March 1, 1896. [Poem on fall waterfowl hunt near Pawlet.] Omaha Sunday Bee page 15. [Poem on Autumn Waterfowl Hunt near Pawlet]Pawlet, Feb. 4.-To the Editor of The Bee: The following poem I dashed off last night with one hand behind my back. It depicts, however, in realistic colors, and aroma, an event which occurred at Hamilton's lake a year ago last fall. I acted as a guide to the party referred to in verse, and you will confer a great favor on their sandhill friends by giving it a place in your valuable columns.
- Draw your cheers a little closer,
- Git aroun' the blazing log,
- Fill them up again there, landlord,
- Let us have a drop o' grog;
- An' I'll tell yez all a story
- 'Bout a party of the boys,'
- From the town of Omahaha
- Who came out to make some noise,
- With their nice, slick hunting breeches
- An' their guns all polished up,
- They was goin' to have some shooting
- Be it quail, or "chick" or pup,
- An' they had their ammunition,
- Faith they knew just what to bring,
- In a flask of glass and leather,
- Stuff to set one's blood a-ting.
- Well they see me standing near them
- An' they'd heard o' me, they say,
- So they hired me to go with 'em,
- Said they weren't afraid to pay,
- An' I promised that I'd fetch 'em
- Where they'd get the best of game.
- So we tramped around the sandhills
- An' all we saw was mighty tame.
- Well, there wasn't much use shootin'
- When we'd nothing for a mark,
- So we thought we'd make a cottage
- For the night was getting dark.
- An' they told me who they was, then
- As we sat around the fire-
- Lord! I mind it well this minute-
- The thermometer was higher,
- 'Course tonight it's down past zero,
- But that night it warn't so bad,
- Tho' t'was cold enough, I'll bet you
- And those fellows, they were glad
- That they'd brought some "bitin' billy"
- In their little leather flask.
- Well, they emptied it and filled it,
- An' I had all that I could ask.
- One they said, was Sandy Griswold,
- And a sport yez ought to see,
- All the others said that Sandy
- Wrote the sermons in The Bee,
- He was kind o' church reporter,
- 'Cause he was so meek and good
- But I never saw no churchman
- Hit that flask as Sandy could.
- One of them they all called Stocky
- An' his maiden name was Heth,
- But he felt a kind of rocky
- 'Cause he had some aching teeth,
- Aching not because they hurt him,
- But because he wanted game.
- he was quite a hand at shootin',
- And plain grub was kind of tame.
- Hamilton, He was another,
- But he didn't make much noise
- And the others said that he was
- Always Frank, when with the boys.
- Well, he wasn't much on drinking,
- For he was a quiet chap,
- So he quietly retired and
- Said he guesses he'd take a nap.
- But, of course, I can't Skip Dundy,
- He was with us, too, that night,
- As we all turned in at bedtime,
- Going to bed by pale moonlight.
- Well, we hadn't been asleep yet
- More'n an hour or so at most
- When we heard a tap, tap, tappin'
- At the door and window post.
- And we wondered what the row was
- Some one says, "It's a chip-munk;"
- Others, it was something different;
- And sez I, "Boy's, it's a skunk;"
- Then up sprang the sturdy Sandy
- Pale and trembling like a child,
- With is teeth all set a-clinchin',
- And his eyes a-startin' wild.
- An' the one they all called Frankie
- With abbreviated shirt
- Looking like a naked scare-crow
- Says, "Aw, now, is he good sport,"
- Well, they shot at him and missed him,
- An' they shivered like to freeze
- In their low neck, short-sleeved clothing
- Till they all began to sneeze.
- The next morning found some bullets
- Sticking in an old barn door,
- But the target wasn't near there,
- Mister Skunkie was no more.
- Should you go to Omahaha
- Anxious to get on a drunk
- Ask these boys to come and tell you
- How they didn't kill the skunk.
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