The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1905-02-17


quarantine, l s'pose. while they was
usin' it, anywneres outside O. the oil
camps.
We'll. anyhow. Dan Mitchell had
that bald spot and it was maxim his
future dark when one day [ told him
about the crude grease cure and he
pitched into usin' it for certain
.''On one Of mis- prospecting trips
Dan come along this road. 1t wasn't
a road then that you would run
wagons onto, and as some one had
stole Dams horse he was walkin'. 1t
was hot day in summer an Dan
had put on more than common big
smearin' of crude to hurry up the hair,
cause he wanted it.
9 'Tother side O that spring. maybe
couple hundred Yards, he overlook
pack pedler who was trudging along,
and Dan tried to walk along with him
for company, but tho pedler 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 he looked for it. The grease
was runnin' down his face. and all
through his hair. and he said the heat
had made it smell leetel worse than
common, if that could be.
Dan found the spring and took a
good drink. and swashed his face in it
awhile. Then he started on. He
hadn't gone more tran 20 PAGES when
he heard most appallin' veil behind
him. He looked hack 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 pedler
was clutchin' his neck with one hand.
His eyes was starin. and his face was
purple. He recognized Dan and man
aged to say:
. A rattler bit me in the neck. Yon-
der he lays"
Dan looked where the pedler was
pointin'. and there. sure enough. lay a
big rattler at the edge O. the bushes that
hid the spring coiled up and glarin' like
fury. Before Dan could grab a club and
Kill the snake, the pedler threw him.
self forward and grabbed the rattler.
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
EN- into the earth.
He was able TO tell Dan before he
heeled over, with his head and neck
sWelled most to bursting, that he had
knealed 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. sinkin' its 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
q short time. Dan put his body in the
bushes and went on to find some body 10
tell the news TO.
THAT crumblin' old derrick that you
see over yonder on the hill was the we'll
that was helpin' put down a that time,
and Dan came over there with his news.
"'"Lucky for me that rattler wasn't
there when / stuck my head over that
spring, wasn't it," says Dan.
1.-THE snake was there. all right"
saysI. "You was Goctcrin' 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 1.-The pedler
would be here now askin' us to go back
and help plant you,' | says, instead O
you bein' here askin' the favor for him.
Rattlers will squat and lay down close
when they smell crude grease" says.
I'VE 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.
81 didn't make any remark about this
story for some time, and then, with
grin that | meant to be aggravating,
said:
did Dan Mitchell's hair come in!'
Ibid it, exclaimed the native, and |
saw that my grin had not been in the
least aseravating. You bet it did!
Shocks of it, But it was great disap-
p'intment to DAN
Disappointment l said.
Yes replied the native, Tipping a
been black, but it come in as white as
his grandfather Dan got setch scare
over that narrow escape O. his'n!'
When We got to the place where We
were going told the man at the tavern
to let my driver have what he wanted
and charge it to me. The bill was
rouser, but didn't begrudge the cost. -
N. Y Sun.
A Warm Thing Gone.