The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-01-03

anxious to kill or to catch the little
birds. l would make dead-fall out
Of piece of plank, put some crumbs
of bread under it, tie q long string to
the trigger, and conceal myself as
we'll as l could. Very often | would
trap little snow hopper. The larg-
er children soon taught me new
way to catch birds. They told me
to Just get some salt and throw on
the birds tail and l would have no
trouble in picking him up. And sure
enough l wasted a good deal of
mothers salt following the little birds,
but l never managed to get any on
! their tails.
Yes, l was up to date on the rabbit
box business. There were rabbits by
! the hundreds those days. The negroes
were slaves and were not allowed to
hunt very much. My older brother
was an expert in the rabbit box bus
mess. He seemed to know just which
side of the fence to set the boxes on
and very often we caught from three
to four in one night. remember one
morning we went to look at our box
es and our old dog generally went
with US. The first rabbit we took
from the gum my brother stuck him
and laid him down for dead. But he
didn't lay there very long before he
arose to his feet and the only thing
we could see was his white tail bounc-
ing through the pines. We put the
old dog in behind him and it was not
long before he treed him in hollow
tree in old Uncle Abraham Moore's
woods. We didn't want to cut Mr..
Moore's big oak down but Brother
Dra:s said we would have that rab-
bit if it took the balance of the day.
So we went to the house and got some
rags and fire and put it in the hole be-
hind the rabbit. When the smoke be-
gan to shoot up the hollow tree the
rabbit thought it was getting rather
rough in there and he made his way
back near the place he went in. Then
we took out the fire and my brother
reached his hand in the hole and
brought out the old gentleman with
the hair pretty we'll all singed off his
hind legs. We saw that he had bled
pretty freely but we thought we
would try another plan on him. Bro
ter took a stick and gave him two or
three licks on the head and laid him
down again for dead. We looked
around to see if the fire was I'll out
and when we turned to get our rabbit
we could only see the glinnpes of him
going back through the woods like t
drove of field larks in a whirl wind
We had often heard of cats having
nine lives so we concluded that this
rabbit was mixed with cat and we
would have no more to Go with him. !
l thought if you were not tired of
reading | would mention the Christ
mas exercises over at Union on Fri
day afternoon, December 23rd. The
weather was all that could be asked
for and a large crowd was present.
The exercises began .at the appointed
hour with song by the school, "Silent
Night" and most fitting prayer by
Rev. M1Keown Mr.. NJ. L. Strauss
made a few remarks in the way of
Introductory and welcome. By this
time the house was packed to an un-
comfortable extent. Rev. J. B. Har-
man was the next speaker He said
when he came into this community
he thought of meeting with strangers
but found most of the faces familiar
to him. Rev Harman spoke briefly
upon the line of education and paid
the teacher, Mrs. Bessie Pugh, very
high compliment, saying he had
preached behind her teaching, and he
knew she was one of the best teach
ers in the county. He then spoke of
the blessed old story, beginning with
the promise after man became vic
tim of sin, and telling of the fulfill
ment at the time the wise men of the
East were led by the star to the hum
Bile place in Bethlehem where the Sa-
viour was born. He gave the true
spirit of Christmas, saying that the
birth and life of Christ was a lesson
of service and that it is more blessed
to serve than to be served.
; Col. Aull was a little late. He
came in during the time Rev. Harman
was speaking and pushed his way
through the packed aisle near the
front and Mr.. John c. Neel came in