The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-04-22
A n n q q nd
the Rather
By MRS. CORNELL

You fell in the pig trough2 Come here
that / beat you! Come here, / say!"
Willie did not accept the invitation
A shrilI whimpering was his sole re
Spouse. Twelve-year-old Anna stepped
to the kitchen door, peering round thu
sash. 'Pa's seolding Willie" she an
/ nounced to her mother.
/ The storm continued to rage in tht
back yard.
tshust look at your clothes! Go now!
/ To the creek wit you! Come not in tbs
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
| Co. 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,
20 child, don't bother me about Will
lie. He'll run back again fast enough,
the trees"
Anna was conscious Of an undercur-
rent of sympathy with the forlorn waif
her father had brought from the city
some months before. The very love and
awe with which the mountains filed 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 Iong,
August day. The captain and his Amer
iean 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,
wakened her lazy little daughter, out
stretched beneath the ho1lyhocks and
peoples 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 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
a gold-bIue sky above.
She unused about the missing Willie.
Had he carried out his occasional threat
to run away?
1.-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 fi1lt-
tered lonesomely where she had that
morning placed it.
Some minutes later, shutting de-
1iciously among the dappled leaves of
a hill trail, she sprang aside in quick
dismay.
Goodness" What had seemed to be
bunch of dry leaves and grass coiled
swiftly, with the rafting Whir that goes
straight to the fear center Of the human
heart. In flash Anna hands were full
Of rocks. The first article in every Cali
fornia mountain child's education is to
destroy every rattlesnake that comes in
sight. Anna lodged the first strike of
the snake, and before he could get near /
er she began a fusillade Of such efficien- |
ey that the reptile enemy sought re-
treat
Then Anna was privileged to witness
a strange thing-a very strange thing;
SO unusual, in fact. that when reported /
to the head of the geological department /
Of the state university that conserra-
tive gentleman would have given the t
story little credence had it not been for /
the unimpeachable authority of a cele- |
brated naturalist, who has reported it as
occasionally occurring among the large
be-dreaded species of the east
ern states-the Crota1us horridus, Or
banded RATHER.
To Annals unutterable surprise, the
snake turned for refuge to a nearby
oak tree. Perhaps he came against it
as the rattlesnake sees
badly by daylight At any rate, he reared
lis head against it much as he would
laye done in ascending the side of
sunny bowlder in the early days of his
,hilled awakening from his winter
deep.
He writhed spira1ly but slowly up its
'ough trunk, which seemed from IS to
u inches in circumference When the
,ocks ceased flying he would halt, evil
sentiy not haH-1iking his task, to wave
us b1untly triangular head III the d.
,eetlon where the moving shadow indl-
sateez 10 his blurred vision the position
u MS enemy. But On the resumption Of
se1lFe hostilitites, he would begin again
rs painful ascent. Z,
0w-w-w-eh!n sounded a howl from
hove.
Looking up at the cry, Anna discerned
niong the clustering leaves of the black
ak haddled figure, with raceoon-like
yes. peering down at the mounting
make, to escape from which he had. III /
set, climbed the tree. E.