Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1874-08-06

untll tnaI awful storm broke upon
him. and at last drove him, half
smothered by snow and half-frozen
with cold, into the house. When
there was nothing left but retreat he
had seized an armful of wood and
carried it into the house with him, to
make sure of having enough to keep
his wife and Kitty from freezing in
the coming awfulness of the night,
which now settled down upon the
storm beaten and snow blinded world.
It was the beginning of that horri-
bic storm in which so many people
were frozen to death, and Jones had
| tie4 none too soon.
L Fhen once the wood was packed
tAyt the stove, Jones looked around
s Kitty. He had no more than in
qnired for her when father and mo-
ther each read in the others face the
fact that she was lost in this wild,
dashing storm of snow.
| So fast did the snow fall and so
dark was the night that Jones could
not see three feet ahead of him. He
endeavored to follow the path which
he thought Kitty might have taken,
but it was buried in snow drifts,
and he soon lost himself.
He stumbled through the drifts,
calling out to Kitty in his distress,
but not knowing whittier he went.
After all hour of despairing, wander
ing and shouting, he came upon a
house, and having raped on the door
he found himself face to face with his
wife.
He had returned to his own house
in his bewilderment.
When we remember that Jones had
not slept for two nights preceding
this one, on account of this mortal
quarrel with Burton, and had now
been beating an arctic hurricane,
and tramping through treacherous
billows of snow for an hour, we can
not wonder that he fell over his own
threshold in state of extreme ex-
haustion.
Happy for him that he did not fall
bewildered on the prairie, as many
another poor wayfairer did on that
fatal night
As itwas, his wife must needs give
up the vain little searches she had
been making in the neighborhood of
the shanty. She had now a sick hus-
band, with frozen hands and feet and |
face, to care for. Every minute the
thermometer fell lower and lower,
and all the heat the little cook stove
in Jones's shanty could give would |
hardly keep them from freezing.
Hurton had stayed upon that for
ty acre lot all day, waiting for
ehahee to shoot his cid partner Jones.
He had not heard of the arrival of
Jones's wife, and so he concluded |
that his enemy had proved coward
and had left him in possession, or
else that he meant to play him some
treacherous trick on his way home.
So Burton resolved to keep sharp
lookout. But he soon found that i'm
possible, 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 of a frontiers
man he must have perished there,
within a furlong of his own house.
But endeavoring to keep the direc-
tion of the path he heard smother
ed cry, and then saw something rise
up, covered with snow, and then 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 eau
tiously forward.
1t was child!
He did not remember that there
was such child among all the set
tiers at Newton. He must, without
delay, get himself and the child to a
place of safety, or both would soon
be frozen.
So he took the little thing in his
arms and started through the drifts.
And the child put its little icy fin
gers on Burton's rough check, and
muttered "Papar' And Burton held
her closer and fought the snow more
courageously than ever.
He found the shanty at last, and
rolled the child in a buffalo robe while
he made fire. Then, when he got the
room little warm, he took the little
thing upon his knee, dipped her
aching fingers in cold water, and
asked her what her name was.
"Kitty," said she.
'Kitty," he said, "and what else?'
"Kitty," she answered, nor could
he find out any more"
'Whose Kitty are youF'
'Oose Kitty" she said. For she
had known her father but that one
day, and now she believed that Bur
ton was he.
Burton sat up all night and stuffed
wood into his important little stove to
keep the baby from freezing to death.
Never having had anything to do
with children, he firmly believed that
Kitty, sleeping snugly under blankets
and buffalo robes, would freeze II he
would let the fire subside in the
least.
AS the storm prevailed with una
bated fury the next day, and as he
dared neither take Kitty out 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 biscuit, fried bacon (
and coffee.
On the morning of the second day
the storm had subsidized. 1t was for
ty degrees cold, but, knowing some
body must be mourning Kitty for
dead, ne wrapped her in skins, and ;
with much difficulty reached the
nearest neighbor's house, suffering
only frost-bite on his nose by the [