St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-05-13
"T was xatch;n' drift below there

'T was Fetchin' drift below there
about a mile when seen Pete and the
log comm, and l got my pike pole into
the log and begun to row ashore with
it to git Pete safe. AS l was tuggin
away managed to boiler to Pete:
''This is the wust food says l,
that has ever spread its waters over
Lackawack sence the days O Noah.
says.
Pete bit off a chaw from his plug
as he rid along on the log | was tow
in him in on. and chawin' off it
awhile, he says:
"'Dan1,' says he. Il mowt think SO
if didn't know that this one amt
the circumstance, even Of millrace.
to the one that spluttered through here
in the fall O. 81
Il didn't turn and tow old Con-
trairy Swayback out into the wust OF
it ag'in and send him tumblin' along
on his log to fetch up wherever the
flood mowt pitch and toss him, but
seems to me | ought to done it. And
everybody said SO, too.
THAT winter a snow piled down
onto us that was jest more than dis
couragin 1t come in blindin' sheets.
and the wind that was along with it
tore by at more than a hundred miles
an hour. it seemed to me. The snow
banks was ike young mountains, ana
the country was sight.
;,.L ho
howlin' it's wust. and was full O. flynn
snow, me and Joe Robson and Life
Poison was figntin' our way home
along the turnpike. we havln' been
to the tavern to find out how bad the
storm really was when we seen some
thin queer stickin' up out of snow
drift jest ahead Of us. investigator
we found it was somebody's hand and
part O. his arm.
I'VE dug down into the drift and
found a man at the other end OF the
arm. We drug him out, and then see
that it was Pete Swayback. He was
stiff as a saplin' and white as the
snow He had been ketched in the
storm and kertummixed.
I'VE was all sorry, of course, ;Or this
havin' befell poor old Pete, aud we
took him UP and started with him
back to the tavern, thinkin' maybe
that we moWt fetch him to. He was
quite load, and as we stopped to sort
o. rest little. in the shelter of high
bank on one side of the road, | says
/ to Joe and Lie:
81 guess Peter would agree with
us tonight, all right. that this was a
little the toughest and all pervadin est
scatterin' OF snow that ever kivered
the land this side O. the north pole,
if he only had the chance!' says I.
Before either of EN- could say any
thing, we seen Peters eyes come open.
kind O. tired like, and we stopped
down quick to pick him up and hurry
stopped down we see that he was say
in somethin'. so we listened close.
This was what we heerd:
"W-h-y, boys says Pete. and we
couldn't hardly hear him, he YVES SO
nigh gone, and he had to drawl it SO;
this ONE h-a-i-n-'t NO m-o-r-e'n
b-b-b-l-o-s-s-o-m b-l-o-w-i-n' June
zephyr l-o-n-g-s-i-d-e the ONE q
Feb 'u-a-r-y, eighteen HUN
d-r-e-d n f-o-r-t-y-fi-v-e! says he.
1--WE gethered him up. and even if
we'd a-hurried with him as we'd in
tended to it wouldn't a-helped him any,
for he must a-passed away jest after
satisfyin' hisself with that last con.
trairyness. But his memory fingers
back o. Lackawack yit; so when l see
Uncle Jase's recollectin works gittin'
ready to buzz t'other day, and they
had already begun, l cut in on him
and shet him right off by sayin':
eve amt settin' here, Uncle Jase.
I says, to listen to no Contrary Sway
backin'!' l says.
"Uncle Jase he sot and pondered
awhile, and then he says to me:
"'Dan'l,' he says, L shouldn't Won
der but what you're right says he
and bein's as amt seen you fer the
last 'coon's age or two says he, I'm
goin' to ask you to j'ine me in snifter
O. Solomons cider, says he Come
along. It's uncommon proper cider,
says he. 'Dinged if 1t amt most as
good as that squeezin' O. juice O. mine
| back in '56!' says he.
Uncle Jase was Contrary Sway
backin on me ag'in, but under the sar.
cumstances l let it pass, and j'ined
him in the sutherland I'm bound tc
say that if Uncle Jase's squeezin' o
Juice back in Sc was anyway nigh
as good as that snifter O. Solomon's
was, l don't blame him fer Swayback'
| in'!'-N. Y. Sun.