The Prescott daily news., 1914-09-26
THE HARD-hEADED MAN By DON MARK LEMON.
(CopYright.)

The water in this here we'll is as hard as rocks, but that ain't to be won 1ered at. seeing as how the well was dug by the hardest-headed man in all creation and Hampshire county.
 About ten years ago, and for about twenty years before that, old Jim Clark and his son Bill lived here. They were two of kind, and that kind was rocks. They were hard-headed from the socks up. They had such hard headed notions about most things that people around here just concluded that they were born "sot."
 One day old man Clark thought he'd like to have his we'll over nearer the barn, and 1t was blessed thing he decided to dig new hole instead of moving the old one, or he'd have done it. He says to Bill: Bill, I'm going over to Berkshire to look after some COWS, and while I'm gone you hustle bit and get the well started"
 "Where1l l begin the top of it?" asks Bill. kind of sarcastic like, as the old well his dad had dug slanted a good bit going down.
 Right here," says old man Clark, pointing at this particular spot.
 A hard-headed look came into Bills face. This ain't no place for the we'll" he says, and he walks round to the other end of the barn and starts the we'll where he thinks 1t ought to be.
 What are you doing there?" calls old man Clark.
 Digging we'll" says Bill.
 Who told you to dig 1t over there?" shouts the old man
 Common sense" says Bill.
 Then a hard-headed look came into old man Clark's face. You dig the well where tell you to-" he says, "or I'll make you"
 "Shoo, dad!" says Bill, who was a great, strapping fellow of twenty
 You think I can't?" says old man Clark
 "I do,' says Bill.
 You'll dig the we'll here" says the old man, and about a month later he fills up the new well that Bill dug in the wrong spot, and goes off with the remark that he'll be back in about five or ten years.
 and then he goes back and digs out the well that his dad had filled up.
 Well, about six years after that, old man Clark comes home.
 Hello. dad!" says Bill
 Hello. Bill" says old man Clark Then he sees that the we'll hasn't been dug where he wants it, and he says; Are you going to dig that well where told you to?'
 "No," says Bill q ain't"
 You'll dig that we'll where I want you to-" says old man Clark, and he goes into the house and says not an other word about 1t for ten years, when as he was dying, he calls Bill in and asks:
 Have you changed your mind about digging that well?"
 No, dad" says Bill q ain't"
 You'll dig that we'll where I told you to-" says the dying man. and then he turns over and dies
 But first he gives Bill letter. and after the funeral Bill opens it and reads that, since he wouldn't dig the well where his dad wanted him to. old man Clark had drawn out the ten thousand dollars that used to be in the bank, and he would now have to hunt around and find where it was hidden, according to directions. The first direction was to dig under a big stone in the pasture, which Bill did, and found piece of paper in lead box telling him to go to a place in South America, up in the Andes, and dig in a certain spot near a river, and he would find further directions
 Bill left the farm in the care of a neighbor. and after months of travel and adventure and danger of all kinds he reached the Andes and dug where he had been told to, and unearthed an- other little lead box. Inside 1t was a strip of paper, which told him to go to Alaska and dig at a certain place near Dawson City and he would learn more
 Bill tucked the directions away very carefully. and when he reached Alas ka, he found the spot mentioned by old man Clark and dug for further in- formation.
 He unearthed another of those lit tle lead boxes, and inside, in the hand writing of his dad, was the cheerful information that, since he had been so hard-headed ahout dipofnp that