The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-06-29

must have been on its lonely hunt for a
roostlng place, and bear toddled along
the banks of the creek seeking q place
of safety.
Toward evening the wind went down,
and as the fire had spent It's fury In the
vicinity where we had left our mule,
two of the men volunteered to go down
and see II they could save anything
from the wreck. They succeeded in
following our track through the ashes
and embers, when they finally came to
the place where the mule had been.
They found tools and other articles scat
tered about, but the mule, oh, where
was he The first thought they had
was that the magazine had exploded
and blown mule and all to the four
winds, but after a short investigation
they concluded that the old fellow must
be in the neighborhood somewhere, and
feeling anxious.to know what had be-
come of him commenced search. Ina
little while they struck his trail, and
following it for some distance came to a
point where 1t led to the edge of a preci-
pice. Over this the unfortunate animal
had no doubt blindly staggered. Sure
enough, about thirty feet below, on
bench of rock, lay the mule, his heels
sticking up, and held from going over
by clump of stunted cedar brush.
The men returned and reported every
thing lost They had not been back
long before night set in. The wind
sprang up again and at times blew
almost gale, and the fire took fresh
start. Toward midnight the scene was
terribly grand. Now and then the
wind would go down for time and the
smoke would hang in great black
cloud above us until the wind again
freshening famed the fire into flames.
The lurid glare reflected on the blood
colored rocks made them look like a
huge mass of FURNISHED gold. The crash
of falling timber could be heard for
miles, while massive pieces of rock cut
loose from the ledges above would go
tearing down the sides of the mountain
like an avalanche, carrying everything
before them. AS they fell, striking
against other rocks, these great boulders
would burst like bombshell and scatter
their fragments in every direction
Rocks weighing several tons and glow
ing with heat went bounding along like
swift fleeting meteors, making noise
not unlike the howl of wild beasts in
terror, and plunging with kissing cry
into the stream below. 1t seemed like a
pandemonium let loose. We finally laid
down to rest but not to sleep. There
was great tree slowly burning away at
its base, and we calculated whether it
was tall enough to reach where we had
spread our blankets. We concluded
that it was not but during the night it
came down with crash, falling to one
side of where we lay and reaching a
number of feet beyond us.
The following morning, after break
fast, we saddled up and started down
the trail again. On arriving where we
had been the day before, we found a
little heap of scorched flour here and
burnt sugar there, and bottles which
had contained acids and other chemic-
ais, together with the tubes, were all
melted. 1 took my carbine and went
down in search of the mule, to put him
out of misery, If he was yet alive. When
got to the brink of the precipice and
looked over, Mr.. Mule was nowhere to
be seen. He had evidently fallen from
the bench where he had lain, and as this
projected so that 1 could not see beyond
it, went further down the stream until
found place where it was possible to
get down to the bottom of the canyon,
which l followed up with considerable
difficulty, as was compelled to cross
the stream several times over logs and
fioodwood. AS / passed around point
of rocks came all of sudden upon the
mule. He was standing on a little
gravel bar. at first thought 1t was an
apparition, but soon discovered that the
old chap was worth several dead mules,
albeit badly burned and bruised. His
rumps looked like some old venison
hams that you often see hanging in
front Of restaurants, besides he had re-
ceived other injuries (which, however
well-bred and circumspect he may be,
the energetic mule always makes use
of when you get near himl-he had lost
his tail When he saw me he brayed-
and such bray 1t was as the plain
tive wall of one who had bid adieu to