Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-08-28

| Dut IL Was DuTIcu I'' buON UTlItS, anu
he soon lost himself.
He stumbled through the drifts,
calling out to Kitty in distress, not
knowing whittier he went. After an
hour Of despairing, wandering and
shouting, he came upon house, and
having raped at the door, he found
himself face to face with his wife.
He had returned to his own house
in bewilderment.
When we remember that Jones
had not slept for two nights pre-
ceeding this one, on account Of this
mortal quarrel with Burton, and he
had now been beating against an
arctic hurricane and tramping
through treacherous pillows of snow
for an hour, we can not wonder that
he fell over his own threshold in a
state Of extreme exhaustion.
Happy for him that he did not fall
bewildered on the prairie, as many a
poor wayfarer did on that fatal night!
As it was, his wife must needs
give up the vain little searches she
had been making in the neighbor-
hood of the shanty.
There was now sick husband,
with frozen hands and feet and face,
to care for Every minute the ther-
mometer fell lower, and all the heat
the little cook stove in Jones' shanty
could give would hardly keep them
from freezing.
Burton had stayed on the forty
acre lot all day, waiting for a chance
to shoot his old partner Jones. He
had not heard Of the arrival of Jones'
wife, and so he concluded that his
enemy had proven coward and left
him in possession, or else that he in
tended to play upon him some
treacherous trick on his way home.
So Burton resolved to keep sharp
lookout. But he soon found that
impossible, for the storm was upon
him in all its binding fury. He
tried to follow the path, but he could
not find it.
Had he been less ola frontiersman
he must have perished there, within
a tilrlong Of his own house. But en-
deavoring to keep the direction of
the path he heard smothered cry,
and then saw something rise up COW
cred with snow, and fall down again.
He raised his gun to shoot it when
the creature uttered another wailing
cry so human that he put down his
gun and went cautiously forward,
1t was a child!
He did not remember that there
was such child among all the set
tiers of Newton. He did not stop to
ask questions. He must without de-
lay, get himself and the child to a
place of safety, or both would 500:
be frozen
SO he took the little thing in his
arms and started through the drifts.
And the child put her icy fingers on
Burton's rough cheek and muttered
''Papa," And Burton held her closer
and fought the snow more courage
ously than ever. He found the
shanty at last and rolled the child in
a buffalo robe while he made the fire.
Then when he got the room warm
he took the little thing upon his knee
and dipped her aching fingers in cold
water and asked her what her name
was.
sIkitty." said she
"kitty," said he, ''and What else?"
"Kitty," she answered, nor could
he find out any more.
"Whose Kitty are you?"
"Your Kitty" she said, for she had
known her father but that one day,
and now she believed that Burton
was he.
Burton sat up that night and stuff
ed wood into his potent little stove
to keep the baby from freezing to
death. Never having had to do with
children he firmly believed that Kit
ty, sleeping snugly under blankets
and buffalo robes, would freeze if he
should let the fire subside in the
least.
AS the storm prevailed with una
bated fury the next day, and as he
dared neither to take Kitty nor to
leave her alone, he stayed by her all
day, and stuffed the stove with wood,
and laughed at her droll baby talk,
and fed her on buscuit and fried ba-
con and coffee.
On the morning of the second day
the storm had subsidized. 1t was 40
deg. cold, but knowing somebody
must be mourning Kitty for dead, he
wrapped her in skins, and with
much difficulty reached the nearest
neighbours house, suffering only a
frost bite on his nose by the way.
"That child" said the woman to
whose house he had come, ''is Jones'
l seed EN- take her out of the wagon
day before yesterday"
Burton looked at Kitty moment
in perplexity. Then he rolled her up
again and started out, "traveling like
mad, ''thc woman said; she watched
him.
When he reached Jones's, he
found Jones and his wife sitting in
utter wretchedness by the fire. They
were both sick from grief and una
BILE to leave the house. Kitty they
had given up as buried alive in the
snow. They would find her when
Spring should come and melt the
snow off.
When the exhausted Burton came
in with his bundle of buffalo skins,
they looked at him in amazement.
But when he opened it and set out
the little Kitty, and said,
"Hcre, Jones, is this your kitten?"
Mrs. Jones couldn't think of any
thing better to do than to scream.
And Jones got up and took his
old partner by the hand and said,
'Burton, old fcllowv and then chok-
ed up and sat down and cried hope
lessly.
And Burton said, "Jones, old fel-
low, you may have that forty-acre
patch. 1t came mighty near maxim
me the murderer of little Kitty's IA
ther."
"No, you shall take it YOURSELF
cried Jones, eff l have to 60 to law