Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-02-22

"Where are you going. John y

"where are you going Johng'
She spoke, he thought, in her usual tones,
though she trembled horribly. Where was he
going? Why, to meet them, save them-get
his gun-blow those devils brains out-what
did she mean? Why did she keep him?
Quick, quick Open the door
MY husband" said Susan, still in those
strangely quiet tones, I'VE cannot save our
boys Look for yourself and see. They will
be shot before they reached 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 shutters 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 that door, John Jacobs, as you're the
father Of three living children o. John, John,
John! My poor little boys"
He thought she would have broken down
Mt that. He thought he could never get her
from the attic door, where she lay trembling
in that horrid way, with her chin on the win
dow-sill, and her eyes set upon the six dark
figures and the grand, old ugly horse, upon
which the slipping, reeling, hopeless, precious
burden chung. But all he could hear her say
was, Mothers pOor little boys"
Mothers poor little boys indeed and indeed!
Leap your mighty leaps, Jerusalem they're
none GOO large your great legs, thot Tam
and Titus have so often made fun Of, are none
too long for their business now. How the
splendid muscles throbbcd beneath the tiny,
terrified bare feet No wondering which was
horse and which was boy this time 1t was all
hOrw now. There was no will. no muscle no
nerve, no soul, but the brave soul of old Je-
rusalem Will he get us home Can he ever,
ever keep ahead so long? o, how the ar
rows fly by We shall be hit, we shall be
hit o. mother mother, mother
Tam, why doesn't father come to meet
us? Why don't they do something for us,
Tam; Has mother forgotten Us''
That, think, must have been the cruelest
minute in all the cruel story.
And yet perhaps not so cruel AZ the minute
when the mother, at the attic window. gave
one long, low echoing cry. and came
staggering from her post down stairs to say
still in that strange voice that mothers such as
she will have at such minute, John. they
are hit the arrow struck them both. Let
mo to the kitchen window. You stay at the
door. There's just "A moment now"
There was but IA moment, and, like wild
dream, the whole dreadful sight came sweep
ing up, over the garden, into the yard
Now John could not see anything but the
mighty form of the horse Jerusalem. To this
day, he says that the saddle, to his eyes, ms
the magnificent creature leaped 10y. was empty
as air He only saw the horse and the horse
made straight for the barn.
But why did the sayages pursue a riderlc,s
horse: And whooping and shooting cruelty
after it, into the barn they plunged.
The boys are on the horse in hoarse
whisper said the mother: Il SAW them both.
They are bleeding and falling. The arrow
has piHHed them togethCr, John, but they've
kept their sat-
My boys are pretty good riders, said
John. turning his white face round with a
grim, fathers pride, even then: but even
hH boys cant keep a horse after they're shot
through the body. Fright has turned your
brain, Susan
tell the story just rs it was told to me
and the way of that was this: How Jerisa-
lem leaped into the barn, with the boys. or 30
the mother thought, bleeding upon his back :
how the savages secured the barn. the yard.
the garden. plundered a little here and there.
and titfully attacked at intervals the barricad-
ed house how John, brave and white at one
door. and Susan, white and brave at the other
abundance of powder and unfinching hearts
and the love of three helpless babies, drove
them by and by sullenly away; how, when
they had been long, safe hour gone. the
parents shivering and sad crcpt ont with
NlllA' ups lAAlt ~ lllNlt III Al4tN hhltus 10
hunt for the bodies of their murdered boys
They amt in the barn said the father
bringing his hand heavily across his eyes
IN go the woods. l suppose they scalped
the little fellows aud left them there
But the mother WHEN he was gone went
around and around stealthily as a ca, about
the barn All blessings forever OIL the moth
ers Tar. aud blessings on the mothers eye,
From out pile of fresh earth thrown up in
the barn yard. u little stream Of blood came
tricAliug down. and she saw it, Deep from
the middle of the mound little cry came,
faint, terror-stricken, smothered but she
heard il.
To be sure. When Jerusalem-bless him /,
went leapiug through the barn door. Just
au arrows length ahead Of his pursuers. of
tumbled Tam and Titus and out into the barn
yard, and down into the pile Of mud and grav-
el, deep and safe. And about and about, and
here and there, the Indians had searched.
and secured, and grumbled- gone and
there they We're.
Pinned together with the arrow? Truly.
yes. Just under the shoulder land Titus had
the worst hurt, as will sometimes happen with
the good boys and how they ever did it. and
lived / don't know.
I'm sure they never would have. but for
their brave, black-eyed little mother, who
l'lNh'u AAtll up anu Nhhutu litul ous anu
carried them in (but she pulled out the arrow
first, aud put them to bed, and bandaged and
contrved, and cared, and kissed, and cried.
and prayed-and they got well Probably il
she had lived in the city of Boston, where
there are two medical schools. or in Philadel.
phia, where there are three more or in New
York, where there are five to say nothing OF
nobody knows how many full-hedged doctors
the boys would have died. But ms she lived
in a bowling wilderness, and they had moth
ing but clean water, and soft bandages, and
mothers eyes and hands and love to get vel
upon, they lived
They lived to be six feet high and as they
are living now, | presume they measure siN
feet still.
1t is pretty large story, l know but it is
Il true one, for I're seen the HrrOir. John gave
the arrow to gentleman and the gentleman
gave it to his daughter; and the daughter
no, she 60UldRt give it to me but held il
| for five minutes in the very hand with which
! write these words. And if that doesn't
| prove that the story is true, what could?
And Jerusalem? o, Jerusalem lived to q
| green old age, and was buried in the barn
yard with great honors. And Tam and Titus
cried, aud John and Susan cried, and Betty
| and the new. and the newest and the very
newest, aud the very rGy newest, and all tn,
babies cried and it would have been very
sad if it hadn't been little funny.
But ] think, take it altogether, it was al
Arrow Escape.