot Of the
pickerel. We found every man fat
on his back, sound asleep on the pass.
IStoId them to- be around for dinner
at 8, and sent them out again. Then
thought of a little josh to play-on
the bunch, so I sent Doc Spur over
to the farmhouse, about quarter of
a mile away, after the milk. I told
him to put on his hunting coat, and
go down cellar and fill the pockets
as full of canvasbacks as they'd hold,
and then leave his coat in a little
grove near the camp while he went
after the milk. The game was for
him to leave the milk there when he
came back, and then put on his coat
and pick up his gun and come in and
show the ducks and tell the fellows
about the sport he'd had, because
none of them had got a duck.
"'You won't give me away says
Doc, and 1 swore I wouldn't squeaI
to a soul. So he left his coat and
gun in the grove and went across
to the farmhouse. The job would
have worked all right, but Tuck Della
hunt came in right then, and saw
the doc going across the fields. He
had on a red sweater, so you couldn't
mistake him. Tuck sat down by the
window and kept rubbering out, and
pretty soon back comes the doc.
Come here you fellows says
Tuck, see what the docs doing. Then
they piped him off, putting on his
coat and setting the milk down and
picking up his gun, and coming to
the camp. He braces in large as life.
Nothing to it, he says. 'Canvasbacks.
hey? Finest sport ever had And
he began to shed ducks out of his
hunting coat. could see what was
coming off, but I couldn't see a
chance to put him next. Me busy on
the stove cooking, and doc goes on
driving nails in his coffin.
81 guess you fellows don't know
much about this game, he said. Come
out with me and I'll show you where
to find them
Tuck Delahunt. oh, nothing to it
says the doc. I found the place all
right All this time he was still
shedding ducks. L made a pretty
shot with my left on this one he
says. I got these two on a double
and he went on and named the his
tory of every bird. Me busy at the
cook stove all the time. It was my
play to slip out and get the milk, but
T wanted to see the thing thru.
whats the matter with this one?'
says Tuck Delahunt. He's got a stiff
neck?'
Must have been rubbering,' says
the doc. He was next then, but he
was game and didn't let on. You
gave me away he whispered, when
he got near me. No, didn't says 7,
but they're next. Go ON and go
thru with it, He bluffed it out for
awhile, and then Tuck sprung the
gag on him. The doc never would be-
lieve didn't give him away to the
bunch then, and I guess he thinks I
did yet. But I'll never forget him
! shedding those ducks out Of his coat
and telling about the hard shots he
made Of them, with that bunch
waiting till he got good and plenty
! in before they called his bluff"