The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-11-12

| the dark hours had some lanterns de-
! ceptive ray fallen upon pile of leaves
!, half covering some bit of broken limb,
and shout of "Found! had only
plunged them into deeper sorrow. And
so the Sunday shone drearily out, until a
messenger came to the village and gave
the general alarm.
The campaign was soon organized.
Nearly 200 men were enlisted and the
plan was to attack certain piece of
woods, marching upon it in an extended
line at such distances apart as to COM
mand the. whole space between every
two, and so fairly harvest the ground of
anything upon it of human interest.
Guns were distributed and the order was
that no cry should he raised, no piece
discharged, but all move in silence that
should the children be found one gun
should be fired; if dead, two; if alive,
three In quick succession. But they
were not men only that joined the mer-
| cl1ul brigade but mothers and springy
girls, and they proved the most observant
and vigilant of all, for nothing so quick
ems woman's wit as love and grief. And
so they set forth. The boy of that day
remembers the scene as if it were now
before his eyes. The village was out Of
doors. Groups of the intirm, the women
and the children spotted the picture
like leopard's skin. The tones were
subdued, there was listening, longing
look on every face. Some of them fol-
lowed out to the edge of the village and
stood and listened. The settlement
could not have been stiller had it been a
deserted graveyard instead of the abode
of the living.
The shadows were travelling east
wardly. The sun showed golden rim
over the western hills, and was gone.
The stars came peacefully out over the
whole heaven, as if there was no such
thing as grief in the universe. Nine
O'Clock, and no signal. Eleven, and not
a shout. Midnight, but no gun. The
slow clocks licked slower. Stars went
down one after another, and those that
tarried grew paler. There was a sus-
picion of dawn above the woods. And
then, far oil, faint, and yet certain, there
was report. The line came to an in
slant halt. The lifted foot was let down
softly upon the fallen leaves lest there
should be a second sound and they
should miss it, and so be wrong in the
count. A half minute and another sig
nal. Found, and dead" SO far they
AS0N. w do tAut w do tAC ogOAy
completely told? 1t is at such times
that we think fast. The electric flash is
u dull traveller beside swift thought.
A few seconds and the third gun broke
the stiffness and cut the tense cord of
suspense and let human nature down,
fearful, grateful, overcome. Found,
and aliver was the story the rifles told;
and then arms licked like clocks along
the line and shouts rang as if an army
had won victory and floatcd out into
the clearing and reached the waiting,
watching, sleepless village, and they took
up the cheer, and men broke down in the
midst Of it, and women hid their faces
and sobbed. Then back they came, the
glad brigade, in the gray of the morning,
with their dim lanterns and their smoky
torches and their rifles in their hands,
bearing the wanderers, feeble, but alive
and unframed, stained with berries but
not with blood.-B. +. Taylor.