The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-04-12

long it would be before anybody would
find out what had happened.
But Ted soon saw that getting scared
would only make matters worse,
Il cant help mother" he said to
himself, wherever she may be; and
what I've got to do is to take care of
Baby till the snow melts. Wonder how
long that will beP Two or three weeks,
i should think. And what are we to
eat, wonder? Let's See"
With that he lighted a candle and
went to the cellar. There was only a
little milk left-about enough for Baby's
breakfast, and Ted brought that up and
set it to heat by the fire. The baby was
awake now, and so he dressed her and
gave her her bread and milk Then he
cut some bacon and fried it for himself,
but he would not eat any bread, because
he knew there was only part of a loaf
left, and he must save that for Baby.
After breakfast he began to lay his
plans. At first he thought of digging
out, but he gave that up, because, even
if he should get out, he could not carry
the baby five miles in such a snow. He
knew enough to be sure that the snow
was not so deep everywhere as it was
around the house He remembered
how the wind had blown, and knew that
the house was buried in a drift; but he
knew that there must have have been a
very deep snowfall to make such a drift,
and it would never do for him to try to
carry the baby through a deep snow to
a house five miles away. He must just
stay where he was, and take care of the
baby.
The first thing to do was to see how
much wood there was at the house. So
he dug a hole in the snow at the side
Of the door, and brought in all there
was there, except one big back log
which was too heavy for him. As he
looked at the pile he saw that it would
last till night, and by that time he
meant to get the back log in by some
means. He was worse troubled about
milk for the baby. There was none
left now, and he wondered if he could
get to the cOw-shed in any way. 1t was
a long way off but he must have milk
if he could get it, and he must try to
feed the COWS too, for if nobody fed
them they would have to live ON the hay
which stood in a stack at the end of
their shed.
Bravely the little fellow set to work
to make a tunnel to the cow-house, but
it was very slow work. He began at
the door of the summer kitchen, and
threw the snow, as he dug it out, into
that shed. The further he went, the
more slowly he got on, for he had to
bring all the snow back to the shed
kitchen and pack it in there. He kept
at work, however, until he was tired
out and very hungry, and yet he had
hardly made fair beginning He
saw that he must give up the idea of
digging his way to the cow-shed, and
get on in some way without milk He
was very sorry on Baby's account, but
there was no help for it, so he set about
getting dinner.
There was no difficulty about hisown
dinner, for there was plenty of bacon to
fry, and he could roast as many pOta-
toes as he liked. But the baby's dinner
was the puzzle She would eat little
roasted potato with him, but baby
only year and half old could not
live on potatoes. She always ate more
bread and milk than anything else, but
milk was out of the question, and bread
and water would hardly do
$ Wonder if | could make her a pud-
ding!' said Ted, after thinking the mat
ter over. Mother puts eggs in pud-
dings, L know, and there are two eggs
in the cupboard. l wonder what else
she puts in? Milk? Yes, and haven't
any milk. May be it'll do without milk.
Let's see
And with that he carefully planned
pudding. He tried to remember what
his mother did when she made a dish of
the kind, but he could not remember
much. He believed she beat the eggs,
so he would do that at any rate. Taking
one of the eggs, he broke it and beat it
with spoon, but as he did not keep
the Yclk and the white separate, the
hanfiprr did III ~ To- TO
TIN have to do anyhow" he said,
after wondering what was the matter,
and so he set down the bowl of egg and
prepared the rest of his pudding. Break
ing up what bread there was left, he
wetted it with snOw-water, put in a
good deal of sugar, and set the mixture
by the fire to heat. When it was hot
through he stirred in the egg, and then
tasted the result. 1t was not much of a
/ pudding, but he had talked to Baby
about it till she was sure it was
/ the greatest pudding anybody ever
made, and, as it was sweet, she ate it
without finding out that it was not
real triumph of cooking skill.
When dinner was over. Ted set to
work to get the big back log into the
| house, and this was a new frOlic for
/ Baby to watch. The log was very
/ heavy, but his mind was made up. He
/ dug the snow away from the log, and
/ then tried to swing the end around; but
/ the wood was frozen to the ground, and
would not move. He brought out the
I big tongs for a lever, and after bend
| ing them nearly double in trying to
/ start the log, he succeeded. The log
| gave way suddenly. Ted fell over it,
and a great mass of snow fell upon him,
completely buTying him. He scrambled
out in moment, and shook the snow
I off, making Baby laugh at what she
/ thought was one of Ted'S Jokes The
I log was now loose, but it took Ted a
/ long time, with very hard work, to get
it over the doOr-sill and into the house
/ BY the time that he got it into its place
in the back of the great chimney he was
/ quite tired out; but he knew he must
have some wood to 90 with it, else the
. log would never burn at all, and he had
made up his mind what he would do for
/ wood. The tunnel that he had begun
to dig toward the cow-house would lead
past the big wood-pile, where there was
/ plenty of wood, and Ted meant to 90
on with his digging the next day, so as
to get to that wood-pile at least. But
for tonight he was going to burn the
summer kitchen; that is to say, he was
going to burn all the planks and tim
berS of the summers kitchen that he
, could knock loose with the ak
Its only an old shed.'' he said to
/ himself, land if it was the finest parlor
in the world. I'd burn it up before Baby
should be cold. And if mother don t
come, and don't get to the wood-pile
/ I'll burn the chairs and tables and bed
steads, and all the floors in the house
I won't do that if can help it; but one
things sure, and that is that Baby's got