Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-10-02

anu L0ef6 on the mountain S1QoN INC 4auu
began to slide, and it was soft and
dangerous thing to tread on. The little
streams that trickled along in summer SO
muslcally came feaming down in torrents,
though never in any one place cutting
wide channels, since the water made for
itself hundred courses, and freeted at
the feet of boulders and the roots of trees,
laying them bare, Or undermining them
as slowly and secretly as false friend.
The water was fresh and sparkling, and
if but for an hour the sun shone, the hill
side glistened with the rain drops cling
ing to the pines, and the running streams
were necklaces Of silver. As if bruised
by the beating rains. the forest sent up
an odor into the heavens, and there was
no bush or vine but had its own fra
GRANGE. A
It was rain, rain, rain, and the roads
became so unsafe that it was thought
risky to run the stage on account OF the
many ruts and soft spots in the track,
down which the water had stepped, leav-
ing the surface fair and smooth. It
came so bad that one morning the paid
driver made it his bust ,ess to beg of on
account of the worry the trips gave his
wife.
"Then I'll go myself, for the mail
must be brought" SAID Johnny Win.
but if you break q neck, there's no
enc to cry for you. It was Rose said it,
having overheard him.
CAL the same, Miss Rosie; I'll go, and
perhaps the neck II break easier because
| it IL grieve no one,', and then she went
singing away up the rough stairs, and
he rode out into the mountains with the
reins of his six horses IN his hands.
| Carefully he drove, warily he watched
the road, and it rained and rained. Drops
fell as big as ali egg, and broke upon
branches and stones. Where the streams
quarrelled with rocks, it seemed as
though the hills were struggling and
foaming at the mouth. In the town it
rained just as hard, and, trying to sing,
Rosie Mcguire went about tho house
busying herself with q thousand things,
but finding time once minute to look
from the window.
Five O'Clock was stage time, but no
stage came. Supper came and went,
people dropped in for the mail and went
uOues Cue ClOCh StEuCA seVcu, duu Bull
no stage.
"He's probably waited over, finding
the roads too bad to get in by daylight"
said Que.
ono" answered Tom Mcguire; "John-
ny's got too much git up an git an reg
lar grit to be beat by a road. Depend
upon it, boys, he's in trouble somewheres
with that stage an them horses. It 'ud
be worth mans life to find out though"
While he leaned over his bar and puff
ed the smoke and talk from between his
lips, enjoying the small excitement, he
never noticed the little girl lowering near
the door, anxiously smiling and smarten-
ing up bit: or curving and bridling
with her neck as glance from some one
or other of the numerous pairs of eyes
shot that way. But sometimes she
strained her ear to catch sound, or hol
lowed her hand round it not to lose q
word, or shook her hair restlessly away,
and minute after hummed at saucy
snatch or two, and all the time fitting
about like moth near the door, so busy
with the broom, or the curtain, or the
rug.
It was good eight when certain assur-
ance was brought that the stage was
really on the road, on it's back trip,
by horseman who had met and passed
it struggling off among the hills. Many
were the hands raised, palm outward, in
dismay then; but when the men took q
look out at the window into the dead
darkness, and heard the roar of the
stream and the swish of the falling rain,
they shook their heads, and, coming back
spit at the stove once more.
| And when the clock was on the stroke
of nine a small form, a-tiptoe and a-trem-
BILE, stole out the back doorway silently
and Silly as the leaf that whispers but
to itself as it falls, sand the eyes that
cleaned beneath the low forehead like
stars of dark nj ht were wet with some
thing besides drops of rain.
Out to the stables Rosie flew straight
as a sent arrow; and her own little bay
mare whinnled, and the small hand slid
rapidly down its TANKS as bride went
over neck, and saddle across back. The
mare stamped and paved, and then
shrunk back for an instant at the door
as drop splashed in her face; but she
gathered herself together, and with a
bound like rabbit she was off and away
into the dark.
I And then began the wild ride of Rosie
Mcguire!
The feet of the little mare danced upon
the bridge that spanned the swollen
stream, lit with dull thud in the mud
struck fire from the stones that lay be.
yond, then away she started on gallon
up the Bunker grade till the wise little
mistress checked her speed. "Nay. nay
said the brave Rose, 1--WE shall need ou1
strength for the long, hard roads that lie
; beyond"
As they touched the top of the noun
tain, the rain had ceased, but dull and
sullen silence fell from the heavens, and
watery, blear-eyed moon looked out :; ar
eerie, goblin moon looked out, and the
clouds had jagged its edges till it looked
, like torn Gear. 1t illumined the dread
full mountain and the gaunt forest with
, the ghost of light that shimmered and
wavered half way between lear and {
J smile But the little maid kept her way
flying, as it seemed to herself, always ir
the dark, while the shuddering shadows
, on either side Of her made great Jumps
, over her head, and reached and drew
back their black-glovcd hands.
!, "Why, Johnny" she said to herself, a
} once, "Joanny, never shall find you
: and may be your wheels have gone owe
J the side of the mountain in this dreadful
dark" And then she was half crying
and she put her hands over her eyes; bu
J the little mare felt her way on and on
! and with her good horsc-sense stepped
now to this side, now to that, accepting
the warnings her sensitive feet took from
bad ground. They left behind them tn
great rock from whose solid heart tn
road had been hewn, the clump of fir
that blackened all one side of the hill
the round, bare-headed mountain tina
through the whole year stood uncovered
/ among its fellows. A hundred stream
they dashed through that sputtered, ane
splashed and made their outcry, and tn
night was now hideous, now smusica
with the sounds that walled or sung
throughlt. The sough of the pines dllee
the ears set to every sound; a SILVER ik'
! oo,,no nv, k1~o,,-.b <ho I1.o ,choa ,