The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-04
TIE EVENING STORY
Loaded for Hawks.

tby L. 3. Lewis.
There was a great Gathering and
outcry among the fowls back OF the
farmhouse. with one long. piercing
shrek from a single hen, and Aunt
Sally Warner dropped the break1asr
dish she was wiping and ran out TO
see a hawk sailing away with fat
pullet IN his talOns. She waved net
hands and cried "Shoo! shoe! Dut
there was no salvation for the victim.
What is 1t, aunty2" asked her
neice, Miss Nettie Ward, from the city,
who had come out to the old farm for
a vacation.
why, another of them hawks has
grabbed another of them chickens"
was the reply. Il told pa only last
night that he ought to git out and load
the shot gun for me. I s'pOse that
hawks have got as much right to live
as other folks, but I'll be summed
if
But he did load the gun and it's
there behind the door" Interrupted
$50 it is! What an old goose I am
getting to be! Nettie, did you ever
fire gum"
Never"
Then I must show you how to do
it. You take it in both hands, this
er, this way. Then you shet your eyes
and pull on the trigger with your I'm
ger and the hawk drops dead. A hawk
may come while I'm down cellar or
up stairs and you are out here alone,
and you want to be able to shoot
him."
There was only uncle, aunt and
Nettie at the farm, and the girl from
the city soon wore off the newness and
the novelty and became a bit lone
some. On account of this lonesome
ness she almost bowed to a young
-I7.7
ing at dusk and he almost bowed to
her, and when she went in she asked
her aunt who it was
4 hain't seem no strange young
men around here myself was the an
swer, but I understand that the Stew
enses. half mile below US. have got
summer boarder. I guess he's the
one you saw"
Things happen suddenly out in the
country the same as in the city. Two
days after seeing the young man Miss
Netue woke up with the toothache.
she mad hardly come down stairs and
told OF it when the rural mail carrier
lett a letter for the aunt, which stated
tnat sister living ten miles away was
III and wanted her to drive over at
once. she couldn't drive, and so Ur-
Gle Joe must go along. There was room
Tor Nettie to go along, but the tooth
acne kept getting worse. It didn't take
ner long to decide to stay home and
hot ashes, hold hot vinegar in her
mouth and now and then press q wad
OF cotton batting wet with pepper
mint essence against the Offending mo-
lar. and there was hope that she would
be all right before night came.
during the long day, If the ache per-
mitted, she could swing in her ham
mock. climb the cherry tree after the
ripe fruit, hunt for hens eggs in the
barn and watch the ducks and goslins
on the horse pond.
There is only two things to look out
for said the aunt when she was ready
10 drive away Keep your eyes out for
hawks and tramps. As we haven't seen
a tramp for six weeks I guess you
won't be bothered, but them hawks are
liable to drop down any time If one
comes you be sure to shoot him.. I'VE
heard that shooting q. gun has been
known TO crue the toothache''
Uncle and aunt had been gone an /
hour when the tOothache ceased and
Miss Nettie piled into her hammock
under the pear tree with a book She
was just opposite the kitchen door and
only 90 feet away, and just inside the
door stood the shotgun. The maid had
great confidence that If hawk or tramp
came along she would play the part Of
a heroine.
At II o'clock, when the young man
who boarded down at Stevens came
past the house with his kodac he was
satisfied from the swinging Of the
hammock that Mrs. Nettie was read
in=.
Two hours later, when he had snap
shotted an old-lop-horned COW, a crab
apple tree and brook that seemed 10
be flowing up hill, he returned to And
the hammock so still that there was
no doubt in his mind that the occupant
was asleep: He had got passed the
house, walking as slow as possfbla
when he caught sight of half the BODY
OF a man in an open window on the
otner side Who ever 1t was had come |
sneaking down through the cornfield.
1t was up to the young man to in
Vestlgate- He started out with the inn
preston that the intruder was a tramp.
ana he picked up a club, scaled the I
picket fence and gave a shout The |
man IN the window heard and drew
ground and ran around the corner Of |
the house. He ran into the hammock /
and Its sleeping occupant and fell over |
them and bounced said sleepfne occr-
pant out on the grass.
At about the same moment the young |
man from Stevens who had started /
to pursue the unknown, caught his foor
and took a roll, and he was so slow in /
picking the current bushes out Of his |
curly hair when he did get I'D thu. he /
turned the corner just as the bewflder- |
ed Nettie had dashed into the kitchen |
seized the gun and was ready for /
hawks.
She had been rudely awakened. more |
Iuoeiy Jumped on the grass and stepped /
on. and in her half awakened stare she |
didn't know hawk from a man until |
it was too late.
In a cool moment she never could |
have mastered the mechanism OF that |
old shotgun Under the nomentary ex- |
element she not only fired it, but sent /
a liberal quantity of bird shot into some |
ones legs.
She had only heard the report of the |
gun when she became panicstricken |
and fed into the kitchen and shut and /
bolted the door, and for the next three /
or four minutes she was In a hail. |
faint. Then she realized that she had l
shot a man. She remembered that he |
had cried out; she remembered that |
he had fallen on the grass. She wasn't |
overcome with horror at the thought |
On the contrary, she had shot a tramp /
ILL -.