The Monticellonian., 1905-02-09

"'VreI, anyhow, Dan Mitchell had that bald spot and 1t was makin' his future dark, when one day 1 told Aim about the crude grease cure and he pitched into rsi1' 1t for certain.
 "'On enc ef his prospecting trips Dan come along this road. It wasn't a road then that you would run wagons onto, and as some one had stole Dams horse he was walkin'. It was a hot day in summer, an Dan had put on 6 more than common big smearin' of crude to hurry up the hair, cause he wanted it.
 'Tother side O that spring, maybe a couple hundred yards, he overlook a pack pedler who WAS trudging along, and Dan tried to walk along with him for company, but the pedle- travelled too slow for Dan, and he pulled out and left him behind
 When Dan come to the little run across the road he thought it must come from a spring. and bein' mortal thirsty Ee looked for it. The grease was Tunnin down lis face. and all through his hair, and he said the heat had made 1t smell 8 Ieetel worse than common, if that could be-
 Dan found the spring and took q good drink, and swashed his face in it awhile. Then he started on lie hadn't gone more tran 20 paces when he heard Q most appallin' yell behind him. He looked back and seen the pedler he had passed layin' in the road and writhin' tremendous.
 Dan ran back as fast as he could to see what was the matter. The ped!er was clutchin' his neck with one hand. His eyes vas starin', ard his face was purple. He recognized Dan and man. aged to say:
 A rattler bit ne in the neck! Yon- der he lays!"
 Dan looked where the peGler was pointin', and there, sure enough, lay big rattler a the edge O the bushes that hid the spring, coiled up and glarin' like fury. Before Dan could grab 8 club and kill the snake, the pedler threw him. IT. The snake sank his fangs into the man again, this time at the wrist The ped Ter tore the snake in two and throwed the parts on the ground and stamped 'em into the earth.
 Tile was able to tell Dan before he keeled over. with his head and neck swelled most to bursting, that he had kneeled at the spring to get a drink when the rattler, that laid in the ferns on t'other side O the spring, had struck him, sinhin' it's fangs so deep in his neck that when he sprung backward to the road and fell there he drug the snake back with him. The poor fellow died in a short time. Dan put his body in the bushes and went on to fad somebody to tell the news to.
 That crumhlin' old derrick that you see over wonder on the hill was the well that I was heiDin' put down tthat time. and Dan came over there with his news.
 Lucky for me that rattler wasn't there when l stuck my head over that spring, wasn't it?' says Dan
 ''''The snake vas there, all right" says I. You was doetorin that bald head O yoUr'n. There's where the luck comes in. If it hadn't been for the smell O that bald head cure says the pedler would be here now askin us to go back and help plant you, I says, instead O you bein' here askia' the favcr for him. Rattlers will squat and lay down close when they smell crude grease, says.
 We went back with Dan and buried the pedler where you seen that hum- mock, and the spring has been called Dead Mans Spring ever since
 T didn't make any remark about this story for some time, and then, with a grin that l meant to be aggravating, said:
 :" Did Dan Mitcheli's hair come in?'
 "'Did it. exclaimed the native, and I saw that my grin had rot been in the least aggrayating. You bet it did. Shocks of it! But it was great disap- ointment to Dan,
 Disappointment I said.
 Yes replied the native, Tipping fly from his horse The hair ought to been black, but it come in as white as his grandfather's, Dan got setch scare over that narrow escape O his'n!'
 When we got to the place where we were going I told the man at the tavern to let my driver have what he wanted and charge 1t to me. The bill was rouser, but didn't begrudge the cost. - N. Y. Sun.
 
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