The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-01-14
TIE J0URNAL.


journal.
- soNuSUED FROM FIRST PAGE.
tnis when the species of snake is at
once seen to be harmless2 Can any
better reason be given than that it
was authoritatively said, away back
THROUGH the long dark vista Of many
succeeding ages, Il will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and
between they scotland :her seed: it
(hel shall bruise the head and thou
shalt bruise (bite) his heel''? Is not
this remarkable fulfllment OF that
prophecy weighty evidence of the
truth Of the Scriptures? It matters
not where the reptile is first struck:
not till his had is mashed, is the
work considered done.
Leaving the reptile to wriggle his
tail till sunset, We prosecuted our
surveving,-sighting stakes into line,
clearing away underbrush, telling
trees, chaining the distance and set
ting tally-stakes, till We reached the
road on the South line ofthe section,
where We struck about rod to the
Eass of the South qGarter-post The
shadows Of night were again settling
upon all earthly objects, lin that la
titude,) and we could do no more
that day, I went to share the hospi-
talitv Of an old schoOl-mate, who,
leaving the parental roof in the ear
ev part Of the California yelo,c7fe
excitement, had "prospected and
panned out" the shining grains not
only in Nevada and along Frazier
River, but in the ''claims" Of Austria
liza. He had travelled more miles
than 1 had yards; had been in peril
by illness, robbery, dissipation, ship
wreck, hunger and cold; had depriy-
ed himself for years of all society,
but the roughest and most centami-
mating; had amassed more wealth in
months than I had in a lifetime and
had in a vet briefer period, almost
as by a lightning stroke, been bereft
of It all; had finally returned even
poorer than he went; had been fain
to accept from the very father whose
home welcome he once despised, a
gift of a piece of land, which he had
cleared, fenced, cropped and built
upon; had gone to housekeeping
before his frame house was finished
off,; had lost both his parents, and
triplicates of himself not old enough
to render him any service, but old
enough to afford their parents any
amount of anxiety and distress. We
sat up till late hOur-my friend and
Ibis wife and boys retired early,
and talked over old times-the days of
our bOvhood-our school-days: how
we managed with a cross teacher and
difficult lessons, not forgetting our
occasional truancy. We spoke Of
the games we played "baH, > "goal,"
1--WE pronounced it "goor' when whe
mentioned it, 'pull-a-way," and
'crack- k-the-whip," in the Summer
time; and "fox and geese" and 'tak-
ing snow-forts," in the Winter Then
there was our swimming and wading
and fishing and skating and riding
down-hill (aristocratically called
''coasting' and playing at marbles
and building dams and erectingmills
to be put in motion by either water
or wind. How we laughed as we re-
called to mind some mate struck all
a heap with a flying ball between
two "byes;" or a couple Of leaders >
chasing one another till both were
out Of breath; or some younger boy
standing and vainly trying again
and again to catch somebody after
he had defantly sung out. "Pom-
pom-pul-away! Come away, OF Pn
fetch you away or the smallest of
the "string" going end over end
as the whip was snapped" or
the fierce storm of snow balls with
whicE the defensers of an ice-fort
met their ASSISTANTS; or how a boy
nealy cracked his Uranium by diving
in shallow water; or how another
was nearly drowned by accidental
ly stepping into a deep hole while
following a sucker" by torch-light;
or how we dreaded to step into the
cold water again after warming and
nearly drying ourselves by a ''crac-
kim big fire, in which somebody's
fence-rails were rapidly converted to
ashes; or how many "bumps" we
had before we learned to stand on
our skates; OF how some wicked big
boy made US "see stars" by knock
ing our feet from under us, while
we had our cold hands in our breech-
es pocket; or how twenty of us or
less tried to ride down a steep hill
on an ox-sled which spilled us out
all along the icy way. But drowsi-
ness at last overlook us, and we re-
tired for the night. And the NOR
ming and evening were the third day.
FoGY.