The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-12-16
FROM DEATEa TO EErE.
A STORY As DE TOLD II II1MsEIr.

He was a tall, one-eyed man. wearing
a broad brimmed hat and red flannel
shirt Ee cat on the railing Of tie bridge,
whiting and talking TO three or four
others, standing rear by. Yes, sir, said
he, | was dead once. 1t was the strang-
est thing that you ever saw in your life.
You don't believe it, la
Well, / don't wonder mucb. I don't
suppose any man ever went through such
an awful siege, and I cant expect any
| body to look at it as l do You see it
| happened ike this : Il Was that winter
we numbered on Whitcomb Creek, six or
eight years ago. It was war times then,
and wages were good. I was getting
forty dollars g month and worked Ike a
beaver till this little affair came off We
/ went at work about mills from the shan
ty-Jim Robinson and me-and had
slashed into the pine like all possessed.
The boys were hauling pretty lively, for
1t was in January and sleig hing was good
jim was at work on big tree about
twenty rods from where 7 was. Pretty
soon, after he yelled to me, his tree top,
pied over and FELL 1t was as handsome
q piece Of timber as you ever saw. Crash
il went, right into the branches OF an old
grub oak and hung fast there. l nsver
saw fellow madder than jim was. He
tried every possible way 10 loosen the
pine, but couldn't get it of. finally we
made up our minds to 90 for the oak tree,
and in about ten minutes we had it cut
through SO it trembled like a leaf with
every stroke Of the axe. he cutting on one
side and | en- the other When it was
almost through, as / was the biggest and
best chopper, says | TO jim:
''Let me finish beE, jim. Get out OF
the way and will have it through in
half minute"
had been chopping a minute Or t1o,
when jim let loose q scream that would
have made an lnjun's blood run cold I
just had time to look up and see that pine
tree tumbling down, when | dropped my
axe and run. l couldn't have set far
when something seemed to lit my eyes,
and everything was dark.
suppose l was dead.
| Maybe you don't believe me, boys, but
that's all can make out of it. All at
once, the light, the looks of the snow on
the ground, everything was shut out from
my sight. There was kind of an un-
certain dreamy like feeling, just as = fell
low has when he's asleep. l knew some
thing awful had happened, but couldn't
stir myself hand or foot. 1t seemed as
though it was night, and that was cove
cred up by something that pressed heavi-
ly upon me. Still, there wasn't any par
ticular pain and for long tune couldn't
think where 1 was How long l staid
there can't tell. 1 suppose it wasn't
long, when I felt somebody pull at my
arm, and heard Jim Robinson say,
go, Lord Poor fellow -
7 knew he was there and | could feel
him touch me, and yet l couldn't speak
nor open my eyes. He thought was
dead. Then | wondered if all dead folks
coald know and think things as did
tried TO move my hands, tried TO breathe,
tried to scream. But couldn't do any
thing. Jim left me, and the next | re-
membered of was pulled out from under
the tree and hauled 10 the shanty on one
of the sleds You bet there was consid-
cradle excitement among the boys when
l was taken into camp. could feel that
| was dead. / couldn't move. But |
could hear and had kind of misty notion
about everything that was going on about
me.
Some of The boys, after feeling Of my
forrici, wanted to send for doctor
otis no use, boys, said the boss, ''he
poor fellows gone. His neck was broke
The most we can do for him is to take
him home tc his folks
Well, they laid me out on one of the
sleishs, and after fixing me up in as de
cent a way as = corpse could be in lum-
Der camp, one of the teamsiers started
with me for Oshkosh.
At first l didn't realize just how bad
the situation was. When it begun to
leak into my head that l was really dead,
and was going TO be buried in the ground,
and shut out forever from the light of the
sun. 1t frightened me. The long ride