Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1869-04-14
~ ,anaily cIored with snow 0,,, nor rii hands

lsa ~ tgtAayasa,s,l
He roughly chafed with snow her hands
and face, but he soon saw that severel
measures must be tried; that the lothorgy
was too deep. She dimly felt the fierce
friction, for,she, moened and seemed 70
shrink from il ;a wordless request 70 be
| left alone. ~ E| W h5 W
Russell had forgotten the cold for him.
self; the snow swept by him unheeded,r
Again he lifted her in his arms and stepped
out into the snow, letting her stand beside
him, then trying to make her fight her way
on, knowing that if she could once be
aroused she was saved.
AT firNt she fell down hopelessly sank In
Eanimately with no wish to stir, But in O
| MON ent his ceaseless efforts had some ef
feet, and he could compel her to use hei
muscles slightly, though her head dropped
in an unknowing stupor.
Russell felt that he had never suffered be-
fore He thought the pain, aud sorrows o.
all his life were crowded into that one night
By slow degrees almost shOpelessly slow
consciousness and horrible suffering return
ed.
= His face was pale and sick as he knew
the agonies she endured, But pain was
the signal of life, and not now would ne
despair. IE
L At last she looked at him with recOgniz
| ing eyes, and when everything else had fail
| cd, love reached the fountain OF crimson,
and sent o wave of its red to hertace.
Weak, suffering, she reclined,t upon his
arm, unable to move OF to speak. Gould
he keep the life he had saved Through 0
much longer journey.
When he left the city there were few
houses scattered by the roadside for two OF
three miles. The dim glimmer of then
| lights he had seen, but since Then he had
noticed nothing-it was waste through
which he was riding, with no lamp of hope
held out to him. And the, delicate girl but
half resuscitated, he thought+oh, how
many miles before sAfety.--
An half hour passed, and through Rus
sells brave soulha already darted the first
doubt. Human endurance could not last
forever, and it was more than he could dc
10 preserve the feeble life he had recalled
In another half hour ice and cold might
conquer him. He would die with her. he
could not live when that dear was beneath
the sod eg.~<
A quarter of q mile further on, and he
saw through the storm dark object by tho
roadside. 1t was building of some kind
and it could shelter them. He turned his
horse s heads that way, aud plunged through
the snow to the door There was no dool
/ it was dismantled log hut, with its dool
and its ono little window broken out
but it was better than the fury without
and in another five minutes Alice was shell
tered from the wind. With painful an(
patient fumbling he succeeded in fastening
| the buffalo skin in front of the doorway
thusforming an insufficient barri or Ther
he drew from his pocket his cigar case an(
his matches, and lighting one OF the latte
looked eagerly round ths room in the flick
ering light. That glance told him tina
there was an immensetire,place at one aid,
of the hut, and divine light streamed int
bis soul at the sight
As his horses had dragged his cutter t.
the house, the runner had grated over tn,
top rail of fence, and the unseen post haC
nearly upset the light cutter.
hewhite-fngered fair-faced Englishmal
worked with power that was more lik
fury, and when at last o ruddy blaze flew
up the broad chimney, tears ofjoy actual.
hoated from his eyes.
Exhausted, happy, he knelt at the feet 0
Alice, and with his face in her hands. Witt
that reviving warmth came little 0
Istrength to her weary soul. She leane,
forward, smile upon her lips, and in he
eyes, and murmured:
at was heaven itself who sent you here
Robert"
Two hours later, gray dawn was strug
Cling through the clouds; a broad strip o
blue encircled the west; the wind moanec
in lower tones. The old hut was colder
!. with the wood-fre, threw its radianc
over the two horses that had been led in
and stood mild and grateful in corner
staring at the fire. t
Renovated, though weak, with hap
} piness beyond words warm in heart, Alic
Malcom greeted her wedding-day. Sh
had told her story to Robert the story c
her desertion in tile snow. As the storr
had como on more flriously, her driver
: whom she believed trustworthy announce
his intention of returning
! She had discovered that he was in
semi-intoxicated state, but she refused I
0 return, and he would not go step further
! and had cut the traces, and mounting on
of the horses left her to her fate.
She did not know, when she spoke, tina
, mile back, within few miles of tn
city, he lay frozen to death, the eddyin
} snow drifting over his body. He ha
found fate which his mistress ha
escaped. s.
Backward, through a vista of happ
| years, looked Russell and his wife to tbs
] night OF horror in Canada, when peril +,
: veaed to them the full depth of their devc
tinn the inf fnitI1dn of theirlnua