Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-03-08
BY CHARLES q. D. ROBERTS.

aAEzAzal k<a IS e I8 ~
into the woods, and went gallopine
and stumbling straight inland, with
no thought but to escape that awful
voice. Not till the roar had quite
died out did the strength of his terror
desert him. Then he sank trembling
in the deep grass of a little brook.
side meanow
Being of sturdy stock, the brown
colt soon recovered his wind. Then
feeling nervous in the loneliness OF
the woods and the deepening shad-
ows, he snatchcd a few mouthfuls OF
grass and started to try and find his
way home. Obeying some deep-seat-
ed instinct, he set his face in the
right direction, and pushed forward
through the thick .;rowths.
His progress, however, was slow.
Among the trees the twilight was now
| gathering, and the dark places filled
his young heart with vague but
dreadful apprehensions, so that at
every few steps he would stop and
stare backward over his shoulder.
Presently he came out upon another
/ open glade, and cheered by the light
he followed this glade as long as it
seemed to lead in the right direction.
Once a wide-winged, noiseless
shadow sailed over his head, and he
SHE'D with loud snort of terror. He
had never before seen an owl. And
once he jumped back wildly, as a
| foTaging mink rustled through the
/ heritage just before him. But for all
the alarms that kept his baby heart
quiyering, he pressed resolutely for
ward, longing for the comfort of his
mothers flank, and the familiar stall
in the barn above the ferry.
AS he reached the end of the glade
his apprehensive ears caught Curl
GUS sound, sort of dry rustling,
which came from the fringe of the
underground. He halted, staring anx-
iously at the place the strange sound
came from.
Immediately before him was the
PROSTATE and rotting trunk of an elm
tree, its roots hidden in the brush
wood, its upper end projecting into
the grass and weeds of the glade. AS
the colt stood wondering, thick-set,
short-legged ,grayish-colored animal
covered with long, bristling quilts,
emerged from the LEAKAGE, and came
crawling down the trunk toward him.
| 1t looked no larger than the black
and-white dog which the colt was ac-
customed to seeing about the farm
yard, but its fierce little eyes and it's
| formidable quilts made him extreme
" nervous.
The porcupine came directly at
| him, with an ill-natured, squeaking
grunt. The colt backed away a foot
or two, snorting, then held his
ground. He had never yielded ground
to the black-and-white dog. Why
should he be afraid of this clumsy
little creature? But when at last
the porcupine drew so near that he
could have touched it with his out
stretched nose, instead of making any
such great mistake as that he flung
his head high in air, wheeled about,
e1lAO letoANI OuJ III ~ 4Siy With LIS
hinder hoofs.
One hoof caught the porcupine
fairly on the snout, and sent it whirl-
ing end over end into the thicket,
where it lay stretched out lifeless, as
a feast for the first hungry prowler
that might chance by. Not greatly
elated by his voctory, the magnitude
of which he in no way realized, the
colt plunged again in the woods and
continued his journey.
BY this time the sun had dropped
completely behind the wooded hills,
and here in the deep forest the dark
seemed to come on all at once. The
colts fears now crowded upon him so
thickly that he could hardly make
any progress at all. He was kept busy
staring this way and that, and partic-
ularly over his shoulders.
A mass of shadow deeper than
the rest-a stump, moss-grown
would seem to his fright
oned eyes moving shape, just about
to spring upon him. He would jump
to one side, his baby heart pounding
between his ribs, only to see another
and huger shadow on the other side,
and jump back again. The sudden
scurrying of wood-mouse over the
dry spruce-needles made his knees
tremble beneath him.
At last, coming to two tall, straight
trunked saplings growing close to-
gether just before the perpendicular
face of great rock, he was vaguely
reminded of the cow-stanchions near
his mothers stall in the barn. To
his quivering heart this was in some
way refuge, as compared with the
terrible spaciousness of the forest
He could not make himself go any
farther, but crowded up as closely as
possible against the friendly trees
and waited.
He had no idea, OF course, what he
was waiting for, unless he had some
dim expectation that his dead mother,
or his owner, or the man on the
ferryboat, would come and lead him
home. His instinct taught him that
the dark of the wilderness held I'M
known perils for him, although his
guarded babyhood had afforded him
no chance to learn by experience.
Young as he was, he took up the po-
sition which gave his peculiar weap-
ons opportunity for exercise.
Instead of backing up against the
trees and the rock. and facing such
foes as the dread dark might send
upon him, he stood with his back
toward the danger and his formidable
heels in readiness. while over first
one shoulder, then the other, his
eyes and ears kept guard. The stu
alton was one that might well. have
cowed him completely; but the blood
in his baby veins was that of melted
ancestors, and terrified though he
was, and trembling, his fear did not
conquer his spirit
Soon after he had taken his stand
in this strange and desOlafe stahIine