Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-07-01
WAS A REAL STORM
Old Caleb PeasIee Remembered
the Event Well.
And the Idea Of Comparing II With
That Recent Little Puff Of Windl-
They Didn't Know What
a Gale Was.

1t was the morning after the gale,
and Jack Piper. nursing his knee on
the platform Of Basset's store, was
talking to Wendell Cooper. Down the
street they watched the leisurely ap-
proach of old Caleb Peaslee, and Jake
grinned mischievously.
We've got old Caleb freed and out
on a limb for once" he began, as Ca
leb paused to survey the wreckage
the wind had wrought. Everyone
agrees that the wind yesterday lays
owe anything we ever had round
here. He can't study up anythin' to
beat it."
Wendell shook his head doubtfully.
"Mebbe So" he admitted, cautiously.
What was you cal1atin' to do-prod
him up a little?" And Jake nodded
confidently.
Caleb approached the group, which
made way for him. Jake, with a ge-
NAL nod at the old gentleman, took up
an apparently interrupted converse
ton with Wendell.
"As / was sayin'," he began,
there's better'n six weeks work gone
for nothin'. I'd built that stone wall
the way l wanted it to run, and it took
me the better part of two months to
do it, workin' off and on when l didn't
have nothin' pressin' to do. And then
that wind last night got some kind Of
a twist on it-ketched it kind Of or
a slant like-and while / can't exactly
say 1t snapped ends Of it, it sort o.
pivoted 1t in the middle, and 1t Ger
tainly made a pile of work for me tt
get it back where it belongs"
Mr.. Peaslee chewed contemplatively
on a pine splinter, with his eyes upoI
the distant hills. Wendell and Jak,
watched him expectantly. At last thu
old gentleman threw away the slive
and turned toward them.
"You and Wendell, jake" he begal
slowly, "ain't old 'nough to remembe
the big blow we had in the fall of ga
If you a you'd be ashamed to speal
of this little gust of wind as bein'
gale. Why, you couldn't rightly cal
it more'n a Whit of breeze"
Look at the limbs Of them trees
began Wendell; but Mr.. Peasle
looked at him in such pity that Wei
dell blushed and stopped.
"Nothin' but punk" asserted M.
Peaslee. Hardly fittin' to hold up
birds nest! Them branches would
broke with their own heft before loni
anyway. That amt no sign Of a gal
) to see rotten limbs fallin'. l though
you had more sense, WENDELL" We
dell shifted his feet uncomfortably.
"And you, too, jake" Caleb conti
, ued. "Jest because you sloven-built
. strip Of stone wall hardly solid 'noue
] for a man to lean against and res
I and a little puff of wind comes alor
: and loosens a few Of the rocks "
half cobbled up, you think you
2 passed through a gale.
= "Jest to give you some idea Of VIII
. a real wind1l do" he went on, Tenn
. tell you some of the things that ha
pened in 1864. What do you thin
j. Wendell, of a wind clearin' a fell,
:, piece Of stumps? Yes, sir, it blow
u the stumps On a piece of Deacon w
u ter's plumb out of the dirt and act
4 ally piled 'em up in the far corn
y of the lot!
y "'Nother thing that made some ccl
! ment at the time was Ike Drew's lc
GIN chain. He had it made fast
= a granite post when they was NOW
II the old schoolhouse. The wind wou
u ketch the free end Of that chain al
u snap it same's a man would a la
q whip, and VIKING! away'd go a III
+ off'n the end-jest sail away down t
wind as light as a butterfly.
+. "Then there was Eb Mason's wag
Il body. He had a body sixteen &c
u long and four foot high, boxed