Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-02-27


Wrapping myself up warmly, [ ex-
tinguished the candle, and, securing
the door Of the cabin, 1 went to an adj
joining shanty where my horse was
stabbed. The animal had been ailing
for day or two "Only cold" the
woodman had said who had tended
him. His food Ivy untouched before
him, and he stood shive1ing with droop-
ing head, as / entered the stable, and
as l put the bride and saddle upon him
he turned pitifullv towards me, as if
pleading dumbly against the cruel sell
fishness that took him out into the bit
ter Winter night.
"Poor old Dobbin y said I, stroking
his cold neck, half resolved to relinquish
my purpose.
But when / looked out at the cabin,
standing alone and deserted iii the
ghostly whiteness of the storm, felt
that / could not re-enter it, remember
ing the dear soul that mad gone forth
never to return, and the cold, beloved
clay over yonder by the frozen Mott
peCago.
So / led him out and sprang into
the saddle. On one side lay the main
road that led to Pere Marquette, and
on the other bridle.path which sup
posed, not knowing, led straight to Dr.
Jones house.
Poor Dobbin walked reluctantly away.
and under the saddle-cloth [ could hear
his lungs heave fitfuliy with his laboring
breath. But / urged him on, for SUI
perstitious dread of what was behind
drove me like goad. On and on we
went into the pine wilderness, along the
winding track that grew narrower and
darker, and strangely like the paths l
had sometimes seen made by straying
herds through brambly places, where
the foot Of man had never trod.
"Strange," | said aloud, fancying that
my voice would lessen tie still and
dreadful melancholy of the wood.
1--WE ought to be there. Whoa, Dob
bin!"
The weak, sick, stumbling creature
stopped, and, taking my dead parents
last gift-a rare and costly watch-from
my bosom. [ touched spring and held
it to my ear. The tiny strokes, like
elfin ting of grasshopper. told me that
the hour was - Again touched the
spring and the fairy strokes counted
thirty minutes.
"Go on, Dobbin.'
The poor. faithful animal groaned
and lifted his feet YEARLY. The snow
was up to his breast, chill and clammy,
and he slipped at every step: and the
sharp, jutting boughs almost thrus. me
from the saddle. Not rod further on
we came to the end of the path-an
impossible barrier of bushy jumpers
and infant pines.
Nothing remained but to turn back;
and for another hour the sick horse
toiled through the huge drifts; and at
the end of that hour he stopped before
another inaccessible obstruction of body
pines and dwarfed cypress. I knew
then that [ was lost.
gave my horse the rein, and, SILVER
ing and spiritless, he wandered aimlessly
and futilely on. The storm had con-
stantly increased, and the great snow
flakes came whirling down, swarming
like milk-white wasps, and their touch
stung like needles of ice. There was
roaring and a rolling of the heavy wind
in the far wilderness, and rushing and
rocking among the tall ghostly pines
that stood like phantoms hooded and
armored in snow, and a sense of insid-
ious and fatal cold seemed creeping
through the storm. My limbs seemed
frozen, and my fingers were stiffened
round the bridle-rein.
"Poor, sick Dobbin!" I said again
aloud, as the spent animal stopped with
a moan that almost made me weep.
But that groan was the grOan of his
death agony. He sank upon his knees,
gasped family, shivered with lessening
CONFUSION, rolled heavily upon bis
side, and died.
Fortunately. my dying horse did not
fall upon II e. [ dropped the useless
rein, and, loosening my num0 feet from
the stirrup, hbored on through the
snow, knew not whittier.
Lost in. the painless wilds of Mich
igan pine-forest, without guide or COM
pass, with my dead horse behind me,
and the des th-cold snow to my waist,
and still falling like an inverted sea of
frozen foam!
Again / took my watch. and, touching
the magic spring, held it to my ear.
Ting, ting. ting. The tiny musical
stroke sounded strange and sweet III
that horrible place 1t reminded me of
a Summer when [ had sat with Alexis
on that howery margin Of shosn
meadow. and listened to the sharp me-
tallic hum of the rowing grasshoppers.
All, my faithless loved Alexis! Three
o'clock! Almost four hours before the.
dawn. And when the dawn came, where
then would [ be? | was LOST was
freezing-I was dying!
1 toiled back through the rising snow
to my dead horse, and laid down in the
fatal downy drift, with my head upon his
shoulder A strange, slumberous SEN
sation crept along my nerves. and l
closed my eyes. The sweet. deadly
spell ofsthe insidous cold was upon me.
Delicious visions went and came There
was love, there was ecstacy, there was
heaven IN the deadly lullaby of the
rolling wind. 5szaa - 49, eee - ~Ees
Then, through the slumberous sweet
ness and i1ieffable rapture, Alicia seemed
u l. Az,