The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-05-24


ers, and that her boy was determined
to dig gold
81 hope You'll get along well,
ma'am," said the good-natured fel-
low; sand your boy shall have every
show. Washing is hard work, but
| if you want to do such work for a
while, till your boy strikes it rich,
| you viii find plenty to do, and every
man in camp will pay you well"
"Thank you," said the poor wo-
man, delighted at the prospect. 81
am very willing to do the work. 1
feel so much better up here already.
| I should have died if [ had stayed in
Sacramento"
"It's an unhealthy place, I know"
said he; "but it will be renovated in
time By the way, you needn't be
| frightened, but I must tell you that
thieves prowl about our camp.
They've been going it for some time
and we can't catch them"
Mrs.Wilder was somewhat startled.
"Oh, don't be scaredr' said he.
"They're not dangerous. They are
the sneaking kind. They only pick
up things slyly, and get out of camp
as soon as possible. They've been
seen, but always escaped. Joe Har-
ris saw them one night last week,
and says they're Indians. 1t won't
: be good for them if they're caught. "
'What would be done with them%
"Oh, they'd be hung, of course!
We folks hate stealing; and it's the
only thing any one has ever been
hung for at Forest Hill"
: "Would they come into our tent~
asked Mrs Wilder.
} "Oh, no! They might reach in at
the door, or under the canvas, to see
what they could carry of, but they
are mighty sly"
"If they come here, MOTHER" put
in the little boy, "Pll kill them with
the ak"
"What could you do, George?
They're big men, you know"
"rd fight them, anyhow" he said
bravely.
"Good, my boyp said the miner.
you'll be the right kind of a man
when you grow up. But of course
you're not very strong yet. If the
5 robbers trouble you, just yell. That
would do more good than your ak,
0 1t would rouse the camp; and if you
should be the means of getting them
t caught, I'll raise a collection of five
hundred dollars for you before the
= breath should be fairly out of their
bodies"
: The miner stood talking with the
Wilders till the sun had set--then
d he sauntered on.
"If can do anything for you or
= the children" said he at parting
'-let me know. My name is Tom
Cook. l live in that cabin over
there, just next to the one with the
sign of Choice Liquors. There is
a mess of us-six."
Mrs. Wilder thanked him, and
-, when he had walked away she tooA
Q her handkerchief and wiped away
. some tears that were gathering in
! her eyes. The kind voice of that
blunt, honest man had touched some
tender chord in her heart, and she
wept-she knew not why.
1t was far, far in the night. The
! moon had not risen till eleven, and
/ it was now away up in the bright
sky, so that it could look down into
the deepest canon. The Wildels
had lain awake for hours talking
= about the robbers, which seemed to
: have made an unusual impression on
, them, but at last dozed off into un,
/, conscious rest, and the whole camp
was wrapped in sleep.
The children slept soundly, but
Mrs. Wilder was restless, and awoke
) frequently from half-feverish dreams
, When Irelate the singular circum,
stances that occurred before the
morning, do not claim that they
? were directed by supernatural agen-
cies; nor do 1 aver that they were
: not. 1 simply tell the story.
1t was between 3 and 4 O'Clock
when Mrs. Wilder seemed to fail in
to a deeper slumber than she had
, enioyed that night But it was not
n free from dreams. Thus far she had
dreamed only of the mysterious rob
bers of which Tom Cook had told
/ her; now her visions wandered away
| back over years. Again she was on
1.-THE Platte river; again she saw her
/ husband-so distinctly-building
his ferry; again she Did him good
i by, and travelled on over the prairies ;
again sne saw the Rocky mountains
lloom up in the distance.
]. But here the dream made a digres-
sion. Sears and Mallity did not
come now; but instead of them
came Abram Wilder. She flew to
meet him, but stopped, for her hus-
band wore such a strange look on his
| face. He stood still, waved her of,
then pointed to the grass at her feet.
She looked down and saw a grave
open; saw her husband lying in it,
with a CHASTITY wound on his head /;
. saw two men hastily filing the grave
up. They were his hired men
Sears and Nallity.
With q scream that must have
lwakened every sleeper at Forest Hill,
Mrs. Wilder started up from her rude
couch, now fully awake, and in the
dim light she saw q shadOwy figure
standing a few feet from her, with q
hand still pointing at the earth, for
it was the same figure she had seen
in her dream. 1t stood perfectly
motionless for a couple of seconds,
then vanished.
| Within the same two seconds sew
ieral shadows were described against
one of the slanting sides of the tent,
on which the moon was shining, and
they, too, disappeared Simultaneous
Ilv with the sound of retreating foot
steps without; while something fell
with clatter, inside the tent, as
though it had actually dropped
through the canvas.
''What's the matter,mOtherY asked
George, springing up and seizing
his ak.
At the same time his little sister
cried out in her terror.
"Oh, it's the robbers! They'll kill
Inst" and she added a wall tO thn 0an-