Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1876 — SALLY WATSON'S RIDE. [ARTICLE]

SALLY WATSON'S RIDE.

“ Sally, can’t you go over to Uncle Ellen’s this afternoon and bring home those pigs’ There arc seven in the litter he promised me, and they are quite large. I must finish getting the wheat in, and he does not want to feed them any longer. The pen Is ready.” Sally, a bright-looking girl of about fourteen, raised herself from the tub over which she leaned, and said, as she wiped down her arms with her hands: “ How, father?” Mr. Watson had come in for his ten o’clock snack after his tarty breakfast. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, floor, a bowl of coffee in one hand and a S piece of apple-pie in the other. He a bite of the latter and » drink of coffee before he answered. “In the little light wagon. I stopped at Ebon's yesterday as I came ffdm mee£ ing. and he said he would put them up securely in a couple of old coops that would stand in the back of the wagon. You can have Dolly; we are not using her. What do you say, mother; can you spare her?” “Yes,” said Mrs. Watson, a neat, brisk little woman, who came in basket in hand, from hanging up the clothes; *‘ the wash will all be out by noon and I will clean up.” * “ Can’t I have one of the pigs for going for them, father? You saia you only wanted a half-dozen, and there are seven.” “ Yes, and you can buy your Sunday suit next fall with the money it brings.’’ He pulled her ear as he went out again to his work.

“ My!” Sally gave a little nod of her head as she began briskly rubbing her ear. “ I’m sure I’ll make it fat. Jane Burns got sixteen dollars for the one her father gave her last year. Mother, can’t I take Lot and Polly; it is such a long, lonesome way to go by one’s self?” “ Mrs. Watson assented, adding: “ Dolly is such a fast trotter you can stay there a while and get home before dark. Be sure you stop at the poetoffice, and go to the store ana get me some buttons.” There was a great deal to do; dinner was late, and the afternoon had quite set in wheu Sally started. Her way was through the village a half-mile off and then nearly five miles beyond. It was the first week in October, the day was warm and soft and the country beautiful. The road lay through the woods, steep in places, running up hills and down again in little valleys, through which many a creek babbled; it was not fenced off, and the wild grape and the pawpaw were almost within reach as they rode along. The trees had just begun to turn. The sugar maple swayed gently to the light breeze, scattering a crimson cloud to the earth; the Virginia creeper embraced the huge trunks or flung out long, graceful branches of purple and brown and scarlet:the pawpaw was flaming in golden yellow; the haw, with its red berries, dotted the road-side, while here and there, brilliant with the hue of royalty’s self, great clusters of iron-weed towered in the autumn light, and from the branches of the butternut, hickory and walnut, the occasional sound of dropping nuts was heard. Dolly trotted along briskly, and the children talked of the wonderful animals they had seen the Saturday before—for a traveling menagerie had halted on some fields near the village, and the whole population for miles around had turned out to visit it. Lot, who was a boy of eight, had been most impressed by the bears, but Patty, who was younger, seemed to have been most fascinated with the big snake. Then they fell to talking “ sposens,” what they should do if a bear or snake was to attack them there in the woods. Lot was extremely valiant; he thrust about with a stick; showing how he would put him to flight, and in the midst of their talk they reached their uncle’s house, having met but one person on the road. They made but a short stay, as it was getting late, and, with the pigs cooped and stowed in the back of the wagon, which had no top and was open all around, started for home. Seated floor, Lot- and -Pattypaksdbits of apple through the slats of the coop to the young porkers, speculating upon their appearance and advising Bally which to take for her own. Lot would have the black one if he were she, because it was the biggest, but Patty thought the little spotted one was “so cunning.” They were about a mile from the village at the top of a long hill, when Lot, who had exhausted his supply of applebits, and for the last fifteen minutes had been poking the pigs, delighted to hear them squeal, suddenly gave them such a thrust that Sally bade him stop the noise, and come and sit beside heron-the seat. He arose to do as he was bidden, and as he did so, stood for a moment with back to her, still poking the pigs. Just then the wagon jolted over a large stone, he was thrown on the coop, the stick was punched Violently into a pig’s side, it squealed, Lot screamed, and Patty began to cry. Considerably out of patience, Bally leaned back, and catching him by the arm, was about to seat him rather violently beside her, when she was arrested by h» exclaiming: “See! see! Sally, look! look! what an awful bear!” The tone of his voice more than his words—for he was a sensational child, and was constantly seeing wonderful things—caused Sally to turn her eyes in the direction indicated by his frightened gesture. , v .The wood was open at this spat, and there were no large trees near; but at some distance, almost alone, stood a great sycamore, the branches of which were nearly hare ; between tne tree and the road the ground was thickly covered with blackberry, pawpaw and other boshes.

As she glanced quickly toward the great sycamore, a something huge, she could not tell what, leaped from the tree to the ground,and she could hear the underbrush erack beneath it She knew there Were no ferocious wild animate in Ohio, nothing in the forests to harm her, and had not been for many years, but her face blanched with fear. “ Lie down,” ?he said, in a tone which both terriftvd and quieted the children, aa she thrust Lot to the bottom of the waga* and tore the stick from his hands, Taking it quickly and forcibly on Dolly’s bate. The horse sprung forward in a gallop,

ward and with all her strength' befoßOrtrf the horse. There was a long level pfeffe of road now, but the nearest bonne we mile off. Poor Dolly was speedreg feel there was danger, for her earn tern and she u* the terrible aidmat not far behind, amid the cloud of date she struck poor Dolly., } . “Is the bear coming? Will kte tfet us?” came in smothered accents from the bottom of the wagon, where tha CtriMMM lay with their faces pressed close to th» boards.

Bally did not reply. She gave another look, saw that the thing gained ate and exerting all her strength in giving Dolly a last blow, which sent her bouadr Ing forward, she got over the seat bw the children, unheeding their question*, and seizing one of the coops threw ft over the tail-board out in the road. The pin squealed as it touched the earth, and the noise added to Dolly’s terror, which wfa now so intense she was entirely beyond Sally’s control. <so “Are we going to be eaten up J”. Lot whimpered in almost a whispet*. “ Hush,” she answered, “hush.” She let the horse take its way, and placed herself on her knees between the children and the other coop. The terrible creature had stopped. Mie could see it strike the coop with its paw, and see the piacasfljre < .hft..tow , hed it How long would It keep him, she thought; ana there came a throb of relief as she saw that meantime they were speeding further and further away. She looked round in vain; there wan no one in sight, the form-house was still a quarter of a mile ahead, and the animal she feared was becoming only a black spot in the distance; but ts she gazed with fixed eyes she saw the dust rise again. It was moving. * They reached the form-house gate. It was closed. She could not stop Dolly now, and, even if she could, she had not the courage to get down and open It, and drive to to the house some distance up the lane. She called aloud; bnt no one heard. There were turns in the road several; she eonld not see the animal coining. This was worse than watching its approach. She threw the other coop out, then stretched, herself between the children, closed bar eyes and drew an arm tightly around each.

As she lay thus clasping them afro feft Dolly’s pace slacken. She kept still, feeling that if she moved something would spring upon her. The horse was evidently wearying gradually her gait became slower; they must be near the village. With a great effort she raised herself, and saw the houses only a little distance in advance. She crawled over the children and the seat, and gathered up the reins. Dolly gave a start as she did so, but in a moment subsided—got into her usual pace, and dropped that for a wfflETIn a few moments she was in the street of the village, and at the store. Clambering out of the wagon. Bally tried to tell MrJones her story, but burst into tears, and was unable to speak. The children, who had followed her. now found their voices, and eagerly tola of the bear, and how she had thrown them the pigs. “Bless my souiwhatis this?" asked Mr. Jones in excitement. Then Bally recovered, and infosaaed him of what had happened to them. “ Why—why,” he stuttered in agitation, “it’s the panther that escaped late night from the menagerie at W . There is the hand.bill put up about an hour ago, offering a reward for ft. You're—wowre lucky he did notma-make a meal or you instead of the pigs.” Patty shook her head, “The poor things hollered so.” A crowd soon gathered, in the stoss, eager to hear all Bally had to tell; then the men of the village armed thesnoaiwaa to go in search ol the animal. Sally was still trembling, and poor Dolly, wet as though she had been through the river, was shivering and panting at the same time. The half-mile of road they had to pass over to teach home after leaving the village nut for the better part through a wood. Sally was too alarmed to venture there alone, and a couple of men, who had hastily seized some weapon, accompanied her. Bo excited were they that every cracking noise in the trees put them on the alert; and once they exclaimed: “There he throwing the poor children into now alarms. . z Mr. Wateon was incredulous when Lot burst out with “Oh, father, we have beak chased by a bear—nb, not a bear—-a dreadfal wila thing!” and he would have thought Sally the victim of her own fears, had they net told him a panther had eacaped fromttee Mimagextej thm he W» most thankful for their deliverance. Dolly was blanketed and cared for, and they went into supper, Lot’s tongue grime’ all the time about “the bear.” Sally could not eat, she was still unnerved, and Patty could only pity the poor little pigs. “ Indeed, father,” Bally said in answer to his commendation, '* it it had not been for that story in my reader, we might have all been eaten up. When-Lot talked about the beads as we were going over to Uncle Ebon’s, and what he would do it one was to attack us, I thought about the Russian woman throwing out herchildraoLto the wolves, to save, herself, ud that put it into ray head to throw out the pigs when I saw the panther.** For a long time Sally had an unedmfortable feeling in the woods, Ulthougb the panther was caught on the next day and returned to its cage.— Martha M. inSt.NieholM. Tas Housterepw says: “To free winter plants from insects trite waste tobacco stems and steep than in water until the liquid is of the color of stremg tea; with this water syringe the plants freely twice a week. This will not only effectually destroy the green fly, but wiM keep in check most other inseete that infest plants. Where only a few plants arekept m rooms the easiest way is to dip the plants entirely in the tobacco water, moving them up and down in the liquid to wash the insects off it if they have a Ron, hold. The ‘ red spider* is another pete to winter-blooming plants, and wherever it is seen you may be certain that the atmosphere has been toodry, and vmy likely the temperature too hot, as itis rarriy found in a cool, damp rimpepnteih treatment of this" insect in tee great* house is enpinnn but where but wfew I the house it is best to go tee especially on the under side, with a wet eye, but its destructive effects are quickly perceptible, as the upon which .ft works soon beemte bream, and ft the leaves are ctoseiv examined, particularly the under side, the minute insect will be Tnoi to.e is a 1 and It will only