St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-05-06
Anna and
the Rather
By MRS. CORNELL


"A shrill whimpering was his sole re
spouse. Twelve-year-old Anna stepped
to the kitchen door, peering round the
sash. "Pa's scolding Willie" she an
nounced to her mother. -s...
The storm continued to rage in tho
back yard. ...e...-
"Shust look at your clothes! Go now!
To the creek wit you! Come not in the
house until you are cleaned. Ach!"
Ex-Sea-Capt. Schulz, now prune'
grower in the mountain boundary west
of Santa Clara valley, turned in at the
kitchen door.
Il don't know what to do wit the boy.
Go. mine Anna, get the lad clean shirt,
and take it down to the creek"
On Annals return from the bathing
pool she said softly to her mother:
willie isn't at the creek. Perhaps he
has run off"
90 child, don't bother me about Will
lie! He'll run back again fast enough,
he's that scared of the mountains and
the trees"
Anna was conscious of an undercur-
rent of sympathy with the forlorn wait
her father had brought from the city
some months before. The very love and
awe with which the mountains filled her
Imaginative soul gave her comprehen-
sion of the fear with which they imbued
the dull-witted offspring Of San Fran
cisco cutters.
Willie did not return all that long,
August day. The captain and his Amer
lean wife spread and dipped prunes
busily on the hot south slope. The
box-laden wagon rolled by at intervals.
Household duties went helter-skelter
under Annals management. At six
o'clock Mrs. Schulz, hot and tired,
Weakened her lazy little daughter, out
stretched beneath the hollyhocks and
poppies in the small front garden.
For gracious sake, Anna! Hurry!
You've not done the dinner dishes!"
"Have the COWS Gomez" Anna asked,
resourcefully.
Land! If I hadn't forgotten about
Willie! Come-hurry! You'll have to
go for the COWS. I'll wash the dishes"
Anna felt quite in the mood to go for
the COWS. 1t meant an hour or so of pat
ting barefooted and bareheaded along
the soft dust of the road, or over the Slip
perry brown grass of the mountain pas
lures, with tall pines on every hand and
q gold-blue sky above.
She unused about the missing Willie.
Had he carried out his occasional threat
to run away?
"The road ISIS open, go when you like"
was her fathers one reply to such futile
outbursts. But they well knew the road
was not open to Willie. The six noun
tain miles intervening between their
ranch and the station formed an i'm
passable barrier to his timorous soul.
II guess he's afraid of the bigness of
things" Anna concluded. "And he's
got no call to run away. Papa threatens
him, but he's never laid hand on him yet
I s'pose it's on account of the bath he
ran away"
There was no Willie at the bathing
pool. The checked Bingham shirt flut-
tered lonesomely where she had that |
placed it.
Some minutes later, shutting de-
among the dappled leaves of |
4 hill trail, she sprang aside in quick !
lismay.
"Goodness!" What had seemed to be
| bunch of dry leaves and grass coilei
swiftly, with the rafting whir that goes
straight to the fear center of the human
heart. In flash Annals hands were full
# rocks. The first article in every Cali
ornia mountain childs education is to
lestroy every rattlesnake that comes in
sight. Anna lodged the first strike of
he snake, and before he could get near
r she began fusillade of such efficien-
y that the reptile enemy sought re-
reat.
Then Anna was privileged to witness
strange thing-a very strange thing:
% unusual, in fact, that when reported
o the head of the geological department
+ the state university that conserva-
i've gentleman would have given the
tory little credence had it not been for
be unimpeachable authority of cele-
rated naturalist, who has reported it as
OCCASIONALLY occurring among the large,
1uch- be-dreaded species of the east
IN states-the Crotalus horridus, or
anded RATHER.
To Annals unutterable surprise, the
make turned for refuge to nearby
ak tee. Perhaps he came against it
Intentionally, as the rattlesnake sees
ably by daylight. At any rate, he reared
is head against it much as he would
ave done in ascending the side of a
lnny bowlder in the early days Of his
billed awakening from his winter
eep.
He writhed spirally but slowly up its
,ugh trunk, which seemed from Is to
inches in circumference. When the
,cks ceased flying he would halt, EVIL
emily not half-liking his task, to wave
IS bluntly triangular head in the d.
,ction where the moving shadow indi-
tied to his blurred vision the position
his enemy. But on the resumption OF
tive hostilitites, he would begin again
IS painful ascent
"Ow-w-w-ch!" sounded a howl from !
,ove.
Looking up at the cry, Anna discerned
nong the clustering leaves of the black ,
TX huddled figure, with raccooh-like
res. peering down at the mounting t
AXE, to escape from which he had. In t
ct climbed the tree. IL