New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-02-06

buttons. Is the cellar door tight? /
} everything tight2 Betty, take care of tn
babies minute for mother. John, com,
here!'
/ She led him to the little attic, and from
the narrow, three.corned window pointed
TO the prairie, still without word.
And still, how beautiful it was! How
The wind played like one gone crazy fol
Joy with the tender tops OF the unbroken
unbounded grass. And soft, as if the
world had gone to sleep for very safety,
fell the magnificent western sun. Beauti.
full, terrible. treacherous thing!
| Cutting through the soft horizon line,
sharp as the knife through shrinking
flesh, six dark figures doomed against the
sky. Wildly before them, with the gigan-
tic strides of q long-stepped roadster, fled
a big, gaunt, homely, grand old horse.
And clinging with little bright bare feet to
his white sides, and clinging with little
despairing arms to one another.
''My God! They are our boys y
| John Jacobs threw up his arms and ran.
| Quick as woman's thought ran, his wife
was before him, and had bolted the attic
door.
Where are you going, John?"
She spoke, he thought, in her natural
tones, though she trembled horribly.
Where was he going? Why, to meet them,
save them-get his gun-blow these devils
brains out-what did she mean? Why did
she keep him9 Quick, quick! Open the
door!
MY husband" said Susan, still in
those strangely quiet tones, 1--WE can not
save our boys. Look for yourself and
see. They will be shot before they reach
the house. We have three children left.
You must save them, and for their sakes,
yourself, John. Keep the door lock-
ed. Keep the the windows barred. Keep
the shutters drawn. Give me the old
pistol and my gun. Take your own and
guard the door, There's a chance that
they'll live to get here and be let in But
not one step outside that door, John
ing children! Oh, John, John, John! My
poor little boysr'
He thought she would have broken
down at that. He thought be could never
get her from the attic floor, where she lay
trembling in that horrid way, with her
chin on the window sill, and her eyes set
upon the six dark figures, and the grand,
old, ugly horse, upon which the slipping,
Keeling, hopeless burden chung. But all |
he could hear her say was, Mothers poor
little boys!'
Mothers poor little boys indeed and in |
deed! Leap your mighty leaps, Jerusa-
lem; 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 splendid muscles
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
be ever, ever keep ahead so long? O,
now the arrows fly by! We shall be hit
We shall be hit 0, mother, mother,
mother
Tam, why doesn't father come to
meet US? Why don't they do something
or US, Tam? Has mother forgotten us p
That, think, must have been the cruel
st minute in all the cruel story.
And yet, perhaps. not SO cruel as the {
minute when the mother, at the attic win
ow, gave one long, low, echoing cry, and
anne staggering from her post, down
tairs to say-still in that strange voice
hat mothers such as she will have at /
UGH minute, John, they are hit, the a
rrow struck them both, let me go to the L
itchen window. You stay at the door. /
here's just moment now.
There was but moment, and like a i
lid dream, the whole dreadful sight came Fl
'eeping up, over the garden, into the S
lrd. "
Now John could not see anything but c
e mighty form Of the horse Jerusalem. a
D this day, he says that the saddle, to G
S eyes, as the magnificent creature <
sped by, was empty as air. He only
" the horse-and tie horse made n
raight for the barn. T
But why did the savages pursue rider Il
IS horse? And whooping and shooting b
uelly after it, into the barn they ft
cnged. il
1.-The boys are on the horse in a
'arse whisper said the mother; Il saw t.
EN- both. They are bleeding and fall b
g. The arrow has pinned them to-
ther, John, but they've kept their seat. n
My boys are pretty good riders, said
I'm, turning his white face round with -
grim, fathers pride, even then; "but re
en- my boys can't keep a horse after .
eyre shot through the body. Fright has Ii
rned your brain, Susan" te
l tell the story just as it was told to me,
d the way of that was this: How Jerusa- n
n leaped into the barn with the boys, b.
, SO the mother thought, bleeding upon W
s back; how the savages secured the e.
IN, the yard. the garden, plundered a b
tie here and there and fitfully attacked |
intervals the barricaded house; how
hn, brave and white at one door, and IL
san, white and brave at the other, IL
undance of powder and unfinching h
arts, and the love Of three helpless al
bies, drove them by and by sullenly II
-ay; how, when they had been long, h
fe hour gone, the parents, shivering and
d, crept out with white lips, little by "
tie as they dared, to hunt for the bodies al
their murdered boys. b
''They amt in the barn." said the
her, bringing his hands heavily across lo
eyes. I'LL go to the woods. l sup tt
Sc they scalped the little fellows and sc
t them there. g.
But the mother, when be was gone, n
mt around and around stealthily as
about the barn. All, blessings forever sa
the mothers ear, and blessings on the Of
others eye! Of
From pile of fresh earth thrown up in "
e barn yard, little stream Of blood
me Thinking down-and she saw it. Ell
Yep from the middle of the mound a to
tie cry came, faint, terror stricken, III
she heard it. vs
To be sure. When Jerusalem-bless n
~! went leaping through the bern door,
It an arrows length ahead of his pursu. W
), off tumbled Tam and Titus, and out l
% the barn yard, and down into the te
e of mud and gravel, deep and safe,