32 
IMPORTATION OF PURE BRED SAXON SHEEP. 
at the same time slapping his thigh and cocking up 
one eye, “ I’ll be there jist to plague ye, if nothin’ 
else. Howsomdever, if you reckon I’m goin’ to be 
heathy Old Mr. Joseph, of the Nile, or Mr. Travelled 
Joseph, of the Connecticut, or Mr. Ditch Diggin' 
Joseph, of Silver Brook, you are amazin’ mistaken, 
I can tell you. I’ll have every spring cut off from 
my meader this month a year, and that’s more than 
Joe has yet done ) and I’ll ax none o’ your hooks 
to help me nother. All I want is my own head, 
and feet, and hands, and them of my boys : ‘ in for 
a penny, in for a pound—’ “Bravo, I interrupted, 
quoting a proverb to match his, and put an end to a 
dozen more I feared would he forthcoming, ‘ a good 
resolve is half the work;’ but we are out fishing now, 
so let’s done with the meadow talk for the present. 
Well, Joe, though we have caught plenty of other 
fish, as you see, we have not been able to get a 
trout bite during the whole day. You are a genius 
in this line, can’t you help us to some % He re¬ 
plied the weather was too hot, and they were too 
well fed and sluggish to rise to the bait from the 
coo], deep places where they nestled, yet if we 
liked, he would try his hand at “ ticklin’ up a mess 
for us.” “ Ticklin’ trout,” exclaimed Uncle Sim, 
with eyes and mouth suddenly wide open, “ what’s 
that % I never heerd o’ sich a thing; why, you 
might as well talk to me about animal magnetizin’ 
’em 5 but I guess you wont find the shy critters 
settin’ sleepy, like foolish humans to be rubbed 
down the head and sides at will.” “Come along, 
then, Mr. Doo doubtful,' 1 '' added Joe, a little nettled 
at the want of faith of my neighbor in his proposed 
operations, “ and if I don’t show you a thing or 
two, then I’m willin’ to get a duckin’ for 
nothin’.” 
Saying this, he led off to a pool in the brook 
about twenty feet broad, and five feet deep. Here 
we found the water so clear, and the gravelly bot¬ 
tom so white and clean, that we could distinctly 
see now and then, the tail of a fine trout, just peep¬ 
ing from under a large loose stone, or thin ledge of 
rock, while his body was waving to and fro in 
the smooth still water. “ There,” said Joe, u now 
stand back •” and instantly divested himself of his 
hat and shirt, and then tying his panjs close around 
his waist with his suspenders, he took up a heavy 
stone in each hand, for ballast, silently sunk into 
the lower edge of the pool, and darted like an otter 
for the trout. As he reached the rock under which 
they lay, he quietly let go his ballast, seized the 
ledge with his left hand to prevent his rising, and 
with the right he carefully began touching the trout 
at the tail, then up its sides, till he reached the gills, 
which being partly open, he instantly inserted his 
thumb in one, and forefinger in the other, and to 
Uncle Sim’s utter surprise, backed a few feet down 
the stream, and then rose with it to the surface of 
the water, and brought it ashore. This he repeat¬ 
ed on an average two or three times from each pool, 
before frightening them, and at last obtained each 
of us a good mess. 
This great and unexpected success, so excited 
Uncle Sim, that he resolved to undertake tickling 
the next pool. It was in vain I told him that with 
his great bulk, he could not possibly rival the eel¬ 
like form, of Joe Watkins, and that he would only 
frighten the trout away, and injure the subsequent 
fishing; but he would not listen to reason; “ he 
could tickle them out o’ their seven senses, sartin 
sure, as w T ell as the best man alive and so he 
stripped himself to the task. At this, Joe gave 
me a sly wink, and then sang out, “ here, Uncle 
Sim, is the tail of a whopper; now’-s your, time.” 
Without looking very closely, in plunged Mr. 
Doolittle, and down he dove for his prey, eyes 
wide open. He had not been under the water ten 
seconds, before he rose to the top blowing like a 
porpoise, and splashing with something large and 
heavy, which we could but indistinctly see, fast 
hold of his right forefinger. 
“ Joe,” he yelled out like a wounded loon, as 
soon as he could get his breath, “ you everlastin’ 
scoundrel; why didn’t you tell me that trout bit ? 
I’ll wallop your hide off on you for this trick, you 
tarnal ugly critter.” Joe was ready to die laugh¬ 
ing, and for the life of me I could not but join with 
him, when I saw that instead of catching a trout, a 
great black mud turtle had caught Uncle Sim by 
the hand! But the moment he lifted him clear of 
the water, the turtle let go his hold, so that Mr. 
Doolittle luckily escaped with a few moments of 
sharp pain, but a wound followed that took nearly 
a month to heal. This taught him not to be quite 
so presumptuous and obstinate for the future ; and 
that Joe w r as not altogether quite the “ simple crit¬ 
ter” he took the liberty of too frequently calling 
him. Sergeant Teltrue. 
P. S. I beg, Mr. Editor, through you, to pre¬ 
sent my compliments to our excellent old friend 
Reviewer, and say that I appreciate very highly the 
flattering notices he has, from time to time, been so 
kind as to take of my humble sketches. His good 
opinion alone would have been a sufficient incen¬ 
tive for me to have gone on, and contributed regu¬ 
larly, to every number of your excellent paper; but 
having unfortunately sprained my wrist, in pitch¬ 
ing, the last day of my haying the past summer, it 
has been impossible for me to take pen to write till 
now, except with great pain. If by my lucubra¬ 
tions I have afforded Reviewer one tithe the profit 
and pleasure that he has me, by his practical good 
sense, shrewd criticisms, and quaint wit, I am more 
than satisfied ; and trust that whatever I may do, 
lie will continue his writing: and that one of these 
days we may see each other, face to face, when we 
wall colloquize with less restraint than w T e now do 
in the pages of the Agriculturist. S. T. 
Agolcnequaw , December, 1848. 
IMPORTATION OF PURE BRED SAXON SHEEP. 
We w T ere highly gratified in noticing on board 
the barque Weiland, from Bremen, arrived here 
on the 25th November, a lot of seventeen Saxon 
sheep, for Mr. J. A. Taintor, and Abijah Catlin* 
Esq., of Hartford, Connecticut. These sheep were 
purchased under the direction of Mr. Taintor, from 
two of the choicest flocks in upper Saxony; and 
notwithstanding their long journey, they arrived in 
good health and condition. 
The wool of these sheep is of the finest and best 
quality; and the animals have more size, and we 
should think constitution also, than any other Sax¬ 
on sheep we ever saw. Indeed, till now, we have 
had but an imperfect notion of what constituted a 
