Читать книгу Buffalo Land - W. E. Webb - Страница 8

Table of Contents

A TRIAL BY JUDGE LYNCH—HUNG FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT—QUAIL SHOOTING—HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OF KILLING THEM—A RING OF QUAILS—THE EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER—THE SNOW GOOSE.

A short time after supper, Tenacious Gripe appeared with the mayor of the city, who wished to make the acquaintance of the Professor. The two august personages bowed to each other. It was the happiest moment in their respective lives, they declared. An invitation was extended us to delay our departure another day and try quail shooting. The citizens said the birds were unusually abundant, the previous winter having been mild and the summer long enough for two separate broods to be hatched, and the brush and river banks were swarming with them. As we were about to abandon the birds of the West and seek an acquaintance with its beasts, we decided, after a brief consultation, to accept the invitation and remain another day.

Among the persons present in the crowded office of the hotel, was a man from the southwestern part of the state who had lately been interested in a trial before the celebrated Judge Lynch. Sachem interviewed him, and reports his statement of the occurrence in the log book, as follows:

A stranger played me fur a fool,

An' threw the high, low, jack,

An' sold me the wuss piece of mule

That ever humped a back.

But that wer fair; I don't complain,

That I got beat in trade;

I don't sour on a fellow's gain,

When sich is honest made.

But wust wer this, he stole the mule,

An' I were bilked complete;

Such thieves, we hossmen makes a rule

To lift 'em from their feet.

We started arter that 'ere pup,

An' took the judge along,

For fear, with all our dander up,

We might do somethin' wrong.

We caught him under twenty miles,

An tried him under trees;

The judge he passed around the "smiles,"

As sort o' jury fees.

"Pris'ner," says judge, "now say your say,

An' make it short an' sweet,

An', while yer at it, kneel and pray,

For Death yer can not cheat.

No man shall hang, by this 'ere court,

Exceptin' on the square;

There's time fur speech, if so it's short,

But none to chew or swear."