The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-12-17

Il
of the stage, through which the wind
poured mercilessly. was chilled
through to the heart in less than an hour
after starting. / do not know how far we
had gone, or how long we had been upon
the road, when heard the boys voice,
CHEEKY and bright, asking:
"How are you now, sir9 Feeling
comfortable, sir?"
1 nodded my head, and crept closer
into the corner. But he was wiser than
/, and would not let me have the sleep 1
coveted.
"You are in hurry to get home, he
said, for want of something better to say
with which to rouse me.
Eyes" replied. 81 want to be at
home on Christmas Eve"
"The best days / ever knew were
Christmases-a good while ago."
He said it as if he were ever and ever
so old, and what was saddest of all, as if
he were done with Christmas forever. L
told him of the tree l was to get, and
how Christmas Day was kept in the great
cities. He was most interested III the
tree, making me tell him again and again
about it. But after awhile, as if he were
tired of it, he said:
81 never saw tree like that. l know
about Christmas, though-about the
star and the shepherds, and the Christ.
child you spoke of-that they laid IN a
manger.
"Then you know all that any one in
the world need ever to know" l said.
1t may have been an hour, or two
hours, but it seemed but minute after
this that the boy shook me roughly by
the shoulder.
eve are to get out here, he said.
L was very stiff in my joints, but /
could get up and climb out of the stage,
and no more. If l was cold l did not
know it !; my limbs were numb, yet 9th
erwise | was comfortable enough. /
crawled out and followed the boy into q
misunderstanding shanty by the road
side, in front of which we had stopped.
There was n rough bar running across
the room; there was thick, black
haired, rawny-looking man behind it,
and there were two or three kegs of
liquor behind him. There was an iron
stove in the middle of the room, bench
along the wall, and that was all. The
boy asked for some brandy, drank glass
of it after handing one to me, which l
drank, and felt so much better for drink
ing that 1 called for another and got it;
! but the boy refused to take the glass l
offered him. =" have had enough" he
said.
{" We were going out, when the land
lord opened the door before us. Look
ing out into the storm, he asked incred-
ulously:
" Are you going on!"
Yes said the boy, 81 was told to
drive this gentleman to Ilium tonight,
and I'm going to do it"
" If you get there at all, it will be
night sure enough" the landlord said
g ] will get there all the same" was
the boys reply.
Let us stop here to -night," | said
"we can go on in the morning"
Z" l would rather take you on, sir !
There's no danger. l can't put my
horse up here, and my master would kill
me if anything happened to him"
That decided me to go on. Beside,
did not care to talk. was beginning to
feel cold again standing i'll the wind, so
we got into the stage. 1t was not snow
ing any faster than before, simply be-
cause it could not. But the roads were
heavier, and when we tried to start, the
jaded horse baked and struggled
through the drift, for the stage had
frozen fast where it stopped.
1t was 3 o'clock, the light in the west
growing DINNER and dimmer-the gloom
of the mountains and the bare woods
coming nearer to us, making their mean-
inc, fol -, a,,,1g
an awful dread of the snow-covered road
beyond. Ten miles to go yet, the night
coming quickly on, the cold growing
more intense, the road rougher, more
precipitous, the horse evidently giving
ont But the boy took up the lines, the
bright, frank smile upon his face, the
cherry word upon his tongue. "Good-
bye" he said, TO the man in the door
way.
The man stood for an instant in the
door way looking after us. Goodbye, Z"
he said.
We went on along the road that from
the beginning of time it was ordained
we were to go. | crept back into my
corner.
"Do not go to Sleep" the pleasant
voice warned me from the 'front.'
"Thank you, replied, cheered and
warmed by its hearty glow. 81 will not
sleep"
Then followed "A long silence, in which
L had views of the falling snow, the
white hills above us, the white hills still
below us, in which l heard sounds from
creaking, grooming branches, from the
wind sweeping savagely past us. Then
unconquerable drowsiness, fast coming
darkness-then night.
felt hand on my face, then on my
shoulder, shaking me roughly; sweet,
cheering voice in my ears, calling me
back to life.
:" If you go to sleep now, You won't
wake up again, it said.
L woke with sudden start, for an in
slant, to a full consciousness of time and
p, ace. L was not cold, only sleepy. 81
am quite awake, replied. Have we
far to go3"
Five miles, ana the voice was still
the same CHEEKY voice that / had heard
from the first. He spoke to me often
after that; then / saw him as in dream,
fixing blanket that he had taken from