The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-01-31

account of his mortal quarrel WIN burton
and he had now been beating against an arc
tic hurricane, and tramping through treaciI
erous pillows of snow for an hour, we cannot
wonder that he fell over his own threShoiu III
a state of extreme exhaustion. -,
Happy for him that he did not fall Devil
dered on the prairie, as many another poor
v, wayfarer did on that fatal night!
As it was, his wife must needs give up the
vain little searches she had been making 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 i'll Jones shanty
couly give would hardly keep them from
freezing.
r 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 ar
rival of Jones wife, and so he concluded that
his enemy had proved a 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 look
out But he soon found that impossible, for
the storm was upon him in all its binding
|iury. He tried to follow the path, but he
could not find it,
Had he been less of fronticrman he must
have persisted there, within a furlong of his
own house. But in endeavoring to 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
another wailing cry so human, that he put
down his gun and went cautiously forward.
1t was a child!
lie did not remember that there was such a
child among all the settlers in Newton. But
he did not stop to ask questions. lie must,
without delay, get himself ana the child, too,
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 fingers on Burton's rough check, |
and muttered Papa And Burton held her
closer, and fought the snow more courageous |
ly than ever.
He found the shanty at last, and rolled the
child in builalorobe 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" she said.
kitty" he said; "and what elsc?"
kitty" she answered, nor could he find
out any more.
Whose Kitty are youg"
her father but that one day, and now she be
lieved that Burton was he
Burton sat up all night and stuffed wood
into his impotcnt little stove to keep the baby
from freezing to death. Never having had
to do with children, he firmly believed that
Kitty, sleeping snHgly under blankets and
buiialO.robes, would freeze If he should let
the fire subside in the least.
AS the storm prevailed with unabated fury
the next day, and as he dared neither 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 hmourning Kitty
for dead, he wrapped her in skins, and with
much difficulty reached the nearest neigh
boris house, suffering only u 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 yes.
terday"
Burton looked at Kitty moment in per.
plexity. Then he rolled her up again and
started out, "Traveling like mad" the woman
said, as she watched him.
" lltu It ICdCllCu uOHts Uc lOuHu JONES l.
and his wife sitting in utter wretchedness by ],
the fire. They were both sick from grief ,,
and unable TO move out of the house. Kitty l
hey had given up for buried alive under =,
some sn0S-mound. They would find her I
when spring should come and melt the snow i,
cover OF
When the exhausted Burton came in with
biz bundle Of bu1zlo-gkins, they looked at
him with snzZe1Dent. But when he opened
i and let out the little Kitty add said
Here, Jones, Is ihls yer Kitten e. Mrs
Jones couldn't Think Of anything better 10 DO
han u scream. 4.
And Jones got up and took he Old part
l.r's hand and said, Burton, ole fellow q"
and then chOked up and sal down, and cried
Ielplessly.
And Burton said. Jones, ole fellow. YOU
may have that iJriy-2cre patch ]; come
mighty nigh maxim he the murderer Of hat
little kluy's father
NO! you shall take it yourself" cried
Jones, If have 10 70 10 law 20 make you"
And Jones actually decided his Interest in
the forty acres TO Burton. Bq, Burton trans
ierred it all 70 Kitty.
That is why this par, q Newton is called ,
.o-day "kitty's Forty Ygufi's CmaDust0a. ;
4 II II n o. 4