The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-10-28

Mothers poor little boys indeed and
indeed Leap your mighty leaps,
Jerusalem; they re none too large; your
great legs that Tam and Titus have so
often made fun of, are none too long
for their business now. How the splen-
did muscles throbbed beneath the tiny,
terrified bare feet No wondering
which was horse and which was boy this
time. 1t was all horse now. There was
no will, no muscle, no nerve, no soul,
but the brave soul of old Jerusalem.
Will he get us home Can he ever,
ever keep ahead so long Oh, how the
arrows fly by We shall be hit, we shall
be hit Oh, mother, mother, mother !
"Tam, why doesn't father come to
meet us9 Why don't they do some
thing for us, Tam9 Has mother for
gotten us p
That, think, must have been the
cruelest minute in all the cruel story.
And yet, perhaps, not so cruel as the
minute when the mother. at the attic
window, gave one long, low, echoing
cry, and came, staggering from her
post, down stairs to say-still in that
strange voice that mothers such as she
will have at such a minute: "John,
they are hit; the arrow struck them
both. Let me to the kitchen window.
You stay at the door. There's Just a
moment now."
There was but moment, and like a
wild dream, the whole dreadful sight
came sweeping up, over the garden, into
the yard.
Now John could not see anything but
the mighty form of the horse Jerusalem.
To this day, he says that the saddle, to
his eyes, as the magnificent creature
leaped by, was empty as air. He only
saw the horse-and the horse made
straight for the barn.
But why did the savages pursue a
riderless horse And whooping and
shooting cruelty after it, into the barn
they plunged.
"The boys are on the horse," in a
hoarse whisper said the mother;." saw
them both. They are bleeding and
falling. The arrow has pinned them to-
gether, John, but they have kept their
seat"
"My boys are pretty good riders, -
said John, turning his white face round
with a grim, fathers pride, even then
"blrt even my boys can't keep a horse
after they're shot through the body.
Fright has turned your brain, Susan.
1 tell the story just as it was told to
me and the way of that was this how
Jersusalem leaped into the barn, with
the boys, or SO the mother thought,
bleeding upon his back how the saw
ages secured the barn, the yard, the
garden, plundered little here and
there, and fitfully attacked at intervals
the. barricaded house how John, brave
and white at one door, and Susan, white
and brave at the other, abundance of
powder and unfinching hearts, and the
love of three helpless babies, drove
them by-and-bye sullenly away; how,
when they had been a long, safe hour
gone, the parents, shivering and sad,
crept out with white lips, little by little
as they dared, to hunt for the bodies of
their murdered boys.
"They amt in the barn." said the
father, bringing his hand heavily across
his eyes. "I'll go to the woods. 1 sup
pose they scalped the little fellows and
left them there"
But the mother, when he was gone,
went around and around stealthily as a
cat about the barn. All, blessings for
ever on the mothers ear, and blessings
on the mothers eye
From a pile of fresh earth thrown up
in the barnyard, little stream of blood
came trinkling down-and she saw it.
Deep from the middle of the mound q
little cry came, faint, terror stricken,
smothered-but she heard it.
To be sure. When Jerusalem went
leaping through the barn door, Just an
arrows length ahead of his pursuers, of
tumbled Tam and Titus, and out into
the barnyard, and down into the pile oil
mud and gravel, deep and safe. And
about and about, and here and there, the
Indians had searched, and secured, and
grumbled-and gone; and there they
were.
Pinned together with the arrow
Truly, yes. Just under the shoulder
and how they ever did it and lived, ]
don't know.
I'm sure they never would have, but
for their brave, black-eyed little mother
who picked them up and washed then
off, and carried them in (but she pulled
out the arrow firsD and put them to bed
and bandaged, and contrived, and cared
and kissed, and cried, and prayed-anG
they got we'll. They lived to be six feet
high and as they are living now, 1 pre-
sumo they measure six feet still.
1t is a pretty long story, 1 know, but
it is true one, for I've seen the arrow
John gave the arrow to a gentleman
and the gentlemen gave it to his daugh
ter and the auphtar-nO she wOuldn' 4
give it to me but l held it for five
minutes in the very hand with which ]
write these words. And if that doesn't
prove that the story is true, what could
And Jerusalem2 Oh, Jerusalem lived
to a good old age, and was buried in the
barnyard with great honors. And Tan
and Titus cried, and John and Susan
cried, and Betty, and the new, and the
newest, and the very newest, and the
very, very newest, and all the babies
cried, and it would have been very sac
if it hadn't been little funny.