The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-06-23

southern end of the bar to get it.
Just then, from a patch OF ooze
fifteen yards ahead, a snipe sprang
up with a startling scaipe! scaipe.
bored like a bullet into the wind, then
turned and came racking directly
over Sawyer's head.
He threw up his gun, fired and sat
down hard in the slime; but although
somewhat disconnected, he kept his
eyes glued to the ZigzagginS bird.
He had never flushed snipe before,
and such lightning evolutions won MS
respect. His lips frightened when he
saw it double suddenly on its course
and return to the southwark, pitching
headlong to cover beyond point OF
reeds some two hundred yards dis
tant. He would bag that longbill or
quit the business.
On the other side of the reedy point
ne came upon a little bunch OF brOWs-
ing cattle-three cows and a pair OF
staring-coated, thick-jointed calves.
They looked up, surprised and I'M
easy, for the bar herds were almost
as wild and as unused to man as deer.
and Jumped for the reeds, leaving
small. red, bright-eyed COW standing
over her calf The little creature
was too young and too frightened to
know what to do; but the mother
knew well enough what to do, and
she began to go through certain for
malities that an experienced man
would have needed.
First she trctted forward few
PAGES, her tail uphelp in a tense curve
and her black muzzle outstretched.
Then she stopped and swung her
head in series of half circles, lower
ing it at every sweep. When her
nose just grazed the ground she ut
tered broken, coughing sound, and
launched herself, nimbly as a spring
ing cat, straight at Sawyer.
Up to that moment Sawyer had Civ
en- her only a cursory glance. Now
he stood still and looked at her. His
education in the matter of cows was
very incomplete, but he realized now
that If he and the little red beast
should meet, the consequences would
be unpleasant He dropped his gun,
quite forgetting it was possible
means of defense, and hoped into
the reeds. 1t seemed only a few
seconds later when a loud cracking
and splashing rose at his heels.
Really alarmed now, he ran as he |
had not run since he was a boy, |
throwing himself at the sea Of reeds |
that half-upheld, nalf retarded him. |
His feet slapped a quick tattoo on the
hidden ooze. He stepped on Wabbly |
''tussock," reeled from it to a little
pool, splashed through the semiviScld |
stuff in a shower of spray, and found
himself on the brink CT a wide, deep
drain, where unhealthy pinkish mud
glistened as if vanished, and seemed
to leer up at him through iridescent
eye-like bubbles.
It was an unclean-looking sink, but
The red COW was behind him, and he
went off the edge like a frog. He
struck with the sound Of an explod-
ing saltwater bottle, and kept on
sinking, through the rancid crust and
leep into the pudding-like mud. Then
"whooshed" by him, and
landed with an explosive grunt and
/ spatter of slime. 1t was the little
red COW.
plight into which he had drawn his
)ursuer, for she was begged to her
3elly, as helpless as a fly on gum
ned paper. Then he discovered that he
vas trapped himself. The mud held
lin as if it were hot rubber. Wrench
md pull and sway as he would, he
vas immovable from mid-thigh down.
The color receded from his ruddy
ace in streaks.
The little red COW, born to the
grim ways of the marsh, did not
truggle as an inexperienced animal
would have done. She knew that
would only cause her to sink deeper.
she lifted one Of her
houlders and pulled slowly and even
Y on the imprisoned leg; but Saw
er watching her anxiously, could not
ee that she gained anything. At
ach deliberate effort her long tail
;tiffened sympathetically, and once
he brush of it almost struck Sawyer
cross the face for she had fallen at
n angle across the drain, with her
tern toward the late object of her
ursuit.
That tail flashed in front of Saw
err like a ray Of hope. He watched
or it, his fingers set like springs, his
1ind rigidly concentrated on every
ipple of the red cows skin.
At the same time he was curiously
onscious of little brown bird swing
CIV 10Th no. RI |