Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1874-09-24


young man seemed as though he were
about to clasp her in his arms; but by
violent effort he tore himself away, and
with smothered word of adieu flung
open the door and darted out into the
darkness. Very soon afterwards. the
quick clatter of his horses hoofs told that
he had mounted and ridden rapidly of on
his homeward road. Metella listened un-
I'll the last faint sound had ceased. and
nothing more was to be heard but the
wailing snow-shriek, and then retired to
her own chamber and burst into an agony
OF weeping. 1t was Aberics image that
haunted her dreams that night, not that of
Caryl Winthrop.
Thirty-six hours later, the sad, mono
tonous sound of the snow-shriek had SWELL
ed into menacing roar. as Of angry
hehds let loose 20 ravage and destroy, and
iilmy veil that was drawn over the West
ern sky had darkened from white to or
ange, and from orange to sable, and tken,
borne on the mighty wings of an icy wind
there broke upon the Territory the force
OF such snow storm as the hardest farm
er there hal never pictured. Down came
the whrling flakes, thick, heavy, pitiless,
accompanied by a cruel cold like Deaths
own touch, they pierced through furs and
outialo-robes, and numbed the limbs, and
chilled the marrow. while still the blind
Ing snow fell, and FELL and swept along
before the furious gale, like so many white
billows, over the country. And still the
wind blew from the cold northwest. and
still the snow fell. The deep-piled drifts
soon began to blot out every sign of mans
dominion from the lately subjugated land
that had been so recently won from the
wilderness. Dismal stories were brought
in, ere long. OF the disasters by flood and
field. Riveis had swollen aud overfiowed
their banks, washing down, along with a
pack of floating Ice, the debris of ruined
homesteads and the carcasses of drowned
oxen. In the pastures, herdsman and
herd lay overwhelmed beneath the white
waves of snow. In the drifts that blocked
the roads, wagoners and their teams were
walled in 10 perish of frost-bite or ex-
haustion, unless aid came speedily; while
many bewildered wayfarer wandered
from the track, and strayed across the de-
solate prairie until he found grave in the
deepening snow. 1t was with difficulty
that Caryl could force his horse through
the drifts that enyroned Colonel Stewards
house, and when he arrived there, two Of
the hired men were missing. and a third
had come in, half frozen, from vain at.
tempt 10 save the affrighted cattle.
Then did Metella realize the truth OF the
old hunters words. She, and those about
her, had foGnd out, for the frs, time, what
snow meant, pitiless, inexhaustible white
ness, borne in upon them by the rush of the
resistless wind, that howled and raved.
with a sound Ike the cry of ravening
wolves, about the house. and heapsd up
such masses aS cumber the grouud, even
in those latitudes, but once or twice In a
generation. Colonel Stewart, at first in
credulous of peril, as it was in his sanguine
nature to be, presently began to admit the
calamity was worse than the mere damage
TO his property. The sheep, hogs and cat
tie he had lost represented but a money
sacriiice-an affair of dollars and cents.
But when all communications between
stewart's Flat and the outer world were
cut off, and it was too late to fly, and the
gathering snow was loading the roof and
darkening the lower windows, and rising,
rising ever. he recognized the imprudence
OF his selection of such site for his resi-
dence, and would have been thankful for
escape even at the cost of half his sub
stance. This, however, was impossible.
The road by which Winthrop had reached
The house was now barred by a wall of
snow. The fast-falling flakes threatened
to I'LL up the del to the level of the hills
that commanded it. and the outsuildings
were hidden or unroofed by the weight of
the snowfall. Aud still that horrid snow
shrek, loud and wild now, as the war-cry
of exultant demons, filled the startled air.
as though rejoicing over its prey.
The pangs of impending famine were
soon added TO the terrors OF the situation.
Those shut up In the once hospitable man
sion at Stewards Flat had but scanty sup
plies OF food or fuel. Ii was as much as
mans life was worth to try to reach the
great wood-pile. 1t took severe exertion
10 bring in, from time to time, few logs
and some broken timber from the yard,
while, after the first few hours, provisions
ran short. There is little inducement for
| tn, ha lan Sc n
hams and salted meat, -four and biscuit,
TO any extent: but now that hocks and
herds, and barns brimming with wheat
and golden maize, had been alike whelT ed
beneath the sudden snowfall, want, like
gaunt wolf, began to beset the blockaded
household. 1t was soon necessary to put
the family and servants ON rations, SO as
TO avert actual starvation as long as posi-
Bile; and the beleagured inmates of the
dwelling hudded together around the
rarely replenished stove, talking in tones
that they vainlv strove to render hopeful,
of the probabilities of prompt rescue; for
it had come to that now. Rescue from
without was their only chance. Should the
snow-storm continue very long they must
perish of cold and hunger; even if the
roof, which they had been forced to prop
up in places with casks and pieces of tim
Der, did not cave in beneath the increasing
weight piled upon it. The storm went on
steadily, and still the wind walled as be-
fore.
1t was group Of haggard faces that
had collected around the great hall-stove
at Stewards Fiat when at last the snow.
shrek died away to a moan, and one Of
the farm hands brought in the welcome
news that, for the time at least, the storm
had ceased. By this time the house merely
resembled mound of snow, one heap
among many in the blurred landscape.
The inmates were as helpless as many
shipwrecked wretches i'm mid-ocean, in q