Part 15 (2/2)

Soe can lead to trouble I reasoned that, since a big stick of wood burns slower and longer than a se rick of poould burn more slowly and thereby affordalong beside the burning powder as it wiggled and twisted here and there, as a snake would crawl across the pasture I remembered the matches I had stood up in the sand at Grandma's, and how the flame had leaped from match to match until it reached the last one And that's what I wanted to do with a string of powder-light it at one end and watch the flame slowly travel to the other end I had plenty of powder so I piled it up into a rick about two inches high and as long as from here to yonder

And that hen I learned, by experience, that big powder burns faster than little powder When I lighted one end of the powder- snake, it blasted fire and sht up into my face I fell back quickly for protection Then I reopened my eyes just in time to see my fireball fizzle out at the far end of the rick of powder I hardly saw any of what happened-it was all gone in two or three seconds I was glad no one else had seen it Needless to say, that endedto play powder monkey

There was no one at the quarry who really kne to blast efficiently But then one day acaps instead of the fuses he had been using By drilling shallow holes, placing less explosives in each hole, and setting the was much more efficient and a lot safer Before that time, the custom was to set off a small blast in the bottoe enough to hold as ht cans of powder and 80 sticks of dynamite That didn't result in a lot of usable rock for the road ere building Instead, it h into the air

Earl didlate in the afternoons after work hours when the workers were out of the quarry When he was ready to set off a blast, he yelled, ”FIRE IN THE HOLE,” and everybody took cover, and the most reliable cover was a lot of distance I saw a few rocks as large as your fist fall a half-mile away One tih and cah the roof of the cook shack, ca, landed in a stack of h the table and on down through the floor Another tion bed protected hiainst a wheel and scooted the wagon sideways a couple of feet

They told us that before ent to work there, one blast failed to go off for soo off Then finally they cautiously ventured out fro alht have killed hih He said he looked down on trees during his flight I don't know, really Of course it could be true, it happened in Texas you know

One day a ned on to work for Marvin, worked a couple of days, and disappeared without asking for his pay We had not known it at the ti of it, but when a couple of men came out a week later and arrested one of theether and came up with the answer The ent for the F B I

When arrested for ents he had been expecting theot hiularly and had preached a few times in a little country church near by

Well, we Johnsons were ht have suspected souess we should haveforAnytiht have known that financial disaster was lurking near by The old devil was after ht have to throw me overboard, as the sailors did Jonah

This ti company had its money, the money which was paid to Marvin Hood month by month He couldn't pay us He couldn't even pay himself Papa often paid cash out of his own pocket for supplies for Marvin Then Marvin would repay hiht Papa without any cash And Marvin couldn't get any et a little et back to Hae car I don't knoe made it I think we drove part way on kerosene; we could buy it for only four or five cents a gallon And of course we arrived hoood After years of negotiating, Papa finally got about half the ons used for hauling the crushed rock at Gorman

While there at Gorman, Old Scotch took sick as commonly known as sore , he finally died

If Old Scotch had died suddenly before his period of suffering, it would have been al one of the faer than some of us could remember We wouldn't have sold hihly, since we had found no , and since he had suffered for so long, his death didn't bother us quite so lad his pain had ended

I don't really knoas done for Old Scotch during his sickness That fell in Papa's line of duty I would guess that he asked the advice of a druggist or an MD, or s Veterinarians were practically nonexistent If there had been one around he would have been called an ani for the dog which could in any way be classed as veterinary medicine, as we know it today

All my memories of Old Scotch are pleasant ones except for those last ht place at the right ti There is no way of knowing how many times, if ever, he saved one of us from the poisonous bite of a rattlesnake

On our Lamesa farm rattlesnakes were everywhere, not every day, but at one time or another They were in pastures, in cow trails, beside cow trails, in the garden in shades of potato vines, in chicken houses, in feed barns, in the corn patch and in the watermelon patch Wherever they were, there was a 50-50 chance Old Scotch had been there ahead of us And when there was a snake, he often found it first

When there was so he wanted us to know about, he barked And the tone of his bark told us whether the soerous or only a horned toad to be played with for a ht a bark in a tone which seemed to say, ”Coate after I drive her out” Chickens in the yard brought no bark at all He could handle chickens alone A skunk or a badger brought a bark from Old Scotch which told us he would like to have some of us around if only to keep him company and help him make decisions, andit away, he would always accept a congratulatory pat on his head, if we had one to offer And he was s instinctively Of course, we all know that dogs know a lot of dog things by instinct But Old Scotch knew huht One day Papa was building fence on our Lamesa farm We boys were in school, so Old Scotch ith Papa, also building fence and looking after Papa As thewarmed up, Papa pulled off his blue deniround, there not beinga ju at that place, he started walking along the fence to his next place of work

Then he noticed an enthusiastic whine fro, which was really a half-whine-half-yelp expression, but anyhow, it got Papa's attention He looked back The dog was sitting there pleading with Papa He first looked at the jued his tail in ayour jumper and I don't want to stay here and watch after it I want to go with you”

Papa went back and let hie, but that he hadn'tin words which he could understand real well because he had heard theht Leave it alone You can go”

And with a happy little yelp whichof his tail, he quickly bounced up beside hison his way out front to clear Papa's path of any and all verht lurk in his path

Old Scotchin the world, but there is no doubt he was the whippingest So far as I know, he whipped every dog that ever challenged hiht of conquest Once I sao dogs jue as Old Scotch, but he whipped the away He didn't suffer a scratch I'll ad on his ho section was on his side

Once ato co And while the s went about their business of getting acquainted with each other It seeht started The speed hich Old Scotch struck the other dog took him by complete surprise, and he went backward and sideways, al his balance

Then alht it to a halt with the command, ”Scotch, stop that!” Whether the command was ”sic 'em” or ”stop that,” Old Scotch usually responded immediately In this particular case, a ”sic 'eht and the ”stop that” ended it