The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1911-07-08

latter was aiming for. but. as 1t wal
darker than a stack of negro coal
beavers at midnight. l mingled VIII
the COW. AS soon as I discovered he
proximity l made a grab for 1t, bu
was thrown lightly across severa
stalls into a far corner OF the barn
At this point, however, the rank odol
Of gasoline in a terribly rundown con
dition OF health smote upon me.
reached out my hand tenderly ane
patted the goodwill 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 a mar
hurriedly getting outside OF huge
bowl of breakfast food. He was &C
countred in all the habiliments OF
war Finally. with last. despairine
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
Pickering light of a weakened Ian
tern he cautiously poured the hot wa
ter up and down the go-devirs spinal
column Having done this. he seized
the persuader, gave it a vlllalnous
twist and the thing commenced a 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 were all peacefully
curled up in the bread pan. Only a
few weary citizens were up taking a
look at the meter to see II 1t 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. 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 | am positive l 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
badly irritated dog Of the hound va
riety. The farmer was out in the COW
barn husking the milk crop. He came
put and told us that between seven
and nine thousand ducks had gone
over the evening before and, judging
rom their looks. they had date with
! cornfield about two miles to the SOU
oy-sou'west He informed us that the
iucks exhibited a marked Partially
or the cornfields which had been op-
Grated on by husking machines in
stead of the old-fashioned Armstrong
method used by our forefathers. He
'aid this fact, combined with che long
Try season and the Iowa habit of
planting a game warden on every alter
late section Of land, was working mir
lcles for the ducks and chickens.
In a bashful maner he told us that
we felt equal to shooting twenty or
hirty prairie chickens as mere start
r we could find them down in the
at the right Of the hoghouse
lie said the chickens were getting so
anne that some Of them had the nerve
o sneak in and board with the family
'oultrv.
We looked at our license from the |
tate and saw that the prairie hen
ould not be legally shot in such chilly
weather.. With a sigh, we thereupon
oaded our guns and started for the
orn1eld.
We curried and cross-curried that field |
and finally strolled out onto
forty-acre field of fresh blowing to
est our legs. We had not gone far
'hen something about the looks and
lie of q clean white tablecloth arose
i front of Kidder and started south
beautiful clip. 1t was Jack rab-
1t. Neither of US shot. and Kidder
lumbled something about thinking 1t
as a sheep.
BY this time daylight had become
ntirely broken in the east, and we
ould see how nervous each other was.
ftsr crossing TIA RaevAR6 ~ stopped !