The Irish standard., 1905-02-11

NS4A, any AoWS OdA MlICucll uaU
that bald spot and 1t was maxim his
future dark, when one day I told him
about the crude grease cure and he
pitched into usin' it for certain.
"'On one of his prospecting trips
Dan come along this road. 1t wasn't
road then that you would run
wagons onto, and as some one had
stole Dams horse he was walkin'. It
was hot day in summer. an Dan
had put on a more than common big
smearin' of crude to hurry up the hair,
cause he wanted 1t.
"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 the 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, aud 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 than 20 PAGES when
he heard most appallin' yell behind
him. He looked back and seen the
pedler he had passed layin' in the road
and within 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 RATHER bit me in the neck! Yon-
der he lays!"
Dan looked where the pedler was
pointin', and there. sure enough, lay a
big RATHER at the edge O. the bushes that
hid the spring. coiled up and glarin like
fury. Before Dan could grab club and
Kill the snake, the pe6ler threw him.
self forward and grabbed the RATHER.
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.
He 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 RATHER. that laid in the ferns
on tother side O the spring. had struck
him, slnkin' its fangs so deep in his neck
that when he sprung backward to tho
road and fell there he drug the snake
back with him. The poor fellow died in
short time. Dan put his body in the
/ bushes and went on to find somebody to
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 at 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.
The snake was there, all right"
says l. you was doctorin' 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" l says, instead O
you bein' here askin' the favor 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
Il didn't make any remark about this
story for some time, and then, with a
grin that meant to be aggravating,
said:
Did Dan Mitchell's hair come ing
odd it, exclaimed the native, and
saw that my grin had not been in the
! least aggravating. You bet it did!
/ Shocks of it! But it was great disap'
ointment to DAM
Disappointment said.
eyes replied the native. Tipping q
/ fly from his horse. The hair ought tc
| been black, but it come III as white as
his grandfather's. Dan got setch scare
over that narrow escape o. his'n!'
when we got to the place where VIZ
were going told the man at the tavern
to let my driver have what he wanted
and charge it to me- The bill was q
rouser but didn't begrudge the COST
N V Sun.