The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1877-01-18
GRAND FATHERS FIRST PRAYER.

1t was a terrible winter-snow storm az
ter snow storm, high winds every few davs
so that we had enough to do, neighbor Ea-
ton and /, to take care of our cattle, keep
warm and keep the paths open. Toward
the last Of February we had another terri
bic storm. | worked pretty much all day
shoveling, and was tired enough at night;
SO after L had toasted my feet aud slipped
my mug of order, as it was about O'Clock,
[ told your grandmother | would go out
and take Il look at the cattle and 90 to bed
[ found them all right, and was stand
ing just outside the door here a minute,
thinking, when heard ''help help !'' in a
woman's voice that sounded as if it really
came from the moon.
'What's that, Pully ?" says l.
GA woman calling for help 1t must be
from Thieves Hole said she, ''and you
must go and get Eaton and find out what
it means"
knew she was right, and I put on my
snow shoes and went down to neighbor Ea-
tons.
At first [ could not make them believe |
had heard anything, but when said Polly
heard it too, they concluded that l was
right, and Eaton began to get ready.
Over beyond the crest of that line of
hills, valley dips down, about half the
height of the hill from the plain lure, then
rises up to a greater height beyond. a
few years after this settlement was begun,
a nest of English thieves broke ground
there. They lived pretty much like brutcs.
At first we all joined and helped them get
up their log houses, but we found out soon
enough what lot they were, and let them
alone
So we set off. 1t was hard pull up the
hill, but we had not got more than half way
down to the huts-they were all close to-
gether-when We come upon woman ly-
ing in the snow. She was almost dead, but
as soon as we spoke she screeched out,
Stand off Don't touch me, or YOU'RE
dead men y
We did not know what she meant at
first, but she went on. I'm most dead
with small pox. We've all Of us got it, and
half Of us are dead [ du no but we'll all be
off fore morning.
After thinking and consulting little, we
pulled off our outer coats and tied the
sleeves together, then spread them on the
snow beside the woman, and she managed
to roll on them, then we took hold Of the
corners, and carried her down:
You can't imagine the horrors those
three log huts contained. Twenty eight
souls there were, all told, and seventeen of
them lay dead Of the smallpox and all the
rest horribly sick. The woman whom we
had brought in died almost as soon as she
was within the walls.
Eaton and | went outside and sat down
in the snow to talk it over. We arranged
that he should go back at once and speak
to our wives, then 90 to Hobart's ard ar
range to have him come up to the top of
the hill every day, and we would 90 within
speaking distance, and tell him what was
wanted.
SO he pulled on the coat the woman had
laid in, saying at don't matter much
now," and started off,
began pulling the dead bodies out of
the huts, and dreaful work it was, breath
ing my own death every moment Before
Eaton got back, had cleared one hut en-
tirely, and had all the sick ones in the
other two
We did all we could for them The Sc
cond day docter got there, but he said
the moment he looked at them they could
not one live. And so it proved. Before
the third day drew to clos1, they were
all gone. We had been burying them as
fast as We could but the snow was so deep
it was slow work
Hobart found a man to nurse when our
time came, and we got through as well as
anybody could. During our convalescence
the nurse had filed the huts up pretty well
with the driest wood he could find and
when the doctor said we might go home
next day, Hobart brought us up fresh
clothes, and when we were ready to start,
we set them all afire | had never knelt
down and prayed in my life but when we
were on the top Of the hill, and looking one
way saw three towers of yellow fame run
ming up into columns &C black smoke, and
looking the other way, the slender thread
of smoke blue, as the heavens above, rising
from my own hearthstone, where the sweet
est woman God ever made was waiting and
praying for me, fell down on my knees
and thanked God for my life, and promised
to my frst object in the future to love and
serve him 2s my wife did.
There is nothing so sweet as to be loved,
except loving BY love we mean, of course,
the true, pure love which is not thing of