Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-09-25
s<sTEH'S s'essX'zs.
BY EDWARD EGGEESTOS.


1t doscn't DO men any good to live
apart from women and children. !
nccer knew q boys school in which
there was not Il tendency to rowdyism,
and lumbelmcn, sailors, fishermen
and other men who live only with men
are proverbialiy II half-bear sort of
people. Frontiersmen soften down
when women and children cone-but
I forgot myself; it is the story you
want.
Burton and Jones lived in shanty
by themselves. Jones was q married
man, and finding it hard to support
his wife in a down east village, he
emigrated to Northern Minnesota. leav-
ing his wife under her fathers roof
until he should be able to "make
start" He and Burton had gone into
partnership and had "pre-empted" q
town size Of three hundred and twenty
t.cros.
There were, perhaps, twenty five
families scattered sparsely over this
town site at the time my story begins
and ends, for it ends in the same week
in which it begins.
The parties had disagreed, quar-el-
ed and divided their interests. The
land was also shared between them
except one valuable forty-acre piece.
Each OF them Ga med that piece OF
land, and the quarrel had grown SO
high between them that the neighbors
expected them to shoot OF sight. Il
fact, it was understood that Burton
was on the forty acre place, detarmin-
cd to shoot Jones if he came, and
Jones had sworn to 60 out there and
shoot Burton, when the fight was
postponed by tie unexpected arrival
Of Jones wife and child.
Jones shanty was not finished, and
he was forced to forego the luxury Of
fighting his old partner, in his exer-
tions to make his wife and baby COM
Portable for the night. For the winter
sun was surrounded by "sun bugs"
Instead OF one sun here was four, an
occurrence not uncommon in this lat
itude, but one which always BODIES q
terrible storm.
In his endeavor to care for wife and
child Jones was Modified a little, and
half regretted that he had been SO vi0-
lent about the piece of land. But he
was determined not to be backed down,
and would certainly have to shoot Bur
ton or be shot himself.
When he thought of the chance Of
being killed by his old partner, the
prospect was not pleasant. He looked
wisttully at Kitty. his two-year old
child, and dreaded that she should be
left fatherless. Nevertheless, he
would shoot OF be shot.
While the father was busy cutting
wood, and the mother was busy other
wise, little Kitty managed to get the
shanty door open. There was no
latch as yet, and her prying little fin-
gers easily swung it back. A gust of
cold air almost took her breath away,
but she caught sight of the brown
grass without and thenew world seem
ed SO big that the little feet were fain
to try and explore it.
She pushed out through the door,
caught her breath again, and started
away down a path bordered by sere
grass and the dead stalks of the wild
flowers.
How often she had longed to escape
from restraint and paddle out into the
world alone! So out into the world she
went, rejoicing in her liberty, the Elue
sky above, and the rusty prairie beneath.
She would find out where the path
went, and what was at the end of the
world What did she care if her
nose was blue with cold and her chnb-
by hands red as beets. Now and then
she paused to turn her head away
from rude blast, forerunner OF the
storm, but having gasped a moment,
she quickly renewed her brave march
in search of the great unknown.
The mother missed her but sup
posed that Jones, who could not get
enough of the child's society, had
taken the little pet out with him.
Jones, poor fellow, sure that the
darling was safe within, chopped away
until that awful storm broke upon
him, and, at last, drove him half
by snow and half frozen
with cold, into the house. When
there was nothing left but retreat. he
had seized an armful of wood and
carried it into the house with him, to
make sure of having enough to keep
his wife and Kitty from freezing in
the coming awfulness of the hight,
which now settled down upon the
storm-beaten and snow-blinded world.
1t was the beginning of that horrible
storm in which SO many people were
frozen to death, and Jones fled none
too soon.
When once the wood was stacked
by the stove, Jones looked around for
Kitty. He had no more than inquired
read in the others face the fact that
she was lost in this wild, dashing
storm of snow.
So fast did the snow fall and SO
dark was the night that Jones could
oh of ~
to follow the path which
ha fbnuobf Ki&tr ,,oi0bk have 4o1,o~,