Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-12-20
HOW HER READY WIT AND CoUR'
AGE BEAT OFF A ROBBER.
a Christmas Story of 1776.

SEItSiTfi0S ~
on a brisk, breezy day, the day be-
fore Christmas, 1916, Mistress Betty
Reddywitte mounted her buckskln-
colored mare at the gate or the gar
den il front of her mothers house In
Boston.
Mistress Betty, although she was
scarcely more han a child, was Wen
grown for her age and good to look
upon.
She was as brave as any lion-or
drawer than some / have seen. Never
was she known to take fright or de-
sert a companion. When Selectman
PettigreW's terrier went mad and at
tackled her companion, Peggy BROOKS,
IN Marlborough street, Betty beat the
dog off with her umbrella n kept the
brute off until assistance arrived.
Betty Reddywitte galloped merrily
and soon was in the country road out
side of town. Then, suddenly, she
came upon q strange sight.
A great yelloW-bodied ~post-chaise
containing a lady and a little girl was
drawn up at the side OF the road.
Confronting the inmates with a long
barrelled pistol was a horseman in a
red cloak with a black half-mask on
his face.
Betty did not need to look twice to
recognize all the objects that went to
make up the ~tableau-the yellow post
chaise, the lady and the child, its in
mates, and the black driver. She knew
them all.
She had set out from Boston to meet
her mother on the way from Milton,
and this was the meeting.
Nor did she fail to recognize the
highwayman in spite of his black mask.
But she would not for the world have
let him know it.
For an instant the girl was seized
with an uncomfortable trembling. She
closed her eyes, feeling sick and faint.
Then she had an inspiration. A plan
whose very simplicity promised posi-
BILE success, came to her.
Hastily pulling her hood around her
face, she began screaming. The high
wayman, seeing what looked to him
like q country girl who had lost her
wits from fright, sternly bade her be
silent.
ooh, sir" she cried, don't kill me!
ha' but a fl pun note to buy a Christ
mas goose"
'WiH you be silent?" asked the rob-
Der, cursing her. "or will l have TO
quiet you with & tap on the head with
the putt Of a pistol? Don't move till
1 tell you to-"
Betty ceased : cream. but began
to weep. Extracting n paper from a
bag fastened to oer waist she held 1t
oat &c the highwRyman.
With one y sn his helpless and
unresisting victims In the chaise, he
turned half arounr toward Betty who,
whfmpering, still held her hood tight
iy gathered around her face. H. made
@ rude snach at the bit OF paper she
offered him A brisk breeze, however,
that was blowing, and of which Mis-
tress Betty bad already taken note,
twitched the thing out before his fin
gers could close upon ii n sent 1t
across the Dad into a blackberry bush.
ON the spur of the moment the high
wayman dimounted. He threatened his
captives with Instant death IL they
moved, and crossed the road.
Betty instantly whispered to the ne
gro outrider to lash his horses. At the
same time she caught the bride of the
highwayman's mare and laid her whip
without mercy both upon the startled
creature and upon her own faithful
Buckskin.
The next moment the robber saw the
whole cavalcade sweeping along the
road toward Boston at ~breakneck speed.
Scarcely had all returned safely to
the Reddywitte's gambrel-roofed house
on Paddock's Mall, when Cousin Bene-
dict arrived with n lamentable story
Of how his horse had been taken from
him by the American military authori-
ties because his services were needed
I'm the army.
Mistress Betty addressed the young
man:
Cousin Dcnetict, mother, as you
know. buried Ave hundred pounds in
the hill side under the pear tree in the
back garden, because the state OF the
country is so disturbed that she was
afraid to put il into a bank"
You're soing 60 tell me the money
has disappeared" said Cousin Benedict.
q well, L know nothing about It,"
Why, 10Y hasty o are, Cousin
< Benedict replied Betty. Il la go
ing IN tell you that mother is thinking
of putting tho other half OF her money,
fxc hundred pounds more. in the same
place. What think you. Cousin, Bene-
dtcty'
$50 he said as a relieved expres.