The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-04-11

was to build boat and 90 down into the
Sable andthen to the outside on il, with our
ur in the spring.
The next morning after our arrival the
man who toted our things out, and whose
name L disremember started back for the
shore and Bill and went to work to build
us camp. | wasn't so handy then as | now
be, but Bill was the ingeniousest man l
nearly ever seen. He could do as much
with an ak as half your carpenters can with
saws and planes and all the other jigamarees
that they work with. Long Desore night we
had comfortable camp made, and Bill said
the next thing was to make a canoe, and as
he was an old hand at the business why l,
of course, let him have his own way. Max
ing the canoe took more time than the camp
did. We worked the rest of that day and
all the next, until the sun was about an
hour high, when il was finished and
we slid il into the water. Now, says Bill,
let's try il. Wei get over to tother side
and maybe see bear or kill deer, and so
we took our guns and went over. The trip
was more to try the canoe than for anything
| else, and when we got over to tother side
we turned right around and come back. i
| / was a settin in the bow and Bill in the
! stern and our guns was atween US, and when
we run ashore | picked up mine and got out
and Bill started 10 follow. | was not lookin
at him just then and didn't see il, but his
| gun went off kind o. sudden and ! somehow
became all confused like. / know | turned
round-I would do that in the very nature
| of things-and pears to me that Bill was all
pale and looked scared. Whatever can be
the matter, asked him, and all he said
was. Don't leave me' and then he kind o.
sunk down all limber-and-was dead!
He had shot himself right through the heart.
| IL all pears like dream. 1t seems like /
heard him say Don't leave me, and IL
seems like saw his pale face and saw him
sink down, all limp as cloth, but was so
| hustered that / don't know how got him
to the camp. | have no recollection about
that, but | do remember that there he lay,
| all cold and stiff and dead, in the bed all
night, and that set up by the fire and wait
| ed and waited, Oh, so long for the day TO
| come. / had seen dead men afore. had
stood in battle and heard the shells a scream
in and the bullets pingin, and seen men
shot down, and heard em moanin' and
groaHin, and all that, but, o, Lord! this was
the first man / was ever out in the wilder
ness with and seen him shoot himself.
snow what was to do2 You think this be
hard times; but ain we all alive? There was
poor, dead Bill, with his CLASSY eyes star
in at me his face all pale, his nose all drawn
down flat Ike, his mouth wide open and his
teeth all white and dry, and the blood all
black and clotted over his clothes And
there was mel No, boys. you don't know
what hard times be, and | don't guess you
ever will. All the time and all the night
when | was settn' there before the fire, il
seemed to me that could see his poor, pale
face in the blinkin Goals, and all the time
his last words, Don't leave me- kept
soundin' in my ears. Once | was sure he
spoke so sure of it thought he had actu-
ally come to- but | reckon it must have been
his sperit as spoke. Some people don't be-
lieve in sperits, but do; for when heard
the words Don't leave me- / knew 1T
was Bills voice, and / jumped up
and run to the bed, expectin' to see him
alive thinking that he had been in a stupor
like, and said, No old pard, I'll never
leave your but when / lifted the blanket
from his face, there were the same CLASSY
eyes, the same drawn nose, open mouth and
shiny teeth and then knew il was a sperit;
for didn't hear IL no more. Ii was satisfied.
1t had heard me say, No! I'll never leave
your and it knew that when Jack said
thing he meant it.
"After awhile day come and had made up
my mind. 1t was a terrible night, l tell
you, but after had made the promise to
the sperit some how got clearer in my head,
and saw how / would take poor dead Bill
in the boat and carry him down to the
mouth of the Sable and send him home.
As soon as | could see well,
and toted it into the canoe
and put in some provisions, and then went
back and fastened up the door with the
latch that Bill had put in, and started.
That was an awful voyage. was three
days and nights getting down to the shore,
and all the sleep could get was day time.
When night would come, I'd tie up ashore,
and pile up great heap o wood and keep
the fire a roarin' and blazin' the live-long
night and even with that | thought the
wolves would get me and Bill both. They'd
fairly run right up to the fire snappin
and growlin' in the horridest manner l
|
so fierce that / clum tree; but l
hadn't more n got out % reach
when Bills sperit said: Don't leave me-
as plain could be, and slid right down
and took my gun and shot the foremost
varmint, when the rest skunk back like, and
did not venture so close any more.
~ had chuck along, but somehow had no
appetite and didn't eat any. / thought of
nothin' but gettin' on, and If got any sleep
at all il was while / was fioatin' along in the
day time. think / did get some s,eep;
howsever, / remember that had got way
below the Floodwood, and about the middle
of one afternoon l thought l was a talkin'
to Bill; / thought be WIS a tryin' to
tell me about his mother a bein' eat
up by wild beasts, and that /
must save her, when there came the
| awfulest woman's scream L ever heard. 1t
made the hair stand up so stiff that my head
felt kind o. sore like afterwards. l think
that must have been a dream. for the scream
awakened me, and knew IL was painter
and that poor Bill hadn't talked to me at all.
"At last / reached the shore and give the
body to the curner. He asked me a great
many questions, him and the jury / mean,
and he writ il all down, and after talkin the
matter over they said might go, for d-n
them, do you know they-had- said-maybe
-I-had-kiled him? You're Judge, and
would you think would kill him hundred
miles in the woods, me as didn't know no
body scarcely and then lug him for three
days and nights without eatin or sleepin',
and run the risk of wolves and painters, till
could get him among people? Would that
be reasonable? / think 'twouldn't, and
neither did a little old man whose name ]
didn't know: and so they told me could go,