/_ —
WHEN the mi who alleges
that hia residence la over to
ward Pochuck came this time he
eeemed laboring under an emotion
which ho waa endeavoring to suppress.
“It's news from Pochuck,” said he,
dropping into hia chair and mopping
his face on his sleeve. "It's news from
Pochuck, and It’s great. But I wouldn't
*a* believed It. No, sir, I wouldn't 'a*
believed It."
“And 1 won’t I" said Baldy, the land
lord. quickly and positively.
“But I seen it!” said the alleged Po
sh uek eitisen. reproachfully.
Yet doubt stood revealed on the
landlord’s face plainer than the warts
on a crook-neck squash.
“You believe there’s holler stumps,
don’t you?” asked the man.
The existence of hollow stamps
wouldn’t be denied, even by Baldy, the
landlord.
“And as to yaller eats,” the man
went on. "There ain't sm» dcubl about
rallarwe*;. It there? And yaller cate
has kittens, don't they?” said the wan
derer from over toward Pochuck.
“Not If their name is Tom, they
don’t,” said De Witt Green, of Jolly
Parm, who la bound to have things kept
straight or know the reason why.
The Pochuck eitisen having settled
that point to the satisfaction of all, it
was admitted that there could be no
doubt that yellow eats had kittens.
“And there’s eat Ash, ain’t there?”
the man asked.
“You'd think there was,” sold Baldy,
the landlord, "If you’d be here some
time when I've been Ashing for’em!”
Some folks would have wondered why
nobody said anything after that for
quite a spell, and why even the man
from Poebuek grinned; but the land
lord didn’t seem to notice this behavior.
“And aa to familiea of young eat
Aah,” said the man, after awhile.
“Bach things ban been beard of,
hain't they?”
Of eourae they bad. Certainly.
“Catdah and their young lives In
water, don’t they?” naked the bearer
of news from Poehvyk, Intent on set
ting himself etraif/~
No one bad any record of catfish
living mors than a day or so on
land.
“And nobody that baa read about
Noah and the flood baa any doubt
that water glta high, nova and then?”
naked the man.
The feet waa well known.
“Well, then,” eald the Pochuck elt
bae, with a look ot triumph at
Baldy, the landlord, ”1 soon 'em all!”
“When did yon aae the water?”
asked Baldy, tba landlord, malicious
ly, and Parmer Bill Leonard, who
Uvea oppoalte Oooeo Pond Moun
asmnawasmn«»MM«Mnmn«BMBMMi
••Ms “Shame!" and Firnn
Graaa said: “Tut, tut, Baldy!"
The man who atakcs hia word on
“I* home's being over toward Po
ehuek cracked the thumb on hia
right hand and three fingers on his
left, aa if defiantly, and said:
"Them'a the nawa I’ve brung over
this time, and I wouldn't V believed
em. First place, I’d been down to
a Sprout Hill atone frolic. If you’ve
never been to a Sprout Hill atone
frolic It a a leetlc hard to give yon
aU the p’lnta m Sprout Hill atone
frolic haa.
"When I got homa from the frolic
in the evenin’. Uncle David looked
■m over and I aae ha was kind o’
begrudgin’ me.
“ T tee it waa a hummer,' saya he.
“I said it was and I went to bed
and forgot to milk the cows. Neat
morning I thought I’d walk over to
the river to tee if the water had fell
much, ’cause it had been UDcom
promisin' high. I aee that it had fell
conakier'bie. ’cause a big boiler
stump that bad been all covered with
water waa thowin' above It for more
than two foot, but the hollar in the
atump waa full o’ water yit.
“I aot down to raai * and as
X ao* ••‘rra what should I see hut a
eatflah raise up In the water inside
that holler stump and peek down
over the edge o’ the atump. I never
aaen a bigger catfish than that one
and I’ve seen some all gozzlin’ big
onea in them Drownded Lands wa
ters.
“When the eatflah teen how far
below the ton o’ that stump the river
had got, it looked scared, I tell yon,
and It dropped back into the holler.
“•That catfish has been hatchin'
its young ones in that stump, not
thinkin’ about the high water. I’ll
bet a hosa.’ I saya. ‘and It has been
hatched there unbeknownst to It.’
“I hadn't more than said it, when
up to the top came the catfish
again, and she had her mouth full
o’ young eatflah. She give a flop,
and out o’ the stump to the water
she went. She relensed her mouth
ful o’ young onea, getbered herself
together, and sorting hack into that
atump. In less than ten seconds out
she jumoed ag’in with anpther
mouthful o’ young ones, released >m
and back into the stump.
"Five times that catfish went in
and out o’ the hollar stump before
ahe got all of her young onea out
safe, and away she swum, the whole
big litter of kitten fish fullerin’
along in hsr wake.
“Thia was interestin', and I sot
there wn-'erin’ -n it. when down on
to a de-d t-ee t’ at lay out from the
bank into riier maybe ten foot
or more a - »r cat came trottin’.
She was t "-rest cat 1 ever see,
and t’ «• li. •• i.en that was foller
1n’ right ut J er heels was jest as
yalier as the ent was.
“The old cat pranced out on to
the log as fur as she could git. and
that brung bar close to the wataa.
She scrooched down, and the kitten
squatted on the log jsst behind her
and aaid nothin'.
“ 'There’e goin* to be tome doln'e
here,' says I. ‘1 feel it in sag bones,'
I says.
"And sure enough, it wasn't long
before the doin's begun. They start
ed in with the old cat jsbbin’ one
of her paws down end snatchin’
somethin’ out o’ the Water.
“As she rli her paw I see it wss
full o' somethin' that wiggled and
squirmed like all possessed, tryln’
to git away. When the cat see what
It was that she had she spread a
amile ell over her face. Her paw
was full o’ young catfish, and If
there is one thing that creepa or
fllea or swims or runs that a cat
likea better than another It’a cat
fish.
“The old eat picked out a couple
o' the fish and passed 'em back ti
ber kitten dt the log, and gobbled
the rest o' the handful herself.
They tickled her palate so that si*»
dabbed both pews down In the wa
ter and brung up a mesa o’ young
catfish in each one, and her and the
kitten got away with them ami
amaeked their lips.
"Then 1 looked a little closer and
I seen the old catfish that had
rescued her family from the holhT
stump. She was layin' by the log,
lookin’ scared, and 1 seen that most
of her family o’ young ones was
mistin'.
“ That eat,' says I, 'is swoopin’
that catfish's family off the face o’
the earth, so to speak,’ snye 1, 'as
sure as wasps astingin’!' says I.
"The old catfish hadn't jest got on
to what was goin' on yit, but when the
yaller cat on the log reached down a ml
scooped out another handful of the
catfish's family and divide up with her
kitten, that old cattish actually turned
white around the gills.
"She teen it ail at last, and with one
all-wollopin' slash of her tail she
jumped onto that log like a britchy
cow goin' over a barnyard fence, and
Je-e-e-willikeiis borax! maybe she
didn't swat that yaller cat! She swept
thnt yaller cat off o' that log as if she
hadn’t been nothin’ more than a
feather.
“Then the catfish stepped back Into
the water and waited to see. The yal
ler cat scrambled back on to the log,
end her dander was up as high as it
could git. Oh. but she was mad.
“She pranced up and down the log a
minute, and at it ag’in she went, scoop
in' out young catfish and scatterin' 'em
to the winds so fast that 1 see there
wouldn’t be one of ’em left to tell the
tale unless the old catfish got her sec
ond wind pretty quick and done some
thin'.
“And she got her second wind, and
riz up sg'in that yaller cat ag'in most
exilsrstin' for to see. Seems to me
for five minutes there wasn't nothin'
to be seen on that log but a whirlin'
streak o' yaller sort o’ mixed up with
4 whirlin’ streak o’ black, and cnt
■ai i n—____
cussin*. Merciful man! 1 jest bad to
plug my fingers in mj ears, 1 couldn't
bear to hear it so!
"When the whirlin’ and back talk
quit, the catfish wns Imck in the water.
There was catfish hide stretched here
and there on the log ’most enough to
make a saddle, and enough yaller had
scattered about to stuff it with. The
yaller eat was sort o lickin’ herself
here anti there, and the catfish was
glarin' at her.
"The killin’ was standin' on the log
with Iter hack 'way np, and her tail
swelled like n rollin' pin. anti she was
spiltin’ away at that catfish fierce as
wildcats. The last one o’ the catfish's
family had been swept off the face of
the earth.
" i he ratfish, seein’ that the old rat’s
kitten was still left, innde up her mind
that she'd put an end to the cat's fam
ily and sort o’ even things up. sr> she
sprung back on to that log, grabbed
the kitten, and swallowed it, whole
»nd alive, rigr.t before its mother s
i,m.
“Jumpin’ hack into the water, the
catfish turned and stuck her big head
out, close by the log. and ns the old eat
wns tenrin’ her hair, as von might say,
or leastways what little she had left,
and tt-.r mournin' anil moanin' for her
lost kitlen. fish opened her mouth
front ear to ear. so as *..e cat could
hear her kitten cryin’ 'way down in
the catfish’s depths. Say! 1 could
hear that kitten cry myself, way over
on the bank where I was set tin'!
"Well, that voice of her kitten wns
more than the bereaved yaller rut
could stand. She pounced square on
top of the catfish and they both went
down together.
“1 didn't see nor hear nothin’ more
of either of ’em for maybe lliree min
utes. and I matte up my iiiitiu that the
cut had g< tie to join it*-1 kitten, when
I sec a ripple on the witter, and the
next minute the yaller cat conic to the
top.
“She swam ashore, anil she hail the
cattish in tow. The catfish was dead,
uml considerable clawed up.
“The yaller eat drug it out on
shore. Then she ripped it open with
ht-r claws, anti out stepped the kitten,
big as ns life anti twice as natural, it
was tla/.ed a little fer a spell, hut soon
got it’s lieu tin's, anti trotted away
with the old yaller cut as if nothin’ hail
happened, nail I didn't see'em no more.
"There," concluded the man from
Pochuck, “them’s the news I’ve brung
over this time. Don't you believe X
seen ’em?"
Baldy, the landlord, lit his eigar
butt, put it in his mouth and said:
"Yes, I do. But you wouldn't
seeu 'em if you had stayed away from
the stone frolic."
This view of the case seemed to af
fect the man from Pochuck so that lie
got up quick, and without even inquir
ing if there were any points around
here in any way resembling those of
the kind he said he hud run against at
Sprout Hill, he turned bis face Po
ahuckwurd.—N. Y. Sun.
P«C« Urowrsell?
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