The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-03-13
Just Beyond.
BY 7. S. ARTHUR.

We heard, or dreamed, this story of
two lost children: boy and a girl.
They had gone for an afternoons ber-
rying in the fields and woods, and after
filling their baskets started for home.
But the sky had become heavily over
cast with clouds, so that they could not
tell the east from the west, and as they
had wandered away from old beaten
paths and familiar localities, the effort
to reach their home ere nightfall,
proved failure. With blank, pale
face, and lips trembling with fear, the
youngest, a boy, looked up to his COM
panion, as the evening shadows began
to creep down among the thick leaved
branches of the trees, and said:
"Oh, sister Edie, are we lost 2"
Edie did not answer, but the boy saw
the paleness of his own face reflected
in hers.
"This is the way, think"
She did not feel the confidence which
she sought to throw into her voice, but
she was one year older than her brother,
and must therefore act for both. She
felt the flutter of his hand, as it clung
to hers tightly.
But the little opening among the
trees toward which she hurried ter
minated at the end of one hundred
yards, in dense mass of underwood,
through which she did not venture
to go.
care We lost sister," again asked tho
other child.
1t can't be far FROM home, Willy.
We will soon ind our way out of the
woods. Don't cry"
A sob, and then a wall of fear, cut
the air:
"Don't cry. Well soon he home"
How bravely Edie tried to speak,
even while her own heart was sinking.
The boy hid his face against her, weep
ing and shuddering. He had heard
about children being lost in the woods,
and terror overcame him.
Half forgetting herself in pity for her
affrighted and helpless brother, Edie
grew brave and strong, instead of cow
ardly and weak.
"Crying don't do any good, Willie,"
she spoke in firm tone, and we'll
never get home if we stand STILL"
She moved back the way she had
come through the opening, among the
trees, holding Willie by the hand.
"This is the way, / know it now"
She spoke with more confidence than
she Selt. Cattle tracks were seen and
she followed them down in deep ra-
vines, along hillsides, across narrow
clearings, and then into a dense wood
.. where she lost them i'm the darkness of
the coming night, and stood still trem-
bling.
Willie's cries broke cut again. He
was in despair.
"Hark % said Edie.
, The two children listened.
"What did you hear, Edie ?"
The child's voice was unnatural and
t choking.
E 81 don't hear any dog, Edie"
5 "But l do! Come! This is the
way !" and Edie pulled Willie after her,
through brush and briar, fastening in
the direction from which to her ears,
had seemed to come the barking of a
dog. Their hands and faces were
scratched and their clothes torn-their
4 limbs ached with fatigue-still they
:. kept on until the edge of the woods
!, was reached, and they saw wide field
: stretching beyond.
= "It's only little way now, said
! Edie, in brave, confident voice"
Ii But Pm so tired" moaned Willie,
dragging back, Sand my foot hnrts
|, me-"
e "I don't hear any dog, answered
1 Willie.
!, "But / do. Now walk on briskly.
{ Come Willie"
> Thus urged, the child kept on by the
side of his sister, until half across the
field, but his chafed and smarting feet,
his aching limbs, and his burden of fear
were too much for endurance, and he
. stood still again, crying sadly.
"Our house is just beyond the hill
= over the field, Willie. / heard Lion
; Now do come along. It's getting SC
. dark that we'll be lost if we don't
+ hurry"
: "We're lost now" sobbed Willie
+ "Oh, dear, oh, dear, and he cried more
y distressingly.
, LISTEN" said Edie.
d Her brother ceased crying.
n "What do you hear p
J, = "That was Lion barking"
; "I don't hear him."
"There, i heard it again. It's Lion
Comet Let's hurry across the field