Barbra Fritch | The Hodag (Online eBook)

In hunting animals, Nero and his mate have the same uncanny methods of capture. In appearance, the fish hound resembles the ordinary fox hound, from the tip of its nose to the end of the tail. One side of this fish hound is covered with feathers and the other side with the soft fur of the mink. Boys, if all goes well, this will be my last winter cutting down pine, as I intend to go into the raising of fish hounds. Good night“.
On another evening, as the program got under way, the dial pointed to Oley Severson. He used to drive a yoke of brindle bulls and could skid logs with the best of them. He was a great favorite with the crew. He was very serious as he took his seat on the “deacon’s throne”, and began with an effort to tell the following story :

BARBRA FRITCH

Yentlemen, I don’t vant to pay a fine,— I skal say, ‘I can’t sing, I don’t spik Janky, for why am I here?’ I yust wish my girl Christine bane here. She bane one smart girl, she bane go Pleasant Walley College. She can make piana yump up and down. She spik peace about north and south

big fight, and dis woman Barbra Fritch. Val, I vill say some vords like her:

Dis army you see come down the street like hall and she bane stick flag out window and jell for fellows up in pine woods. Down the street came Yenneral Yack. He was ridin’ straight in the center of the horse’s back,
He looked to the left and then to the right, And pulled out his snuce box wid all his might.
And spit in the air and yelled to his men, Who touches a hair on yon gray head, Dies lak a puppy dog, skip along, he said.’

As Oley finished his recitation, he was cheered to the roof, and the “deacon’s seat” was once more vacant.
The night was just beginning, so the next man in alphabetical order was a man whose age might be estimated as about fifty. His height might have been six feet, one inch on one side and probably five feet, nine and one half inches on the other side. One leg was somewhat shorter than the other. He had a long, cadaverous face. His left eye was missing and a heavy eyebrow covered the other eye, which was dark and piercing. There was a deep scar across