The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-04-16
BABE IN THE WOODS.

BABE IN THE WOODS.
Narrative of q Lost Little Girl
Among the Howling Wolves and Proving
Panthers.
[Dardanelle (Ark.) Immigrant,l
Some weeks ago a little girl of five sum
mers strayed off one day about noon from
her fathers residence on Cedar creek, Scott
county, causing the deepest distress and
widest CONSERVATION to her parents and
neighbors- The child was q peculiar one,
having strange disposition for . girl, often
evfncing passionate fondness for the woods,
and wanting 70 follow her fathers dogs into
the mountains near by to hunt. She seemed
from babyhood almost to love the wild,
strange scenes, the stern old mountains and
darksome forests with winch her home was
grit about She loved to listen to and imi-
tate the drear. weird howl of the wolf, ring
ing at nightfall down the dismal slope of the
mountains and through the somber aisles of
the forests. She was a curious child, so the
neighbors said, a queer little gin, and IN
commonly strange, but she was gone, and NO
one knew where. Her little pattering foot
falls about the door were missed. The rooms
were hunted, the barn and outhouses.
searched, the garden, the fields and patches
agonizingly explored, but all in vain The
strange little girl had gone. Then the neigh
bors assembled together, and they hunted
all the evening. and throughout the long
spring night their torches flashed through
startled buck, dszed with surpnse. sprang
from his leafy bed into the darkness; the
mountain owl ceased his hooting, while the
hunters halloo echoed from peak to peak
and down to the deep gorges and through
the shadowy wales. The proving wild cat
crouched low IS the party passed the rocky
businesses of his home, and the skulking fox
sought denser thickets.
The night passed on, guns were fired and
horns were winded; but the mad March.
h Lat Sa1 Hall
when the sun rose up slowly from behind
the mountain crest and shot his rOseate
beams athwart the morning landscape, the
child was not yet found. The excitement.
spread like wildfire; people thronged in from
other neighbo-hoo6s; the search was re-
newed with double yigor. Women boldly
| took the painless woods with brave hearts
and streaming eyes, and all that day and
| night following the mountains, the valleys,
the glens and the thlckets were secured; but
when the sun rose again it dawned upon q.
scene of sadness, for the little girl was still
| lost. The suspense was dreadful, for the
nights were cold and bleak, and the country
wild, very wild, and infested with wolves,
| panthers and bears.
The little girl was motherless, but she had
father, and the agony of his heart as day
! and night he tramped the forests through in
fruitless search for his little pet may not be
told. Bat the hunt was kept up next day.
| The worn out, tired settlers never ceased
their labors. though disheartened. and the
| weary searchers sought no rest. Troops OF
hardy horsemen, abreast in skirnlish line
secured the level lowlands, while the cliffs
| and caverns high up the mountains side
were scaled and ransacked by fooimen bold
and tireless; but the day grew on apace the
evening shades began to thicken, and here
and there to blot and blur with dreamy
darkness on the lovely landscape of the
/ lonely valleys. The birds had hushed their
| singing, the wolf had walked and stirred
! from his secret couch, the deer had ceased
to browse and sought his nightly lair. 1t
was twilight, and the tall pines had cast
their shadows long, like pencil marks adown
| the mountains eastern slope, where, on q
| moss-grown rock, little group of hum
| tiers, three or four, who had met there by
chance, sat and listened TO the low murmur-
ing of 8 tiny little mountain stream that
| silly slipped and wound its way among the
bowlders big and ancient tree roots. Long
they sat in somber stiffness resting for thew
had hunted all the day and were tired, very
tired. The night stole on; whip poor-wili''
whispered his first Lowry greeting to the
iron gray darkness. The feathery pIne-tope
began to. sigh to the moaning March wind
| as 1t swept up the gorge. The hunters
listened, and as they listened, there came
upon the wind a sound, soft sob, a weakly
| weary vail from voice 50 faint and tar that
it could scarcely be heard above the ripple
of the brooklet. As il startled by an cleo
trio shock, each man sprang upright on his
feet, and still as marble statues, stood
listening. Again the sound was
heard, and waiting low. no longer,
in eager haste they started down the slope
with long elastic strides They had gone
i perhaps 200 yards, and were passing through
q thicket OF almost inky darkness. when sud-
denly the leader stopped, for prone upon the
ground he saw little form: human shape
j stretched upon the chill bleak earth. shiver-
ing with cold and softly weeping all alone.
1t was the little lost girl still alive and un-
hurt, but oh, so weak and white and wan, go
pinched and pale. She was clad in q single
garment and lying exhausted near the brink
of the little mountain brook; her fair, soft
ringlets were damp with the evening dews;
her startled eyes stared wild and vacant.
The dimpies from her cheeks were gone,
and her tiny, tapering ankles and shapely
feet were bare, and bore the marks of
many a cruel bruise and thistle cut that had
cleft her tender flesh. For two days and
| half and two nights she had wandered
through the mountains lost, and with
out food, and here at last, and all alone, the
little thing had laid her weary head down to
die 1t was touching scene, and the salty
tears shone bright upon the rugged cheeks Of
the rough-hacded settlers as they reverently
took up the little lost, quaint girl, and ten
derby caressed her back to life. Then the
horns rang out tine joyful news, and guns
belched forth the tidings glad; answering
shouts responded from the spurs and benches
Of the mountains, from the glens and valleys,
and ere an hour had passed that grim old
mountain witnessed at its foot 8 scene of Joy
and jubilee which no pen may well describe.
The story is told, and is no fiction. We tell
1t as it was told us last week by a very truth
full gentleman, Mr.. Wesley Roberts, of Scott
| county. who participated in the exciting
hunt. The little maid is a daughter of
Esquire G. w. Tiusley. and her name is
Carrie. She said that she saw the hunters
every day, and hid FROM them, and that the
wolves came near biting her two or three
times.