The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-10

cant.
A gust of wind, stronger than any
that had preceded it, was followed by g
binding dash of rain.
40, children! what can keep youl
father ?" walled the anxious wife. "a
tree may have fallen upon him, or 6
wild beast or a savage"
Mother" cried Madge, the younger
of the two daughters, whose sharp
black eyes, irregular features, straight
glossy, black hair, powerful frame, anC
deep voice betokened wonderful strength
of both character and muscle, although
fashiOning our opinion after the usuaI
models, she was excessively coarse and
homely, "don't cry. Fathers all right
he's lost his way in the forest and built
a fire and lain down to wait till day.
light. Go to bed, do ~
"But you don't know he's all right
Madgep'
"I do know it, mother! I can see
himv'
'Nonsense! you crazy simpleton
Hush! and don't bother mew
Mrs. Morrison was indeed excusable
for discrediting this phenomenal "sight
SEEING" of the nature of which she was
wholly ignorant. Besides, the pool
woman was half crazy with terror lest
her husbands death should occur, and
leave her alone and helpless in the un-
inhabited wilds where they had rested
from their wanderings.
Dwellers in well-built, substantial
mansions can sit comfortably before the
glowing CRATE and listen to the chilly
blasts without with keen sense of en-
joyment. When the winds roar around
the gables, howl in the chimneys, wall
through the corridors, whistle at the
keyholes, or sing in Eolian sweetness at
the insterstices in the plate-glass win
dows, the dreamer Oy the fire-side can
lazily think and plan and be happy.
But the poesy of all these conditions
found no response in the soul of Mrs.
Morrison, as the cover to their wagon
leaked like a riddle, and the unsteady
vehicle rocked from side to side in the
bowling darkness.
"Madge! Madge! are you asleep?'
cried the mother, at last.
For long time she had not spoken,
and the children, either asleep from IA
tigue or frightened into silence, had lain
quietly in the wagon, with their heads
covered.
"You told me to hush, and not bother
you ~ cried Madge, from beneath the
bed-clothes.
"Can you see your father now ?''
asked the woman, inclining her ear fol
an answer, as though, in her dire ex-
tremity, she were consulting an oracle.
'I haven't looked since you made me
hush," answered Madge.
"Look now, won't you?"
tNoW
"DO, Madge W
"You'll say Pm crazy, and s'pose ]
am. What makes you want to talk
with crazy people? I'll go to father
when it gets light. You go to bed,
The rain won't wet you through the
quilts"
"But is your father comfortable ?"
Chow should I know ?r
'Madge! you'll kill mew cried the
mother, desperately.
mot if know myself" said Madge.
'Then why don't you try to see fol
me?"
'I didr'
"And what did you see ?"
at told you"
Mrs. Morrison saw that it would be
useless to question her strange child
further. She usually had no faith in
the "sight seeing" with which Madgt
had worried her for years, and the child
knowing this, seldom so far forgot her.
self as to intrude it upon her.
And still the storm howled piteously
Thoroughly exhausted at last, the anx,
ious wife crept shivering into her bed
beside the sleeping two-year-old, anC
clasping in her weary arms the puny
crying babe, whose wall smote the eal
of the screaming night with a prophetic
agony, she tremblingly awaited the
long, long-coming morning.
At last the storm, like an exhausted
child, sObbed itself to sleep, and the
dawn beheld it weeping upon the
bosom of the quiet earth like lonely
widow, over whose surging soul haC
settled the calmness of despair.
Madge was astir with the faintest
glimmer of the dawn. Rising al
stealthily as though she were bent upor
securing some coveted prize, in which
success depended on secrecy, and clam
bering over the other inmates of The
wagon without arousing even her ex
hausted and apprehensive mother, the
child sieZed an axe and started on &
brisk run for the timbered gulch
Straight and swiftly on she ran, paus
ing now and then for an instant, will
her eyes shut, as il to close her senses tt
external things, and then bounding OF
more rapidly than before, till higt
above the encampment in the valley
she crossed the ripping stream that tn,
nights revel of elements had swoller
into a considerable river, and then
more carefully needing her wherea