THE OVERDOING OF TOWSER II.

Lake County Press, Issue 1064, 14 May 1903, Page 6

THE OVERDOING OF TOWSER 11.

This is a true story, because the remai: a of the hen are still in circulation. When the golf epidemic captured Wbr*tley the victims scoured the country far and wide to find ground suitable for links. Hi Efaoock's pasture was selected as being tiis site, and negotiations were entered into wii ti Mr. Hacock with a view to leasing, anJ eventually purchasing the land. Hi was wary. For some time he held ofF. He could not understand why a crowd of people wanted to acquiie so much ground " jes' to play shinney on."' To the mot>t casual reader it must be evident that Hi had never indulged in golf. Finally, after he had been talked to by the Mayor, both bankers, aud the school superintendent, and other leading citizens, r.ll goiafics, lie consented and gave the leuso desired, Immediately the old pasture became a famous resort. The Wheatley Golf Club, ita friends aud friends' friends, flocked theie. Business in the town of Wheatley was paralysed. No one had any time for business. Out of this fervour rose a unique incident, which i believe is unprecedented in the annals of golf.Especially is it unique because it is true: 1 can prove it. In fact, 1 will prove it at the conclusion of Urn narrative. But now I will let Hi take up the thread. He says;— " (Jouidn't see as they'd hurt the land aoy, tho' they ploughed it an' cut it consider'Cli* hittiu' it with their sticks, uu' as they paid my price I rented it to 'em. Then they catue out, mormn', noon, aa' night, men an* women, with red shirts and knee-pants tucked into their socks an' short dresses, an' every durn one had about a dozen of them goff sticke. My boys an' Peter's boys, they m&do as high as a dollar a day totin'sticks for patties playin', and I tol' 'em to go ahead, an' I hired han's to do their choree. " When the players weern't playin', they an' their help—' caddies, that's what they call 'em, isn't it ?—wete looking for lust balls. The way balls were lost was a caution, —part of the game, I reckon. 1 dunno who beat. Anyway, the.se women—you never could tell where their balls waa gom eto land—they'd BVfat at the ball, an' b'goeh, 'twas as likely to go behind 'em as in front. Some of tho meu, specially them little dudea with stuffed calves, was as bad. Quito often the big fellcis would knock a ball cleau out sight—that is, out of sight where anybody was expectin' 'twould light. '• I began to tiiiuk I'd better go over that pasture with a hoss-rake an' gather in a few bundled balls jes' for luck, when Towser 11. came to the front. You nius' have heard of Towser 11. Pshaw now 1 Why, Towsnr 11. was the famous-si set tin' hen in the hull country. Set? She was a setter from Settersville. Named her Towser after a setter dog we used to own. Both setters —but she was the setterest-. " That hen—why. when we had the hailstorm year ago, with hail big as your fist, shs got out in the yard an' tried to set on th* hails-tones. She tried firs' on one lot.an* then she'd think she taw a better place, an' she'd hustle over an' Bet there. . Never saw a hen so flustrated. Job too big for her, I reckon. Leastwise, she like i o caught her death-a-cold. But this ain't the p'int. " About them, got! balls. One day we missed old Towser, an' I says to ma, says I : ' Towser's a-settin" ag'iu. Johnny'il have to go out in the mormn' an' hunt her up.' So in the morn in' Johnny struck out, an' he follered the gully down through the pasture, while I s'arched the barn. But where do yon reckon we f oan' Towser ? In the driedtip swamp, b'gosh, a-settin' to beat creation, with fourteen goff. balls under her ! Fourteen, by gum 1 " ' Wa-al, old lady,' I thought, ' we dor 't want no iug\-rubber chickens, so I'll jes' relieve yd*U of these here eggs. With her a-cluckin' an' a-spulteiin' at me, 1 put tlnbails in my hut and started off. When Towser saw that, she jes' giv' a little flirt of her tail, sassy like, much as to say : ' I'll show yon you can't get -ahead of me,' an' 'stead of takin' after me, ar. usual, swearin' an askin* for her eggs, she made way through tho swamp-grass as tight as she could go. " Nex' time we fonn' her sho was in a corner under the rail fence, settin' on twelve goff balls. She'd c'lected 'em in less'n an hour, 1 swum, an' was pleased as a peacock. 1 begun to see I'd struck a real bonanzie. 1 dumped this second lot long with the firs', in a barrel. In about an hour more wo rounded up Towser in the swamp ag'in on top of fifteen balls. All day wo jes let her have full swing, an' at night durned if I didn't have'a barrel plum heaped with goff balls. Dunno how many dozen, but anyway old Towser had done herself proud. " With goff balls wuth forty cents apiece, new. as somebody tol' me, I reckoned this was purty fair day's work. I counted on turnin' Towser loose every day, 'a long aa she liked it, an' she'd morc'n earn our keep easy. Of course she could'nt do as well as this every stretch, for balls wouldn't get sech head-start ag'in. but I figgered on two dozen a day. ■• ' Twould have panned out all right if the blamed fool hadn't hid herself so we couldn't fin' her lor threo dayß. Somehow she carried a lot of them balls off a mile—one at a time, I calc'late—into the timber 'long the creek, an' made a nest in a holler stump. Sot there till we came across her by accident, an' she'd sot so stiddy, fearin'a we'd interrupt ag'in. an' the ingy-rubber was all roun' her legs an' on her stomick, an" she waß about all rubber, so we couldn't get her apart. She died fiom it.'' "And you Bold her to Mrs. Robinson's boarding -house,'' I added. " .Durned if I didn't ! How do you. know ?" exclaimed Hi, astonished. ,' We had her for dinner," I replied. " Aud, Hi, they hadn't been able to get th« rubber off." Hi laughed.