The Pulaskian. (Pulaski Heights [Little Rock], Ark.) 1915-1929, 1919-08-29

year. lsdSl year uulill6 the uloutH
it was onyl a wet place in the side
of the branch but The water was be-
meath it all the time. So when l de-
cided to move on the place | just dug
a hole in the sand and had real nice
water knew. of course. that it was
spring that was used from when the
IFourche River timber camp was at
Wye and that it was considered ex-
cellent ehalybeate water, but | did not.
know that il had ever been walled
spring.
| borrowed a spade and hoe and
dug in it until | broke the hoe then |
auit A hog took to waIlowing in it SO
! bought me hoe and dug in it UNI
til reached a solid slate bottom, dur
ing which process | found large rock
amongst the old leaves and other
truck and | also found that 1t WAS
liartly cut from amongst rocks, so l
finished walling it, ] was very much
interested in it, for was doing a
work for which | was sure those VINO
Grang out of the spring would bless
me, but knew I was not first, for
discovered where some one before
me had dug into the slate Water
becoming scarce as the drouth be-
came more severe. the cattle com
laenced TO run to the spring and stand
around it and especially in the stream
above it, which did not contain water
for over twenty or thirty feet. The
mosquitoes were bad also, so / ditch
ed the branch, just like the govern.
ment ditched branches around the
cantonment with the result that the
mosquitoes began to diminish rs the
bottom of the branch dried out. and
/ kept or working on the spring oe-
casionally until got II IN a very good
condition. Seeing the water all riled
up one day cleaned ii out and
found an old hard shell turtle in it.
| carried him away down the branch.
turned him loose and told him to stay
ont Of nay spring or Il would kill him
There was crawfish in the spring
also and a fer of nwrite-my-name"
bugs, but they ere all right for they
kept the water pare
As the cattle got 20 standing around
1t All the time. l was afraid they
would contaminate the water, so 1 cut
poles to fence them out; while doing
50 / discovered several Indian mounds
SO ! knew that in olden times this
spring had been favorite with the
indians.
Finally ! got the cattle fenced out
and it commenced to rain again, but
not until | was informed that some
OF my neighbors objected to my fenc-
ing their cattle out They claimed that
it was the only place they had for
water. did not see why they should
object, for they had not kept the
spring open and there was ten times
as much water below the pen | bull.
as there would have been il I had
not cleaned the spring out, for now
it was running in constant stream.
One day about a week ago, / saw
where something had locsened a rock
and stuck its head into my spring and
drank The water was fresh on the
rocks and ground and nearby were big
tracks of some large wild varmint
larger than dog. with different
kind of track, more like bear
track than anything else AS the
water was too dirty looking to drink
dipped the spring out again and
found the turtle in it He had not only
muddied the water. but he had eaten
or scared away the crawfish and the
'write1ny-names.' So I took him out
and redeemed my promise to him by
cutting off his head. ! left him on the
bank. thinking I would take him to
The house and cook him for dinner,
for ! had eaten some of his kind just
the week before and it was good meat,
but when I went after him he was
gone. | have been told if you will cut
ones head off it will always start for
the nearest water.
kept dipping the water out until
the spring was perfectly clean. Next
morning when | went to it | could
see every gravel and grain of sand on
the bottom of it and the water was 50
clear that coulud not tell where +
commenced and the air ceased by
looking into it. It did not look to be
ever six inches deep. I could see some
little insects nearly a quarter of an