The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-01-08

~" 4AA SAAO AVStVV'A403 "AAAO AhAO6 VI
falling snow despatched the window
panes thick)y. Darkness was increas-
ing perceptibly and rapidly. The wind
howled with q dreary wall and soughed
audlbly through the leafess hedges and
bare gaunt branches As we slowly ad-
vanced along the desolatc, deserted,
trackless road.
Notwithstanding all our efforts to keep
cheerful we had unconsciously subsidized
into dead silence, and our depression
seemed to augment with each shutting
stride of the weary overdriven steeds in
front.
We had left Cockburnspath nearly
two hours ago and should be now sight
ing Haddington. put down the win
lowand looked anxiously ahead, but all
was one great foggy blank. I could
discern nothing fer the drifting snow
that nearly blinded me. Suddenly the
carriage gave tremendous lurch and
we came to a full stop.
"Merciful power! what is the mat
ter?' shrieked my w1fe, jumping up and
fumbling at the carriage door handle,
while she fell to weeping and rec:ting
1prayers.
"Now sit down, Amanda, and don't
fool"
"Please, EUR, we Gamma fond the
rawd," baxled the postboy from the
back of the near-side wheeler. CUR "
(meaning the road) "'ave left us, an
we be nav on yum koind o. 'eath. We
Gamma be far fra 'Addington, but aw
Gamma tell for zarti,, znre"
swell, don't sit there like couple of
stone images. Hang it all, men! get off
your horses and lead them and pull up
at the first house you come to, no mat
ter what it is. Stop! had better walk
at the head Of the off-side leader N.Y.
SELF"
Hastily embracing my Amanda, who
Dy this time was choking herself with
sobs in her corner of the chariot, over
come by the cruel heartlessness of her
Alfred and the brutal inclemency Of the
elements, I left her to get over her emo
tional tendencies as best she could and
descended to take command of the de.
spending couple of idiots who had
parted with the little wit they had ever
been blessed with at the same moment
that they had missed their way.
Ugh how cold it was and getting
dark as pitch The sleet pelted pite-
ously in our faces, driven by the fierce
blast from the north, as we plodded for
ward like funeral procession, hearing
nothing but the whistling of the icy
wind and the tramp of feet and hoofs in
the ever-deepenipg snow. At length,
in the far distance, as it seemed to us,
a little to our left, looking like rekin-
died spark in the embers of an expiring
fire, we could dimly perceive faint
glimmer of light.
" MAKE for that point there to the
left" 1 shouted, pointing earger]y to
where the welcome gleam was shining,
urging on at the came time with voice
and rein the wretched quadruped that I
wastrying to steer safely over the slip
perry, uneven ground, and to turn in the
direction I indicated.
80 Alfred, my love-" screamed
Amanda, hanging out of the carriage
window, "are you not coming back TO
me? Pm SO unhappy and SO dread
fully alarmed, and it is so cold inside
all alone !"
"Put up the glass, then, and hold
your tongue, Amanda" rejoined her
lover. ''We see light close at hand,
and shall soon be under shelter"
30 darling arc you sure'tis house
and not a wigwayman? All, ali There!
there !'there he is, and mes pointing his
pistol at me screeched my bride.
It was only the stump of tree, but
anyhow it had the effect of silencing
the timid fair one, who instantly re-
treated and promptly pulled down ali
the carriage blinds on surveying this
narrowing object, and who remained
speechless in close retirement for the
rest of her evening drive.
Presently, after another quarter of g.
mile of this forced march, accom- panied
by muff1ed curses on our bad luck, and
mutterings of a very uncomplimentary
nature addressed to the horses and
their ancestry, low one-storicd pot
house sort ola place stalked suddenly
into view. The light in one Of the two
upper windows fitted about agitatedly
as we knocked loudly and necessarily
with the butt-end of the whips on the
door, but for a couple OF minutes with
out other results than the one noted.
Then it was opened cautiously by
rough-looking, shock-headed youth of
nineteen or twenty, who peered curl
ously out into the misty darkness under
his sandy, shaggy eyebrows with keen
observant gaze.
"Wha's yer wil'?" he asked, without,
however, making way for admission
across the threshold.
"Mv good fellow, we are benighted
travellers, seeking supper and shelter
for the night" answered. "You shall
be well paid; 50 let us in at once, with
out more ado"
'Hoo mony are YEP" was the next
question that issued from the lips of