Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-02-16
HOW JOHNNY WAS LOST.

JoHNNY lived in one Of the little cities
of the far West, with crowds OF brothers
and sisters, only one of whom was young
or than himself, and he was five years and
a half old. One Sunday last August, his
father, being at liberty from his work, got
team to carry his mother and the baby
to ride, and Johnny went too. They rode
out in the country few miles to the
house Of friend, who treated them to
watermelons. Johnny gnawed out the
sweet juicy inside of his slice, and looking
at the 'rind, thought what a nice little boat
il would make. I'm going down TO the
spring to sail my boat" he said, and of he
ran, bare. headed as he was. =.
The spring was some distance from the
house, but there was good path all the
way, and Johnny had been down to it
once when he was there before. But there
were other paths branching of, and some
how Johnny struck into one Of these and
kept running on, expecting every moment
10 come To the spring. But the path
dwindied away and finally disappeared en-
tirely; and then Johnny, in wandering on
and trying to find 1t again, got completely
bewildered, for the house was out Of
sight, and what was he TO dor hln' ~
: Any one who has never seen the West
ern prairies can hardly imagine the tire
some lengths In which they stretch out,
with the most tedious sameness. This
was not level prairie, but rolling-a swell,
then ravine, another swell, and another
ravine, and so on, all looking much alike.
Among these Johnny wandered till he
was tired, trying to find the house and
calling for father and mother. -
When long time passed, and he did
not come back to the house, his parents
grew uneasy, and fearing he had fallen in
to the spring, his father went down to
look for him, but found neither Johnny
nor his boat. They went out to hunt for
him, and called in every direction, but he
was by this time too far away to hear
them. a.EG3 so Lftt#Hk} 37i
3 Poor little fellow The sun beat down
so hot on his head, and the coarse prairie
grass hurt his bare feet, but still he wan
dered on, all swesty, and tear -stained, until
the sun set and darkness came 0n--for in
those prairie countries the two events are
very near together He was very hungry
and tired, but there was neither supper nor
bed for him; SO he lay down among some
bushes in dry rayine, and ate the water
melon rind which he had carried In his
hand all the WHILE and he was 90 hungry
that the rind tasted better even than the
inside did in the afternoon. He sat up
and stared about In the darkness and felt
afraid. I" Father mother' he called as
loud as he could in his terror; but there
was no one to answer, and the big tears
rolling down his cheeks, he laid down
again and cried till he fell asleep. But he
did not sleep very well, for the night dews
went through his thin cotton clothes, and
made him so chilly that time and again
through the long night he woke up SILVER
ing, and seeing the stars shining over his
head, remembered where he was, and lay
trembling az much with fear as with cold.
When his parents could not find him,
his father rode quickly back to town and
spread the alarm. The men and boys start
ed out with dogs and guns, and torches and
horns and al that night, and Monday
and Monday night, and part of Tuesday,
they kept up the search.
And how do you suppose Johnny Jared
all this whiles He was glad when day.
light came Monday morning, for then be
was not afraid, and he thought he might
find his way home before night, for he
was hungry enough, and kept sharp
lookout for something to eat. All he could
find was an occasional bunch Of little sour
grapes, and sometimes, on wild goose
berry bush, he would find gOoSeberry,
half dried up. As the sun grew hot, he
became sweaty, which made him very
thirsty, but ne could seldom fnd any
water, for 1t had been such Q dry season.
When he did find any, he had nothing TO
drink from, 40 he would lie down fat, and,
putting his mouth to tho watsI, drink -
k.a
Just before night, on Monday, he saw
bow on horseback, away ID the distance.
Johnny forgot how tired he was, and ran
toward him with all his might, calling, as
loud as he could, "Wait for me watt for
me r. But the boy wa TOO far away, and
neither saw NOR heard him, but kept riding
on. Johnny ran the faster and called the
louder. till he stumbled and fell headl0ng,
sight. Then all Johnnys tired" all came
back 70 him and lying down in the grass,
he cried till he went TO sleep, for he
starved to death, and never see home any
long shiyeYing night, lie was 70 lame and
up and wandered about In weak, slow
why. x1C xICW susIovyt onA ss1AAA>~ >--
water IA . Il ravine, then he wandered
up and down for something 70
eat for he was never half 30 hun.
Rry IN his life before. think he would
have been glad to eat even the chicken
skin which this very morning . funny ~
tie boy pulled of from the drum-stick he
was gn4wing the meat from ~ breakfast:
!" Mamma" said this little boy, - he pulled
off the skin and laid it on his plate, I'm
not going 10 eat all those feather pinsr
No one could blame him for NOT wanting
10 swallow % many featherpins for the
man that dressed the chicken didn't half
dot think Johnny would have been
iglSd T. swallow IT," 1IaGh9Fpdns" t and
all4asr sssEs IA ssfsifafT1s- .e.gsg syx
About noon. sman on hopeback came
upon party whowcre hunting f6f Johnny,
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