The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-08-28

HILDA.

Garstone for ten years, and had &C
cepted an invitation to dine with hin
at his country-house near the city o
s., / knew that he had lost hi
only child, and had no near relatives
go that was astonished to be intro
dueed by him to very lovely girl al
my daughter Hilda." Mrs. Garstone
too, seemed full of the tenderest ma
ternal affection for her.
There was something strange and
peculiar about this girl, who could
not have been more than sixteen
years old. Her beautiful face was
full of intelligence and interest in the
topics discussed, bat at times the
brightness clouded over, and her eyes
grew vacant and unmeaning.
When Mrs. Gsrstone and the young
lady LETT us at dinner, l asked q cues
ton which ELECTED the answer have
quoted
80 you want to know who Hilda
is." he continued, meditatiyely.
"Well, now, that's q question l ask
myseg fifty times q day!
Perhaps you remember to have
heard of a most destructive tornado
which swept over this section OF the
country about ten years ago. You
must have been In California at that
time, but the papers were full of its
ravages, and just around here it was
at its worst. All the houses in Hick-
DRY Flat, about q mile from this
place, were blown fat to the ground,
and can't tell you how many lives
were lost, and how many people
manned ind wounded. You can fol-
low the track Of the storm eVen now
in the forest between here and the
Flat. 1t cut broad road just as
clean and straight as the best engi-
neer could do, and in the space of a
few minutes.
81 had noticed lurid, churning
look in the clouds about noon. You
see, I've been in tornadoes before in
my life, and there are one or two Pc
culiarities in the movements of the
clouds common to all of them, so I
called to the old lady to make every
thing snug and wind.proof, and went
out to the lawn yonder to take sur.
7ey.
II declare to you, between the
time l turned my spectacles up to
the skies, and found myself jammed
and impaled in that Cherokee rose
hedge at the iurthest end of the
lawn, wasn't more than a second.
The hurricane was soon oyer, and |
looked upon a scene of devastation.
All my fine oaks on the lawn were
gone, and every outbuildiDg OF the
premises. Fortunately. my dwelling
house was no. on the direct track oi
the tempest. which only tore away
the southern balcony.
81 could scarcely walk, l was sc
torn and bruised, and my clothes
hung in ribbons around me. I could
hear the women screaming in the
house, but the wind was still high,
and I had but little strength to breast
it. As | was making my way along,
about fifty PAGES from my front steps,
I stumbled over something. | looked
down, and there lay a child, without
a stitch OF clothing and apparently
dead. By this time my Wifs had seen
me, and came running out with all
the servants after her, for was sup
posed to be killed, and when they
saw my bleeding face and dilapidated
garments, of course Nanny had to 60
off in her usual Mysteries.
"But managed to get the poor
little Waif picked up and carried to
the house, though it was hours and
hours before those blue eyes opened.
That's the way Hilds came to u.s."
"But how did she get there?" l
[ asked; "and where did she come
| trom2"
81 don't know. Whether blown
here by the wind, or driven before it,
who can say? for no one within fifty
miles of this place lad ever seen her.
/ As I said before, there wa ne cloth.
ing by which she could be identified,
and her poor little body was bruised
black and blue. We have one clue
ialone, but think it is very certain
one. A few minutes before the storm,
a wagon with an emigraut family
passed through tbs Flat There we're
q man and woman and come child.
rem, but no one noticed them partlcu-
larry, save 10 see shat they we're
strangers and foreigners. Some said
they were Germans, others, SWeeds;
but as no one understood word they
said, the matter remains doubtful.
"HaIis mile from the Flat the storm
must have struck them, for debris OF
the wagon and the bodies Of the man
and the woman we're found crushed
under q large fallen tree. The re-
mains Of two children we're picked up
| in the woods, not far from the wagon,
but so torn and, mutilsted by the
storm as to have hardly the semblance
lof4haman beings"
= ''0t course, Hilda must have be-
longed to them" I said.
"Well, after trying to revive Hllds
for hours after We took her IN. her
eyes opened, but they were the most
vacant eyes ever saw In q human
face. She was apparently idiotic, but
yet at moments strange gleams OF In
telliRence lighted up her face, though