The National tribune., 1882-12-07
OUR YOUNG FOLKS
Joe Lambcrt'S F8Ty.---A Story Of a
Western River Town.
by George Cary Egg'cstoa.i

! very quarter Of the compass by turns. u
seemed to take especial delight in rushing sud
denly around corners and taking away th,
breath of anybody it could catch there comm
from the opposite direction. The dust, too
illed peoples eyes and noses and mouths. viii
he damp raw March air easily found its Va,
hrough the best clothing, and turned boy
skins into pimrly goosc-fcsh.
1t was about rs disagreoahie morning fol
coing out as can be imagined; and yet every
hody in the little Western river town VIII
could get cut went out and stayed out.
Men and women, boys and girls, and eve
little children, ran to the rivcr-h1nk; and
once there, they stayed, with no thought,
seemed, of going back to their homes or their
work.
The people of tho town were Wild with cz-
citcment, and everybody told everybody @,
what had happened, although everybody knew
| all about it already. Everybody, mean. cy-
ccpt Joe Lambert, and he had been so bus,
over since daylight, saving wood in Sqnir
t'risard's woodshcd, that he had neither seen
nor heard anything at all. Joe wa+thop9oro-.
person in the town lie was the only boy
there who really had no home and nobody f..
care for him. Thrce OF four years before lh.s
March morning zoe had been left an orphan
and being utterly destitute, he should hag.
been sent to the p0orhoUsa or bound out to
some person rs q sort Of servant. But Joe
Lambert had refused to 60 to Che pOorhousc or
to become a bound boy He had declared his
| ability to take care Of himself and by working
hard at odd Jobs, saving wood, rolling barrels
on the wharf, picking apples or wedding onions
rs opportunity offered, he had MANAGED to sup
port himself "aftcr manner" rs the village
people said. That is to say, he generally got
enough to eat and some clothes TO waar. He
slept in - warehouse shed, the owner having
given him leave to do so on condition that he
would act as a sort Of watchinan on the
premises.
Joe Lambert alone Of I'll the villagers knew
nothing of what had happened; and of coarse
Joe Lambert did not count for anything in the
| estimation Of people who had houses 10 live in.
The only reason I have gone out Of the way to
make an exception of so unimportant person
is, that l think Joe did count FOR something on
that particular March day aJ least.
When he finished the pile Of wood that he
had TO saw, and went to the house 20 get his
money, he found nobody there. Going down
the street he found the town empty, and, look
ing down a cross street. he saw the crowds that
had gathered on the river bank, thus learning at
last that something unusual had occurred. OF
course he ran to the river to learn what it was
When he got there he learned that Noah
Martin the fisherman who was also the ferry
man between the village and It's nciahhor or
the other side of the river, had been drowned
during the early morning in q foolish attempt
to row his ferry sliT across the stream. The
ice which had blocked the river for two
months, had begun TO move on the day before,
and Martin with his wife and baby-a child
about a wear old--wcre on the other side of the
river at the time. Early on that morning
there had been temporary gorging Of the ice
about mile above the town, and, taking ad-
vantage of the comparatively free channel,
Martin had tried to cross with mis- wife aud
child, in his boat.
The gorge had broken up almost immedi-
atclv. rs lha river was rising rapidly, and Mar
tins boat had been caught aud crushed in the
ice. Martin had been drowned. but his wife,
with her child in her arms had cluHg to the
wreck Of the skill and had been carried by the
current to q little low-lyiug island just in front
of the town.
What had happened was OF less importance,
however, than what people saw must happen.
The poor woman and baby out there ON the
island, drenched as they had been in the icy
water. must soon die with cold. and, moreover,
the island was now nearly under water While
the great stream WAS rising rapidly. 1t was
evident that within an hour or two the water
would sweep over the whole surface OF the
island, and the great fields of ice would Of
course carry the woman and child to a terrible
death.
Many wild suggestions were made for their
rescue, but none that gave the least hope of
success. 1t was simply impossible to launch 4
boat The vast fields Of ice, two or three feet
in thickness, and from twenty feet 20 r hundred
yards in breadth, were crushing ana grinding
down the river at the rate of four or five miles
an hour, turning and twisting about sometimes
iamuing their edges together with SO great a
force that one would lap over another, and some
times drifting apart and leaving wide open
spaces between for moment or two One
might as well 20 upon such river in an egg
she'll as in the stoutest rowboat ever built.
The poor woman with her babe could be seen
from the shore, standing there alone on the
rapidly narrowing strip Of island. Her voice
could not reach the people on the bank, but
when she held her poor little baby toward
them in mute appeal for help, the mothers
there understood her agony.
There was nothing to be done, however
Human sympathy was given freely, but human
help was ont of the question. Everybody ou
the river-shore was agreed in that opinion
Everybody, that is to say except Joe Lambert.
He had been so long in the habit of finding
ways to help himself under difficulties that he
did not easily make up his mind 10 think any
case hopeless
No sooner did Joe clearly understand how
matters stood than he ran away from the crowd,
nobody paying any attention to what he did.
Half an hour later somebody cried out: Look
there! Who's that, and what's he going to
do?" pointing up the stream.
Looking in that direction, the people saw
some one three-quarters of mile away stand
ing on a floating field of ice in the river. He
had a large farm-basket strapped upon his
shoulders, while in his hands he held a plank.
As the ice-fcld upon which he stood neared
another the youth ran forward, threw his
plank down, making a bridge of it, and crossed
to the farther field. Then picking up his
plank, he waited for a chance tqrepeat the
process
As he thus drifted down the river, every eye
WAS strained in his direction Presently some