Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1868-01-17

| ~ " W iSAOoN r..
ting; and you shall have it Wednes-
day night anyway" s ...Do d. D.
"You will have storm to do it
in I'm afraid" said he, looking at the
clouds, just as | was whipping up.
You're all right on the road, 1sup-
pose ?" 34 4'o p s i3'' I
"All right" said l, and Tn sure I
ought to have been, for the times I'd
been over it. '
Bess and Beauty, they were the
horses, and of the ugly nags that ever
[ say Beauty was the ugliest, started
on round trot, Slowing along down
the hill I; they knew they were going
home just as we'll as1 did. / looked
back as I turned the corner, to see the i.
boys standing round in their red
shirts, with the snow behind them,
and the fire and the shanties. felt
a mite lonely when | couldn't see 'em
any more; the snow was so dead still,
and there were thirty miles of it to
cross before could see human face
again. 'iaf
The clouds had an ugly look. few
fakes had fallen already and the
snow was purple, deep in as far as
you could see under the trees. Some-
thing made me think of Ben Gurnell,
as | drove on, looking down the road
to keep it straight. You never heard
about it? Poor Bent Poor Benz
1t was in '37, that was; he had been
out hunting up blazed trees, they sa d,
and wandered away somehow into
the Gray Goth, and went overt
was two hundred feet; they didn't
find him till spring Just little heap
of bones his wife had them taken
home and buried, and by and by
they had to take her away to hos
pital in Portland, she talked so hor-
ribIy, and thought she saw bones
round everywhere. -.'i goa A'5'i'3
1 There is no place like the woods
for bringing storm down Gu you
quick; the trees are so thick you
don't mind the first few flakes, till,
first you know, there's whirl of 'em
and the wind is up. T9-a 81 =
I was minding less about it than
usual, for | was thinking OF Naniiie,
that's what used to call her, Johnny,
when she was a girl, but it seems
long time ago, that does. | was
thinking how surprised she'd be, and
pleased | knew she would be pleas
ed. | didn't think so poorly of her
as to suppose she wasn't just as sorry
now asI was for what had happened.
[ knew well enough how She would
jump and throw down her sewing
, with a little scream, and run and put
her arms about my neck and cry, and
! couldn't help herself -2fp121 assod4
Sol didn'6 mind about the snow
for planning it alloout, till all at once
L looked aup,d and something slashed
into myTeyes and stung me, it1was
sleet.no9 +or ilnoV - ~ .7Go OF
.Oho y said Ito myself with a.
whistle-=it was a very long whistle,
Johnny; / knew well enough then it
was no play work | had before me-
till the sun went down, nor till morn.
4 ing either. f,r5 1ft aia5 oqor
1 That was about noon-it couldn't
have been half an hour since I'd eaten
my dinner; | eat it driving, for |
couldn't bear to waste time. ...s 4c
| The. road wasn't broken there an,
inch, and the trees were thin; there'd
been a clearing there years ago, and
!, wide, white level places wound off
among the trees one looked as much
like road as another, for the matter
Of that. l pulled my visor down
over my eyes to keep the sleet OUT,
after they re stung too much they're
good for nothing to see with, and ]
mast see, if | meant to keep that road.
4 | began to be cold You don't
/ know what it is to be cold, you don't
i Johnny, in the warm gentleman's life
you've lived | was used to Maine
forests, and l was used to January,
but that was what l called cold.
The wind blew from the ocean as
straight as an arrow. Tie ,sleet
blew every way, into your eyes, down
, your neck, in like a knife into your
cheeks. could feel the snow crunch
ing in under the runners, crisp, turn
ed to ice in minute. | reached out
, to give Bess a cut on the neck, and
the sleeve of my coat was stiff as
!; pasteboard before | bent my elbow
, up again. 'C''- so ,,'''' '7'l'=i'' .A.D
If you looked up at the sky, your
eyes were shut with snap as if some
body'd shot them. If you looked in
, under the trees, you could see the
, iciclesa a minute, and the purple shad-
ows. If you looked straight ahead
you couldn't see a thing. o. 99a1 Z .
By and by7I thought Ihad dropped
the reins; | looked at my hands and
! there I was holding them tight 1
knew then it was time to get out and
walk. 5Fai3 go b9sD s86 boaw era
, L didn't try much after that to look
, ahead it was no use, fer the slect
was fine, like needles, twenty of 'em
lin your eye at aiiwihk then itwas
la growing dark. 50 Bess and Beauty
knew the road as well as / did, soI
had to trust to them. / thought L
} must be coming near the clearing
where I'd counted on putting up over
i night in case / couldn't reach the
deaf old woman'ssa .A.is baB bn9h
There was man just out of Bangor