The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-12-10

settler in that land of Goshen to store
up hams and salted meat, flour and
biscuit, to any extent but now that
focks and herds, and barns brimming
with wheat aud golden maize, had been
alike whelmed beneath the sudden
snowfall, want, like gaupt 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 possible
and the beleaguered inmates of the
dwelling huddled together around the
rarely replenished stove talking in
tones they vainly strove to render hope
full, of the probabilities of prompt
rescue; for it had come to that now.
Rescue from without was their only
chance. Should the snowstorm con-
tinue 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
creasing weight piled upon it. The
storm went on steadily. and still the
wind walled as before.
1t was group of haggard faces that
had collected around the great hall
stove at Stewards Flat when at last the
snow-shriek died away to 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 resemblel
mound of snow, one heap among many
in the blurred landscape. The inmates
were as helpless as so many shipwreck-
ed wretches in midocean IN frail boat
without sail or oar. For twenty-four
hours, most of them had not eaten.
The few morseis of food that remained
we're reserved, by common consent, for
the female members of the starving
household. The fire was fed, as best
might be, with broken furniture and
woodwork torn from the walls. Still
no help came. Perhaps the people at
Troy were powerless to afford it. More
likely it was taken for granted that the
Stewards and their servants had effect
ed a timely escape to some place of
thaw set in, death was inevitable. Some
,ign that the blocked-up household had
lot been forgotten. Ha what was
hat? A shot surely, and then another,
md cheer of friendly voices, and
nope sprung up in every heart, and
was kept alive by the occasional report
Of distant firearms and the sound of
shouting.
Yes, rescue was at hand. That much
was certain. An attempt to penetrate
the girding wall of snow was about to
be made, but what were the numbers
or the resources of the adventurous
band without, those within the house
knew not. There were now but some
four or five windows, darkened by snow
wreaths and pendant icicles, whence
partial view OF the outer desolation
could be obtained. And it was not on
that side of the villa that the shouts
and shots Of the explorers had an
nounced their presence. Some hours
of painful suspense, during which at
intervals the sound of voices could be
heard, succeeded, and then the sob
bing of the ominous wind changed into
a shrill scream, and a man who had
ventured q few PAGES from the door
came in to bring the evil tidings that
the snow had again begun to fall. The
air was now full of feathery flakes, and
the most anxious listener could now
hear nothing but the monotonous wall
that chilled every heart as it rang
around the doomed house. 1t was be-
yond doubt that the we'll wishers on
the outside must have desisted from
their labors, beaten off by the keen
wind and binding snowfall. The lat
Ter lasted through the miserable night,
and, soon after daybreak, ceased again,
but those within the house had almost
hidden farewell to hope. Probably the
rescuers would not, until the weather
should improve, renew their efforts,
toilsome and perilous as they must
needs be. And then it would be too
late. Privatlons and care were telling
on the beleaguered inhabitants of
Stewards Flat, and on none more than
Caryl Winthrop, whose sunken cheek
and unnaturally bright eye told of ex-
treme exhaustion.
"We shall be happy together IN
heaven, dear-not on earth," he said,
more than once, as he looked wistfully
into the face of his betrothed one, and
chafed her cold hands between his.
"lt has become question, not of days,
but Of hours and minutes"
Toward noon, Metella's ear, sharp
ened by terror, caught the faint, low
sound of the clinking of iron tools,
mingling with the wall of the dismal
snow-shriek. Her companions in mis-
fortune, however, could not hear it,
and she was easily persuaded that she
had been tricked by her own excited
fancy. Hours went by, the snow fall
ing still, though not so heavily, and
there was no sign from without. All
prepared to perish, for now the scanty
store of food was gone, and Caryl and
Metella, as they knelt and prayed, side
by side, felt that their wedding must
indeed be in the world to come, not in
this.
"There is one thing ought to tell
you, dear Caryl," whispered the girl,
as they stood side by side, in the porch.
81 have not been wilfully untrue to
my pledge, but-but there was one who
left us but the other day, on whom my
rebe llious thoughts would dwell, do
what could to school them. 1t was
not that J. did not love you-indeed;
not-but, it was different when I
thought of Alberto Parnell. I shall
never see him more. He will learn to
forget me, and had I lived, it should
have been my daily task to forget him,
You are not angry, Caryl?"
He kissed her on the forehead, say
ing gently: "Indeed, am not angry.
Love, I fear, will not be always reasoned
with. 1t is not your fault, my poor
child, if you saw in Parnell what you
have never seen in me. l was to you
as a brother, was 1 not And you