The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-12-08
HEARTFELT THANKSGIVING.


as the most gratifying and delightful
Not that we had a merr1er time, or bet
ter dinner; but that day we had specia
cause to be thankful. We were thankful
that we were alive to eat any sort of din
ner, 80 narrow had been our escape bu
few hours before from q sudden anC
terrible death.
Up to the Goth the weather had beer
warm and bright almost every day. NJ
snow had yet fallen, which was unusua
at this season of the year in Northern
Maine. November, it was said, had beer
all Indian summer"
But that day-the 26th-there came
change-The Indian summer softness
and brightness had disappeared. The
air was very still, but cold, dull-gray
haze mounted into the sky and deepenec
and darkened. All warmth went ou
from beneath it. There was O kind o.
stonecold chill in the air which made III
shiver as we got out of bed that morn
ing.
There's snow coming, boys" father
said TO US at breakfast. II can feel it
Bank up the house this afternoon, warn
and snug, so that the cellar won't freeze
And this afternoon yon must go up tc
the back pasture and drive down the
sheep"
The back pasture was on the northern
side of mountain, nearly mile and 6
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 muffied ourselves
in thick jackets and 'comforters," and
taking the salt-dish, set off across the
now hare fields for the back pasture
Alvin Green, a boy of about our own
age, the son of neighbor, went with us
1t had grown colder than it was in the
forenoon, and the sky was com mpletely
overcast. It seemed as if night was
coming on, the air 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 were 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 Durham {
open Had we better go after 'em?"
Dunham's open was clearing about
two and half or three miles to the east
ward1of the back of the pasture, where q
man named Dunham had cleared land
for farm six or eight years before, but
afterward abandoned it. There were
fifty 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 ih the summer. But
now all these paths were 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 as we'll. SIT is
going to Storm" said he. "It 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.
Let's CO." And we set off at a 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 as meal. 1t
came with sudden gust, which seemed,
in moment, to darken all the woods,
and a strange sound accompanied it-not
like the roar of shower, but as of a
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 lnclemently on the beds Of
leaves.
It's going to be tough one!" said Al,
''a real no'theaster.
Seems to me we ought to be near
Dunham's brook" Al. exclaimed at
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 as to the course. On we run for
ten minutes at least, aud must have gone
q mile, but we did not come to the
brook. Then we stopped again; and bv
this time all three of us were q little
frightened.
We've run off below the bend" Ben
exclaimed; and then we tackled farther
to the north.
I should think we hurried on for ten
minutes again, as fast as we could run
when we came suddenly on the brink of
deep gorge. which opened up to the
left on broad, frozen pond.
For minute or two we stood COM
pletely at q loss. "That can't be Stoss
pond, can it?" Ben exclaimed.
swell, it is!' said AL 'For there's
the log dam; and look. right down here
in the hollow's the camp where Adger
. numbered winter before last. I know il
. by three big pines on the bank above it. y
s.Then we're seven miles from homer
said I.
Yes; and four or five miles north OF
Dunham's open-instead of south of itr
/. exclaimed Al. "And here Ben thought
we were south of itl'
How could tell?" muttered Ben.
Well. we cannot get the sheep and
get home to night" said.
we can't even get home," Ben said
II be pitch dark in half an hour"
Al was already running and sliding