A little amusement seems a good idea this afternoon, so I thought I'd share this old story I ran across while continuing my genealogy research. It made me laugh out loud, maybe it will you as well. It's about a colorful fellow from the pioneering days of our American history - Gideon Crews, Jr (1779-1859). Oh for the days when there were actually plentiful rabbits in these East Texas woods for either man or dog to chase.........
Gid. Jr., in those days, at times liked a timely dram. Our mother used to tell us that he would come to her father's in a condition which made him merry and full of fun. The children would surround him when he was thus tipsy and ask him to tell them a story. Then he would tell them the story of the Irishman's dog, viz:
"One day there was an Irishman in the woods hewing with a broad-axe. His dog chased a rabbit. The rabbit came running right by where the man was hewing, and the dog in hot pursuit. The dog passed under the axe just as the man brought it down. It split the dog open from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. The man was distressed at the accident, but being an Irishman and quick witted, he snatched up both halves of the dog and slapped them together. The operation was so quick and the dog's blood so hot that the two parts stuck together and grew and the dog jumped out of his master's hand and renewed the chase and soon caught the rabbit. But the man in his haste to save the dog had made the mistake to turn two feet up and two feet down, and the dog found that he could run on two feet until they got tired and then whirl over and run on the other two, and so he could catch anything in the woods, and could run forever."
