The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-01-07

NJ ODc1SQ ucT NOilOcA
He just dropped his hoe and went 2
---E' Now, shut the door," said, Susan
He shut 1t. - s' Shut the windows.o1si iai
What's the matter, Susan2 Any
thing wrong? Amt tie boys inil.IY What
You-don t-mean ~ r. 49,. ,sE ... ,...s -
Hush=shI1s Before the children
Don't, john PH tell you in a minute
Bolt the front doort u el
:, He belted it. 90 II 3sf5I ~ ssts g5ssss,s-
=, g g Lock everything.g Draw the shut
ters.I Fasten them with case knives be
sides the buttons. Is the cellar dool
tight Betty, take care of the babies !
minute for mother. john come henelS
= She led him to the little attic, and
from the narrow window pointed to the
prairie, still without a. word.a ssE 2, 90 %
= And still how beautiful it was! How
the wind played like one gone crazy foI
Joy with the tender tops of the unbroken
runbounded grass. And soft. as if the
world had gone to sleep for very safety,
ieu the magnificent western sun. Beau
,tiful, terrible, treacherous thing l17elaan
Cutting through the soft horizon line,
sharp as the knife through shrinking
flesh, six dark figures loomed against
the sky. Wildly before them, With the
gigantic strides of long-stepped foad-
ster, fled a big, gaunt, homely, grand old
horse. And clinging with little bright
bare feet to his white sides, and1lclinging
with little despairing arms to one am
other ~ 100 a-.
s'fMy God! They are our boys!" 1E
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. --- re-
'fWhere are you going, John?p r5 .
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 him? Quick,
quickI Open the doorl --r...s
i "My husband" said Susan, still in
those strangely quiet tones, we cannot
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 locked.
Keep the windows barred. Keep the
drawn. Give me the old pistol
and my gun. Take yOur own and guard
the door. There's chance that they'll
live to get here and be let in. But not
one step outside the door, John Jacobs,
as you're the father OF three living chill
dren! Oh, John, John, John My
poor little boys!"
He thought she would have broken
down at that He thought he coukfnever
get her from the attic floor, where she
Law 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, reeling, hopeless, precious bur
den clung. But all he could hear her
say was mothers poor little boys
Mothers poor little boys indeed and
indeed Leap your mighty leaps. Jeruz
salem !; they re nonestO large Your great
legs that Tam and Titus have so often
made fun of, are none too long for their
now. How the splendid muscles
throbbed beneath the terrified bare feet
No wondering which was horse and which
was bey this time. 1t was all horse now.
There was no will, no muscle, no nerve,
no soul, but the brave soul of old yeru-
salem. VIII he get us home Can he
ever, ever keep ahead so long ? o, how
the arrows fly byI We shall be hit, we
shah be hit O, mother, mother, motherl !
Tam, why doesn't father come to
meet us? Has mother forgotten us?
That. think, must have been the
crueiest 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, long echoing cry,
and came, staggering from her post, down
stairs to say-still III that strange voice
that mothers such as she win 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 foam of the horse Jerusalem.
To this day, he says that the saddle, to
his ewes, as the magnificent creature
leaped by, was empty as air. He only
saw the horse-and the horse made
staight for the barn.
But why did the saTages pursue q
horse? And whooping and
cruelty after it, into the barn
they plunged.
t "The boys are on the horse,"n in a
hoarse whisper said the mother; '' saw
them both. They are bleeding and fall
ing. The arrow has pinned them to-
gether, John, but they've Kept their
seat" ..teeF 1
' Ny. boys are pretty good rider"
said John, turning his white face round
with a grim, fathers pride, even then !;
g but even my toys can't keep q horse
after they're slot through the body.
Fright has turned your brain, Susan"
. / tell the story Just as it was told to
me; and the way Of that was this How
Jerusalem leaped into the barn, with the
boys or so the mother thought, bleeding
upon his back; how the savages secured
the barn, the yard, the garden, plundered
a little here and there, and fUfully at
tackled at intervals the barricaded hause;
how John, brave and white at one door,
and Susan, white and brave at the other,
of powder and unhinching
hearts, and the love of three helpless
babes, drove them,s by-and-by, 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. ase
''They amt in the barn, said the
father, bringing his hand heavily across
his eyes. "I'll go to the woods. Isuppos
they scalped the little fellows, and lief
them there"
But the mother, whenhe was gone, went
around and around, stealthily as cat,
about the barn. All, blessings forever
on the mothers eye y .--...
From a pile of fresh earth thrown up
in the harvard n little stream of blood
came trickling down-and she saw it.
Deep fren the middle of the mound a
little cry came, faint. terror-strieben,
smothered--buts she heard it..
[ To be sure. When Jerusaleln-bless
himl-went leaping through the barn
door, just an arrows length ahead of his
pursuers, off tumbled Tam and Titus,
and out into the barnyard, and down
into the pile of mud and gravel, deep
and safe. And about and about, and
here and there, the Indians had searched,
and secured, and gTumbled-and gone:
and there they were.
Pinned together with the arrow
Truly, yes. Just under the shoulder
(and Titus had the worst hurt, as will
sometimes happen with the good boys);
and how they ever did il and lived, /