Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-01-29

the vain little searches she had been max
ing in the neighborhood of the shanty.
She had now sick husband, 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' shanty could
give would hardly keep them from
freezing.
Burton had stayed upon that forty acre
lot all day, waiting for 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 proved q
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 impos-
sible, 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 frontierman he
must have persisted there, within fur
long of his own house. But in endeavor-
ing 10 keep the direction of the path he
heard smothered cry, and then saw
something rise up covered with snow,
and fall down again. He raised his gun
to shoot it when the creature uttered an
other wailing cry SO human, that he put
down his gun and went cautiously for
ward.
1t was child!
He did not remember that there was
such child among all the settlers in
Newton. But he did not stop TO ask
questions. He must, without delay, get
himself and the child, too, to q 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 fingers on Burton g
rough cheek, and muttered Papa" And
Burton held her closer, and fought the
snow more courageously than ever.
He found the shanty at last, and rolled
the child in buffalorobe while he made
| fire. Then when he got the room lit
| tie warm, he took the little thing upon
his knee, dipped her aching fingers In
cold water, and asked her what her name
was.
kitty" she said.
kitty" he said; "and what elses'
kitty" she answered, nor could he
| find out any more.
"Whose Kitty are your"
"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 all night and stuffed
wood into his impotent little stove to
keep the baby from freezing to death.
| Never having had to do with children,
| he firmly believed that Kitty, sleeping
snugly under blankets and buffalo-robes,
| would freeze if he should let the fire sub.
side in the least. 81
As the storm prevailed with undated
| Al. nd I'm ura
| TO 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 and
fried bacon and coffee.
On the morning of the second day the
storm had subsidized. 1t was forty degrees
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 frost-bite on his nose by the way
"That child" said the woman to whose
house he had come, "is Jones'. / seed
'em take her outen the wagon day before
yesterday"
Burton looked at Kitty a moment in
perplexity; Then he rolled her up again
| and started out Travelling like mad,
| the WOludu Saiu, do siC WoeShSa Aihi'
When he reached Jones'. he found
| Jones and his wife sitting in utter wretch
edness by the fire. They were both sick
| from grief, and unable to move out of the
house Kitty they had given up for buried
| alive under some snow-mound. They
would find her when spring should come
and melt the snow-cover of.
When the exhausted Burton came in
| with his bundle of buffalo-skins, they
| looked at him with amazement. But when
he opened it and let out the little Kitty
and said
"Here, Jones, is this yer Kittens" Mrs
Jones couldn't think of anything better to
| do than to scream.
And Jones got up and took his old part
ner's hand and said, Burton, ole fellow p
and then choked up and sat down, and
cried helplessly.
| And Burton SAID, "Jones, ole fellow,
you may have that forty-acre patch. II
come mighty nigh maxim me the muir
| derer of that little Kitty's father.
"No! you shall take it yourself" cried
Jones, eff have TO go TO law to make
you"
And Jones actually decided his interest
| in the forty acres to Burton. But Burton
transferred it all to Kitty.
That is why this part OF Newton IL
called today "Kitty's Forty. "-Youth'
Companion. -