Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-01-03
Kity's Forty.

er knew boys ehool in which there
was not tendency to rowdyism. And
lumbermen, sailors, fishermen, and all
other men that live ply with men. are
proverbially half-bar sort of people.
Frontiersmen soften Gown when women
and children come-bu I forget myself
it is the story you want!
Burton and Jones lived in little
shanty by themselves. Zones was a
married man, but fndingNit hard to
support wife in Down East village,
he had emigrated to Northern Minneso-
to, leaving his wife under her fathers
roof until he should be able to make .
start.
He and Burton had gone into part
nership and had "pre-empted towI
site" of 500 acres.
There were perhaps twenty familie
scattered over this site at the time M
story begins and ends, for it ends ii
the same week in which it begins.
The partners had disagreed, quarrel
ed and divided their interests The
land was all shared between them exI
cept one valuable forty-acre piece. Each
claimed that piece of land, and the
quarrel had grown so high between
them that the neighbors expected them
to shoot at first sight. In fact, it was
understood that Burton was on the for
ty-acre piece, determined to shoot Jones
if he came, and Jones had sworn to 90
out there and shoot Burton, when the
fight was postponed by the unexpected
arrival of Jones's wife and child.
Jones's shanty was not finished, and
he was forced to forego the luxury of
fighting his old partner, in his exertions
to make wife and baby comfortable for
the night. For the winter sun was sur
rounded by ''sun dogs" Instead Of
one sun there was four, an occurrence,
not uncommon in that latitude, bui
one which always boded a terrible
storm.
In his endeavor to care for his wife
and child Jones was Modified little,
and half regretted that he had been SO
violent about that piece of land. But
he was determined not to be backed
out. and he certainly would have to
shoot Burton or be shot himself.
When he thonght of the chance of be-
ing killed by his old partner, the
thought was not pleasant. He looked
wistfully at Kitty, his 2-year-old child,
and dreaded that she would be left faith
erless. Nevertheless, he would shoot
or be shot himself
While the father was busy chopping
wood, and the mother was otherwise en-
gagged, little Kitty managed to get the
shanty door open. There was no latch
as yet, and her prying little hands ca
silly swung it back. A gust of cold air
almost took away her breath; but she
got sig ght of the brown grass without,
and the new world seemed so big that
the little feet were fain to try and ex-
plore it.
She pushed out through the door,
caught her breath again, and started of
down path bordered by sere grass and
the dead stalks of wild sunfowers.
How often she had longed to escape
from restraint and paddle out into the
world alone. She would find out where
the path went to and what there was al
the end of the world ! What did she
care if her nose was blue with cold and
her chubby hands red as beets. Now
and then she paused to turn her heaC
away from the rude blast, forerannel
of the storm; but having gasped mo
ment, she quickly renewed her brace
march in search of the great unknown.
The mother missed her and supposec
that Jones, who could not get enough O
the child's society, had taken the littl,
one out with him.
Jones. poor fellow, sure that the dar
ling was safe within, chopped away un
til that awful storm broke upon him
and at last drove him, half smothere
by snow and half frozen with cold, int
the house. When there was nothin
left but retreat he had seized an armfu
of wood and carried it into the hous
with him to make sure that he ha
enough to keep Kitty and his wife fror
freezing in the coming awfulness of th
night, which now settled down upon tn
, storm-beaten and snow blinded world.
! 1t was the beginning of that terribl
storm in which SO many people wer
, frozen to death. and Jones had fed non
: too soon.
. When once the wood was stacked b
the stove, Jones looked around for XII
!. ty. He had not more than inquired fo
her when father and mother each rea
e in the others face the fact that she VIZ
lost in the wild. dashing storm of snoV
Il So fast did the snow fall, and SO dar
: was the night, that Jones could not 81
= three feet ahead of him. He endeayo
g ed to follow the path which he thougl
Kitty might have taken, but it W
| > ! .