The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-09-11

WOODS logging, leaving his motutr Win
Jane for company, and a boy to clear
the paths and look after the stock. Few
but those wlp live there know what
winter in The Numbers is like, when
the snow hedges you about week out
and week in, and passing team is so
rare as 10 bring the household from
kitchen or attic to watch it out of sight,
and the wind whistles over miles of un-
inhabited country with nothing to i'm
pede it when there is nothing to break
the monotony of the long, frosty days,
which the almanac says are short, but
homely duties, and the promise of seed
time and harvest. 1t seems then as if
no sun were potent enough to melt the
mountainous drifts, built as miracu-
lousy as the coral reefs; and at mid
night you wake up suddenly, and hear
the wolves bowling in the woods close
at hand, and find their tracks about the
sheep. pen the next morning, and To
member with shudder that there isn't
an able bodied man on the premises.
In such circumstances one needs to
have vast resources in ones self to be in
harmony with ones household and
ones destiny.
When Seth Price joined Cyrus camp,
a week before Christmas, he carried him
line from Agnes, saying that she
should expect him down to watch the
new year in and the old year out at the
watch meeting, if he loved her. Esther
Smiley had offered to lay a wager that
he wouldn't put himself out so much,
and even Mrs. Deacon Crockett had said
it wasn't likely, seeing he was sure of
her /; but she had set her heart upon
showing now much he cared for her.
It isn't every lover who could resist
such an appeal, and though Cyrus
didn't think it of the least consequence
whether other people believed in his
love or not so long as it was reality to
himself and Agnes, yet he was doubt
less fattered by her earnest desire for
his presence, and if it would please her,
why not go? 1t did not occur to him
that it was as much a vulgar wish to
make q parade of his regard for as
desire to see him. 1t happened very
luckily, however, Cyrus thought-and
perhaps most people would agree with
him-that the camp had run short of
molasses, and one Of the men was de-
tailed to take team and go to Wheat
field for supply, for what was coffee
without molasses He started on the
last day of December, and Cyrus with
him, and he dropped Cyrus where the
roads diverged, one leading into Wheat
field, and the other into The Numbers.
There was matter of ten or twelve
miles between Cyrus and Price farm
when he lett the team, but he had often
walked further with a load of produce
for market. The dis ance didn't strike
him as being of any consequence he
had all his life been used TO mile-stones.
1t had begun to snow some time before,
gently, as if 1t meant no harm, and
Cyrus was used TO snow, too. But
presently the wind changed and blew
rough, and tossed the flakes into his
eyes, and the flakes themselves grew
bigger and thicker, till they clogged his
steps and blinded his sight and obliter-
ated every landmark. Still he trugged
forward, cheering himself with the
warm welcome before him, assuring
himself that the way was as familiar as
his own potato field, till by-and-by he
began to wonder if he were not watch
ing the old year out by himself, if he
had not been longer on the road than
the distance warranted, if he Tad not
missed the way, if it were not growing
colder ard darker every moment. He
knew about as well where he was as if
he had travelled into Nova Zembla, or
had been cast away on an iceberg.
BE paused, and rested against the
bole of tree, to collect his wits. There
was no use i'll proceeding further on the
wrong road. In coming to this decis-
ion he naturally sat down by the way
to reflect which was the right one. He
did not reflect long. Lovely images
and colors foated before his mind s
eye. He had reached the farm, and
there was a great backlog blazing on
the hearth for him, and brown eyes
looking into his, and tender tones in
his ears. Then he came to himself
with start, and sat upright, peering
into the dark night, upon which
the storm seemed an inscription
in an unknown tongue, walked by the
rending of some great limb from the
tree above him, which had fallen and
pinned him to the ground. The dan
gers of his situation were too evident
for conjecture. He would be frozen
stiff before cocktcrow, even If he were
not dead of the blow first. Through
the storm and darkness he called for
help, without daring to hope for it, put
all his waning strength and despair into
a few imploring cries, and fell be.
numbed with pain, with one leg crushed
and broken. 1t looked very much as
if he would bear the old year company.
Jane had sat up later than usual that
night, cutting a piece of stuff out of the
loom, which she had finished weaving
that afternoon. Mrs. Ferriston was
fast asleep, and the farm boy had gone
to the watch meeting; and as Jane
raked up the Goals Oh the hearth, she
wondered if Cyrus was holding watch
with Agnes-who had boosted that she
would bring him down from heaven il
she wanted him-and if he would be
coming home to kiss his mother in the
early morning. Then she went to the
door to look out at the night, which was
not more lonely than she, to bid adieu
to the old year and was it the shrek
of the wind or human voice that smote
her ears pa voice that sounded strange.
ly like his. Oh, if it should be If he
were needing her ! At least somebody
on that lonely waste was in trouble.
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