Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-07-21
i at Once He Jumped Up and the Garden

Cousin McDooble's natural history
knowledge came to his aid, for the
memory of the East Indian mongoose
returned to his mind. He knew that
the mongoose is kept as pet by many
Hindoos to kill serpents, and that very
minute he decided that the best thing
he could do was to be a mongoose. So
he did.
The only thing that troubled him
was that he didn't know what mon
goose looked like or how it acted or
what kind of noise it made. He
couldn't, to save his life, remember
whether it was a bird or a beast, but
he was pretty sure it wasn't a fish.
A fish wouldn't be much good at run
ming around a house chasing snakes.
But Cousin Orone McDooble did the
best he could, and it worked pretty
we'll, for a garden-hose isn't particu-
lar what kind of noise an imitation
mongoose makes, just so 1t makes
a good loud noise. So Cousin Orone
McDoobIe got down on his hands and
knees and made a noise like a mon
goose. 1t was something like a dog
and something like hyena. And every
three yelps he snarled and showed his
teeth and jumped at the garden-hose.
The garden-hose just hung there as
silent and still as the grave and glared
glared the madden Cousin Mongoose
McDooble got. He fairly bounced
around under the garden-hose on his
hands and knees, snarling and snap
ping, and all at once he jumped right
up and bit the garden-hose in the
neck! And the garden-hose bit
back!
That almost settled Cousin Orone
Mongoose, for all at once he remem-
bered something he had forgot which
was that the mongoose, before fear
lessly attacking a serpent, neutralizes
the poison by eating the Ophiorhiza
Mungos, and he had forgotten to
eat any! So he dashed away and bit
piece off a rhubarb plant, and then
dashed back and bit the garden-hOse,
and he kept it up until on one round
trip the spigot of the nozzle caught in
his pocket and as he ran the garden
hose leaped out of the tree and went
leaping after him. My, but Cousin
Orone McDooble was scared! He
jumped right into the rhubarb patch
and ate three whole plants before he
was sure he had eaten enough poison
antidote, but once he was sure he was
no more afraid of that garden hose
than 1 would be. He lay right down
fiat and seized it by the nozzle, and
wrapped his legs around it, and
chewed it, growing like pup with
slippery bone.
1t was a struggle for life or death,
and Cousin Orone McDooble chewed
Is feet of that rubber garden-hose be-
fore he was sure it was dead, but when
he was sure it was dead he was the
happiest mongoose that ever killed a
garden-hose. He got up on his hands
and knees and capered around the
yard uttering short, sharp banks of joy,
and then, not feeling sure that all the
serpents in Betzville were dead, and
that he ought to protect his poultry at
all hazards, he went into the hen house
and went to sleep.
And the next morning he couldn't
remember for the life of him whether
he was a rooster or a mongoose, and
he might never have had the heart to
come out Of the hen house If he hadn't
thought Of compromising So he
barked like a mongoose three times
and crowed twice, and let it go at that.
Copyright, 1909 by w. G. Chapmau.)