Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1905-07-20
Anna and
the Rather
By MRS. CORNELL

A VOICE rose wrathtully in the bacl
. ~ yard "Wee-liei What ISIS this
I You fell in the pig trough? Come here
: that | beat you Come here, | say!"
j Willie did not accept the invitation
A shrill whimpering was his sole re
sponse Twelve-year-old Anna stepped
to the kitchen door, peering round The
sash "Pa's scolding Willie" she an
nounced to her mother.
The storm continued to rage in the
back yard
"Shust look at your clothes! Gonow!
To the creek wit youl Come not in the
house until you are cleaned. Achl"
Ex-Sea- Capt Schulz, now pruIe-
grower in the mountain boundary west
of Santa Clara valley, turned in at the
kitchen door.
81 don't know what to do wit the boy.
Go. mine Anna, get the lad a clean shirt,
and take 1t down to the creek."
on Anna's return from the bathing
pool she said softly TO her mother:
"Willie isn't at the creek. Perhaps he
has run of"
20 child, don't bother me about VII
| 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 waif
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 hadn't forgotten about
williel 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. II 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-blue 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
But they we'll 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.
81 guess he's afraid Of the bigness OF
Anna concluded "And he's
got no call to run away. Papa threatens
him, but he's never laid hand on him yet.
s'pose it's on account of the bath he
ran away"
There was no Willie al the bathing
pool The checked Bingham shirt flut-
tered lonesomely where she had that
morning placed it.
Some minutes later. shutting de-
iciously among the dappIed leaves OF
/ hill trail, she sprang aside in quick
lismay
Goodness" What had seemed to be
bunch OF dry leaves ana grass coiled
iwiftly. with the rafting whir that goes
straight TO the fear center of the human
heart. In fash Anna's hands were full
# rocks. The first article in every Cali
ornia mountain childs education is to
lestroy every rattlesnake that comes in
light. Anna lodged the first strike Of ,
he snake and before he could get near
r she began a fusillade of such efficien-
y that the reptile enemy sought re-
reat
Then Anna was privileged 10 witness
/ strange thing-a very strange thing: |
10 unusual. in fact. that when reported |
o the head Of the geological department
II the state university that conserva-
4
i've gentleman would have given the I
story little credence had il not been for
he unimpeachable authority Of a eele-
lrated naturalist. who has reported It as
occurring among the large.
much -to-be-dreaded species Of the east
arn states-the Crotalus horridus, or
banded RATHER
To Anna's unutterahle surprise. the
snake turned for refuge 70 a nearby
oak tree Perhaps he cane against n !
as the rattesnake sees
badly by daylight At any rate. he reared /
his head against it much as be would
have done in ascending the side Of a
sunny bowlder in the early days Of his
chilled awakening from his winter
sleep.
He writhed spirsIly but slowly W its