Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-03-06
a THRILLING STORY.

I The following story we take from that
Interesting book, sParley's Thousand
and One Stories" 1t is founded upon
an occurrence which actually took place
in Vermont some forty years ago. The
facts are almost literally related as fol-
| lows:
My brother Heman liked the business
of carrying the mail better than 1 did,
and so went to work in anew dearing,
had commenced about a mile and a half
from home, and not quite so far from
the house of a brother-in law I used
to stay as often at one place as the other
1t was bad arrangement, as, in case of
accident, neither family would be alarmed
or go to look for me if I should not
come home. I felt the force of this in
the course of the winter as you will see
directly.
There had been one of our rold.fash-
ioned Northern New Y ork SHOWS, crusted
over hard enough to bear man. Twas
getting on famously with my clearing,
getting ready to build house in the
spring. I was ambitious, and worked
early and late; going without my dinner
some days, when the piece of bread and
meat l had brought in my pocket was
frozen so hard that / could not masticate
it without taking up too much of my
time. One day it was intensely cold,
with prospect of storm, that might
hinder my work the next day, and SO l
worked on as long as I could see, and
after twilight / felled a tree, which, in
its descent, lodged against another. l
could not bear the idea of leaving the
job half finished, and mounted the al
most PROSTATE body to cut away limb
to let it down
The bole of the tree forked, about
forty feet up, into two equal parts, with
large projecting limbs from both. 1t
was one of these I had to cut away to
bring it to the ground. In my haste,
perhaps was not so careful as should
have been, at any rate, the first blows
eased the lodgment so that the tree be-
gan, to settle and / was just going to
jump off, when the fork split, and as it
didSso, one foot dropped into the space,
so that ] could not extricate it for the
noment;ls but I felt no alarm for / knew
| that could cut away the tree ina min
fute, or perhaps draw my foot out of the
boot, as the pressure was not severe.
At the first blow of the axe the tree took
another start, rolled oyer, and the split
closed with all the force of its giant
strength, crushing my foot till the very
bones were fattened, and there hung
suspended, just able to touch the tips Of
Imy fingers in the snow, with nothing to
rest upon for moment-thea air at zero
and growing eolder-no prospect Of
any one coming that way that night
the nearest house mile away-no
friends to feel alarmed at my absence, for
one would suppose me safe with the
other. gss.,.sg
My axe in its fall rested upon the
snow crust, about ten feet off. IF I
could only get that, l might yet save
myself. | did not think how | was to
cut myself lose from the body of that
great tree, suspended as 7 was, head
down, and suffering with the rushing
current of disordered blood, but l
thought in that keen blade my only
hope of life was fixed. just forward of
me grew asslim bush, which I thought
if I could obtain, l could form into a
hook by twisting the limbs together, and
draw the axe~within my reach -
Although the bush was out of my
reach l at last succeeded in getting hold
of it by means of loop made by tying
my suspenders together | drew it
toward me and cut it. off with my
pocket knife-one of that sort so long
known as Barlow Knives having a
single blade about two and a half inches
long and three eighths of an inch wide,
with equal width allits length set in a
handle of peculiar form, half its length
iron, and half horn or bone 1 sue
ceeded admirably in fashioning my
hook and almost felt the handle of the
axe within my grasp, so certain was I of
success. From the tree that imprisoned
me the ground descended rapidly for a
dozen rods or more to little creek. My
axe lay upon the brow of the hill. The
first movement | made toward twisting
the loop of my stick around the handle,
SO as, to draw it within my reach, loos-
ened it from its icy rest, and away it
went down the hill, crushing through the
little frost brittle bushes down upon the
ice of the creek, down to little fall a
few rods below, and over that into the
unfrozen pool, with surging sound, as
it fell into the water, that seemed to
send its icy chill through every vein and
artery in my whole body.
still had my knife True, it was a
rough surgical instrument, but hope and
the love of life gave me strength to climb
up my fastened leg, and cut away the
boot and stocking, and then with that
knife I unjointed my ankle and fell to
the ground-mylef leg a footless bleed
ing stump! The intensity Of the cold
saved me from bleeding to death. l
tore offa part ofmy coat, and with hand
kercheif and suspenders managed to bind
up my leg with handful Of snow, and
started to crawl home l succeeded in
reaching within sight of the house, and
then-strength utterly failed me- =
tried my voice in vain, but I could
make no one hear. [ exerted myself
once more, and .crawled toward the road
that 1 knew Heman must come It
was painful task, for, besides my ex7
haustion, I was perishing with cold
just then L heard the sound of my
brothers stage horn, and the jingle of
the bells eoming down the hill. I
strained my voice to the utmost pitch,
but he did not, could not hear; but there
was another friend-man' S faithful friend
who did hear Old Hunter, the, no.
Bile dog, had insisted upon accompanying
him this trip, and brother said, "Let