Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-08-12
CHANCES AND CHANGES.


CHANCES AND CHANGES.
BY MRS. FRANCIS D. GAGE.
81 say, Mr.. Conductor, when viii the next
express train go out to St. Louis ~
s.EIeven o'clock and thirty minutes tonight,
sir,'' was the gentleuanly reply to the rough
query.
"Eleven O'Clock and thirty minutes Go to
Texas! Why, it's ten this very minute, I'll
bet my boots against a jack knife the morning
express is off,"
ssYes, sir, it has been gone half an hour"
"Why in nature didn't you get us here soon
err Fourteen hours in Chicager is enough to
break fellow all to smash. Fourteen hours
in Chicager, putting and blowing I've been
told they keep a regular six hundred hoss
steam power all the while running, to blow
themselves up with, and pick the pockets of
every traveller to pay the firemen and engin-
GERS! Wal, 1 guess 1 can stand it; I've
twenty that's never been broke, think that
will put me through. Why didn't you fire up,
old brag-giTe your old hoss another peck Of
oats Itell ye, this fourteen hours will knock
my calculations all into the middle of next
week.
.very sorry, sir-we've done our best; but
as we are not clerks of the weather, hope
you viii not lay your misfortunes to our ac-
count. Snow drifts and the thermometer six
teen below zero, are enemies We not readi-
ly overcome
"That's so," said the first speaker, with
broad emphasis, and good natured, forgiving
smile. "Fourteen hours IN Chicager!''
The stentorian voice, sounding like a
trumpet, had aroused every sleeper from ely
sian dreams into which he might have fallen
after his long. tedious, cold nights travel.
Every head was turned, every eye was fixed on
the man Who had broke the silence. He was
standing by the stove warming his boots. To
have warmed his feet through such mass of
cowhidc and sole leather, would have been a
fourteen hours operation. Six feet four or five
inches he stood il those boots, with shoulders
ceased in a fur coat) that looked more like
bearing up world than you will meet ordina-
rily, in half a lifetime. His head Webstcrian,
his shaggy hair black as jet, his whiskers to
match, his dark, piercing eye, and his jaws G.
ternally moving, with rousing quid between
them, while a smile of cheerful good humor,
MISUNDERSTANDING ufS SSSusihS iinpdtiSuCC, at
tracted every ones attention.
"Fourteen hours in Chicager, eha Wal, /
can stand it, if the rest can; if twenty dollars
won't carry me through, I'll borry OF my
friends, I've got the things that'll bring 'em.
That's SOD
And be thrust his hand, q little less in..size
than common spade, down into the caver-
nous depths of broad striped, fashy pair Of
pants, and brought mp that great red hand, full
as il could hold, of shining twenty dollar gold
pieces.
aDon't yer think I can stand these ere Chi
cagers for one fourteen hours 2''
A nod of assent from three or four, and a
smile OF curiosity from the rest, answered his
question in the Affirmative.
oYou must have been in luck, stranger
said an enyious looking little man, ssyou've
more than your share of gold.'
81 have, eh7 Well, reckon not. ! came
honestly by it. THAT'S So And there's them
living who can remember this child when he
went round the p'raries trapping p'rarry hens
and the like, to get him night lodging, or 9
pair of shoes, to keep the Massasangers from
biting my toes; /; Iye hung myself up more mol
one night in the timber, to keep out of the
way of the wild varmints; best sleeping ir
the world, in the crotch Of tree top! Now
Ireckon you wouldn't believe it, but I've gens
all winter without shoe to my foot; and iivee
on wild game, when could ketch it. That's
500
''Didn't stunt your growth, !" said voice.
ssNot bit Of it. It brought me up right
These p'rarries are wonderful roomy.
thought one spell would let myself out en-
tirely, but mother and me held corcus, ant
decided that she was getting old, and biin'
like, it TUX too long. and cost too much tim
TO sew up the legs of my trousers, and SO pn
siep to it, and concluded that six foot dy
would do for feller that couldn't afford tn
expensive luxury Of a wife to make hi
Dre:ches. 1t was only my love for my mothe
tnat stopped my growth. II I'D had an ide
OF sewing machine, there's no telling what
might done."