The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-12-20
HEARTFELT THANKsGIyING.

before Thanksgiving, and of all our
pleasant old Thanksgiving Days" at
the farm at home, ! remember this one
as the most gratifying and delightful.
Not that we had merrier time, or bet
ter dinner; but that day we had special
cause to be thankful. We were thankful
that we were alive to eat any sort of din
ner, so narrow had been our escape but
q few hours before from q sudden and
terrible death.
Up to the Goth the weather had been
warm ard bright almost every day. No
snow had yet fallen, which was unusual
at this season of the year in Northern
Maine. November, it was said, had been
all "Indian summer"
But that day-the 26th-there came a
change-The Indian summer softness
and brightness had disappeared. The
air was very still. but cold, dullgray
hsze mounted into the sky and deepened
and darkened. All warmth went out
from beneath it. There was a kind of
stone.cold chill in the air which made us
SILVER as we got out Of bed that morn
ing.
There's snow coming, boys" father
said to us at breakfast. 81 can feel it.
Bank up the house this afternoon, warm
and snug, so that the cellar won't freeze.
And this afternoon you must 60 up to
the back pasture and drive down the
sheep"
The back pasture was on the northern
side of q mountain, nearly mile and o
half from the farm. It contained two
or three hundred acres, including sew.
eral struggling clearings which extended
over the adjoining hills and ridges.
So, after dinner. We muffled ourselves
in thick jackets and 'comforters," and
taking the salt-dish, set of across the
now hare fields for the back pasture.
Alvin Green, . boy Of about our own
age, the son of q neighbor, went with us.
It had grown colder than it was in the
forenoon, and the sky WAS completely
overcast. It seemed Is il night was
coming on, the sir and the landscape
looked so dim and drear.
We went round the mountain TO the
pasture and called the sheep; but they
were not there, and we're not in sight on
the hills. It was then about o'clock
in the afternoon, and We spent at least
an hour more going round the pasture
looking in the little openings along the
edges of the woods and calling the
sheep.
They're not in the parster," said Al.
They've gone over into Dunhams
open Had we better go after emp"
Dunbam's open was 0 clearing about
two and half or three miles to the east
ward of the back of the pasture. where
man named Durham had cleared land
for farm six or eight years before, but
sfterward abandoned it. There we're
City or sixty acres Of it, and the grass
was good there.
We knew that the sheep used some
times to go through the woods to this
open when the feed" was not good in
the pasture; and following one behind
another, they had made path which it
was easy to trace in the summer. But
now all these paths we're covered with
dry leaves.
We stood for some minutes on one OF
the hills in the pasture and looked down
upon the wide extent Of forest to the
east.
"What say? Shall We go? AL asked.
Ben thought We might Is we'll. 1T is
going to Storm" said he. 1T storms
now way over on the mountains. We
shan't want to search for them to.mor-
row. The sheep ought to be got home.
Lets CO." And We set OF ct run down
through the pasture, and entered the
woods for the shortest cut across the
valley.
We had not gone more than mile be.
fore snow began to fall, not in large
fakes, but thick and fine - meal. II
came with sudden gust, which seemed.
in Q moment. to darken all the woods,
end . strange sound accompanied it-not
like the roar Of . shower. but - of q
vast, dreary sigh Of all the mountains.
The wind stirred the great bare tops of
the trees overhead; and the snow. like
powdered ice, sifted down through them
and ratified inclemently on the beds of
leaves.
It's going to be tough one!" said Al,
- real nothcaster.
''Seems to me We ought to be near
Dunham's brook" Al. exclaimed ut
length.
Ben stopped. I'm afraid we've got
too far down south" said he.
At this we took tack, more to north,
as We thought, and then ran on again.
It was showing so thickly and every
thing looked so odd, that We had to
guess ~ to the course. On We run for