T. Vandemark, possession having already been
given, the following described personal property, to wit:
1 Bay Mare called Susie, weight 1150 lbs., with star in forehead, and
white left hind foot, five years old;
1 Bay Mare called Winnie, weight 1175 lbs., with star in forehead, and
two white hind feet, six years old;
1 one-seated, swell-body cutter, one fine army blanket, one coonskin
robe lined with flannel, one large buffalo robe.
It is hereby understood that if any of said animals are ever returned to
me at Blue-grass Manor or elsewhere they will be hamstrung by the
undersigned and turned out to die.
Signed, J. Buckner Gowdy.
One of my grandsons, Frank McConkey, has just read over this chapter,
and remarks, "He was a dead game sport!" But he had also read what
Captain Gowdy had interlined, or rather written on the margin to go in
after the description of the property conveyed: "Also one blue-blooded
black-and-tan terrier name 'Nicodemus.' The tail goes with the hide,
Jacob!" Since his death, I have grown to liking the man much better; in
fact ever since I whaled him.
* * * * *
Here ends the story, so far as I can tell it. It is not my story. There
are some fifteen hundred townships in Iowa; and each of them had its
history like this; and so had every township in all the great, wonderful
West of the prairie. The thing in my mind has been to tell the truth;
not the truth of statistics; not just information: but the living truth
as we lived it.
Pages:
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441