Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-06-08
Duckln% ina Q0bEteXil
= By >N0Rr1AM GRowELLH e#<(%77os"<

! ! !: . !: !. : !. ! ! ! : !: !
put OH luIS0 6ulIS OIL
pu clothes, threw eleven
M ~ y large, fawn-colored flap
AM MN<,y Jacks under my belt,
MGl KNMM and hit the skyline for
1unU WTA Kidders. Kidder is
HNXf&25KyhJWN sportsman six days in
WSHhM@i the week. but on Sun
EhHSSI day stops to rest and
MAAlE preach three or four
VxFtS sermons.
y He is also the pro-
prietor of Jersey COW
and a gasoline go-devil. 1t was the
latter l was aiming for but, as it was
darker than a stack of negro coal
beavers at midnight mingled with
the COW. AS soon as I discovered her
proximity l made a grab for it. but
was thrown lightly across several
stalls into far corner of the barn.
At this point, however, the rank odor
of gasoline in terribly rundown con-
dition Of health smote upon me.
reached out my hand tenderly and
patted the go-devil on the brow.
At about this time of night Kidder's
back door opened, allowing a flood OF
light to pour forth. In the doorway
was silhouetted the figure of man
hurriedly getting outside of huge
bowl of breakfast food He was ac-
1countred in all the habiliments OF
war. Finally, with a last. despairing
glance into the bowl he cast 1T from
him and seized a steaming tea-kettle
from the stove.
With this he came forth and by the
'flickering light Of a weak-kneed Ian
tern he cautiously poured the hot wa
ter up and down the go-devils spinal
column. Having done this. he seized
the persuader, gave 1t villainous
twist and the thing commenced vio-
lent hacking cough that caused great
chunks of sympathy to we'll up under
my sweater.
After turning on the binacle lights,
Kidder grasped the handle-bars and
we backed out till we hit the chicken
park across the alley. By some dex-
ferrous manoeuvring we got the thing
pointed right and cut her loose.
1t was early. No one was abroad.
The family cats we're all peacefully
.curled up in the bread pan. Only a
few weary citizens were up taking a
look at the meter to see If it had slid
any in the night We hummed along
merrily-rolled up in our big fur coats
getting quite wideawake by the time
we had covered couple Of miles.
Suddenly a surprised rabbit sat up
in the glare Of the headlights. blinked
a couple Of times and made brilliant
leap for the tall timber. I promptly
took my cue and got my artillery In
trim. Rabbit after rabbit appeared.
My ammunition wavered and ran low
No sankuinary results were noticed,
although l am positive succeeded in
winging the left fender several times.
1t must be borne in mind. however
that my poor shooting was the natural
result of poor ammunition. cheap gun
worry and insomnia, from which was
suffering so bad that it kept me awake
nights.
Daylight was just cracking in the
east when we pulled briskly into a
farmyard and anchored in front OF q
badly irritated dog Of the hound va
riety. The farmer was out in the COW
barn husking the milk crop. He came
out and told us that between seven
and nine thousand ducks had gone
over the evening before and, Judging
from their looks, they had date with
a cornfield about two miles to the SOU
by-sou'west He informed us that the
ducks exhibited marked partiality
for the cornfields which had been op
Grated on by husking machines in
stead of the old-fashioned Armstrong
method used by our forefathers. He
said this fact combined with the lone
dry season and the Iowa habit Of
planting game warden on every alter
nate section Of land, was working mir
.acles for the ducks and chickens.
In a bashful maner he told US thai
II we felt equal to shooting twenty OF
thirty prairie chickens as {. mere start
-er we could find them down in the
cornfield at the right Of the hoghouse
He said the chickens were getting Sc
tame that some of them had the nerve
to sneak in and board with the family
poultry.
We looked at our license from the
state and saw that the prairie her
~cou'd not be legally shot in such chilly
weather With a sigh, we thereupor
loaded our guns and started for tn.
.cornfield.
We curried and cross-curried that felt
thoroughly and finally strolled out ontt
forty-acre field Of fresh blowing t.
rest our legs. We had not gone fa
when something about the looks 'nt
size of clean white tablecloth aros,
in front of Kidder and started soutl
sat beautiful clip. 1t was Jack rab
bit Neither of US shot, and Kidde
-mumbled something about thinking i
was sheep.
BY this time daylight had becom.
entirely broken In the east. and ",