The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1876-07-12

wood and the wife was busy otherwise,
little Kitty managed to get the shanty
door open. There was no latch as yet
and her prying little fingers easily
swung it back. A gust of wind almost
took her breath away, but she caught
sight of the brown grass without, and
the new world seemed so big that the
little feet were fain to try to explore it.
She pushed out through the door,
J caught her breath again, and started
away down the path bOrdered by serc
grass and the dead stock of wild flow.
ers.
How often she had longed to escape
from restraint and puddle ont into the
world alone! So out into the world
she went, rejoicing in her liberty, in
the blue sky above and the rusty prai-
ric beneath. She would find out where
the path went and what was the end OF
the world. What did she care if her
nose was blue and her chubby hands
as red as beets Now and then she
turned her head away from the rude
blast, forerunner of the storm, but
having gasped a moment she quickly
renewed her march in search of the
great unknown.
The mother missed her, but supposed
that Jones, who could not get enough
of the child's society, had taken the
little pet out with him. Jones, poor
fellow, supposing that the darling was
safe within, chopped away until the
awful storm broke upon him, and at
last drove him, half smothered by the
snow, and half frozen by the cold, into
the house. When there was nothing
left but retreat he seized an armful of
wood and carried it into the house with
him to make sure of having enough to
keep Kitty and his wife from freezing
in the coming awfulncss of that night
which now settled down upon the storm
beaten and snow-blinded world. 1t
was the beginning of that storm in
which so many people were frozen to
death, and Jones fed not too soon.
When once the wood was stacked
by the stove, Jones looked for Kitty.
He had no more than asked for her,
when father and mother read in each
others faces the fact that she was lost
in the wild, dashing storm of snow.
So fast did the snow fall and SO dark
was the night that Jones could not see
three feet ahead of him. He endeav-
orcd to follow the path which he
thought Kitty might have taken, but
it was buried in the snow-drifts, call
ing out to Kitty in his distress, not
knowing whittier he went. After an
hour of despairing wandering and
shouting, he came upon house, and,
after having raped upon the door. he
found himself face TO face with his
wife, he having returned to his own
door in his bewilderment.
When we remember that Jones had
not slept for two nights preceding this
one on account of his quarrel with Bur
ton, and had now been beating against
the Arctic hurricane and tramping
through the treacherous pillows of
snow for an hour, We cannot wonder
that he fell over his own threshold in
q state of complete exhaustion.
As it was, the wife must needs give
upthe vain search she had been making
in the neighbOrhoOd of the shanty.
She had sick husband with frozen
hands and feet and face to take care of.
Every minute the thermometer fell
lower and lower, and all tho heat in
the little cooking stove in Jones' shan
ty could hardly keep them from freez-
ing.
Burton had stayed upon the forty
acre lot all day, waiting for a chance
to shoot his old partner, Jones. He
had not heard of the arrival of Jones
wife, and he concluded his enemy was
a coward, and had left him in posses
sion, or meant to play him some treach-
erous trick on his way home. So Bur-
ton resolved to keep a sharp look out,
but soon found that impossible, for the
storm was soon upon him in its blind
ing. He tried to follow the path, but
he could not find it.
Had no been less of frontiersman,
he must have persisted within a furlong
of his hut. He endeavored to keep
the direction of the path, and soon
heard smothered cry, and something
rose up covered with snow and fell
down again. He raised his gun to
shoot it when the creature uttered an,