Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-10-06

Eor winter comes with falling snow:
We Gather round the bright home fire:
y lei no lack of flames gay show,
ihr resi- is all our hearts desire.
,las, a dear, dear hand in mine;
n, Lizzie's hair is silvcred now;
b =! ewes with love still constant shines:
H 10 childrcn's blessings crown her brow:
And sweet content is ours.
Chambers Journal.
AMBER COSGROyE.
NV name is Amber Cosgrove, and suchi is
Nv good fortupe that l can write in three
crIis the history of my girlhood. Happy
[happier-happiest! Those thin, clear, up-
Midtown strokes tell little to others; to
too thankful. 1 write a hand like nv
Eeat-grandmother's, so Ainslie tells me,
eat and formal and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
[hich | think describe me as we'll as any I
mn find for myself. And so in those neat,
Emal, old-fashioned strokes on the smooth
Ehi,e paper see pictured not only my life
hit my habits and ways. And the dashes
etwee,l-what of them? They are the
reaks in the even flow of a peaceful life;
assases rough at The time, but now not
npleasant to remember, for through them
passed from being Amber McMichael to
econe the wife of a man as noble and
rave, as generous and true, as my own
kther. And even of Ainslie I can say no
hOre than that.
There is a scene which is often in nv
lind when I sit and think of the past. But
is no passage in my own life; it took
lace before I was born, and in a far-dis.
ant land. Tryto picture a dark, still night
one of the central provinces of India
hum q E1nU1Q nofh r.O,1rh1u ,,ox,oI ,,.;<L
bgs, lit only here and there by the moon
cams piercing through the branches over
cad, some dozen persons, Europeans and
atives, are Fastening, stumbling and fall
i'll their hurry, but never pausing. Be-
ind them there is a glare in the sky far
% deep for the moonlight, brighter and
oder even than the glow which hangs
yer a great city at night. That crimson
limitation is no ordinary sight; it means
e Feringhees' burning houses. Already
pu can hear the cries of the pursuing
Epoys, so ferocious in the hour of their
ng delayed vengeance that the blood of
len, as brave as the two who bring up the
BAR of the flying party, may we'll run chill
uh fear. Not on their own account, but
the women and children who are being
trried along by their panic-stricken ser.
Ents. Well may Major Cosgrove's breath
me and go, for his wife and children are
the party; vainly he tries to pierce the
krkness in front, and to distinguish the
Team of the river, beyond which is COM
kyatiye safety. He knows that hardly
rec miles on the other side of it is a Brit
b station; and the demons behind, cow
idly as cruel, may hesitate to pursue
here every step brings them nearer to
officer keeps turning back his head in the
reetion of the pursuit. Neither speaks
$ thoughts; but the Major, his face white
pd set, tries the chambers of his revolvers,
nd his companion sees him and mods. He
pows, without explanation, for whom
be cartridges so carefully tapped home
g intended. Ha, the water at last. There
is, ~betweenlts dark wooded banks ripping
plckly with 9 thousand pale flashes over
shallow ford. But is it not-too late?
louder cry rings through the night air;
Pe pursuers nave sighted them, and are re-
pulling their speed. The race to the ford
for dear life. The fugitives gain it, and
re half way across before the enemy reach
BE- bank. Even then escape seems impos-
ble, a dozen bullets plash the water, and
be Sepoys, encouraged by their own num-
eFs, are crossing the ford to come to close
larters. Breathless and dripping the
omen and children are pulledupthe bank,
nd the officers follow-one of them. The
Eher, with a stern grasp of his friends hand,
nd a forward gesture of encouragement OF
Prewell, with a muttered "God bless you!"
plns back into the water, and crouches I'M
FER the bank like a stag at bay. The Major
estates; but the lives Of his wife and chill
ren are at stake. He hurries on with a
lied curse. Then at intervals, amid the
esaltory fire of the Sepoys' rifles, he hears
Ples Of rage and pain. The sounds are get
ny fainter in the distance, when there
rises a fiendish yell of triumph. "God rest
ls soulw mutters the Major in his turn.
ko-there is q swelling in my breast and a
hoklng in my throat that always comes
men think of this-so it was that I lever
u.s. my father, Captain McMichael of the
E"lh, but learned, as soon as I was old
Eiaoungh to understand it, the tale of how he
fed to save his friends, with his back to
y bank and his face to the foe. And he
~ not die i'll vain. The little party reached
y English camp in safety, and the story
: MS death has become q tradition in his
esiment.
and now I, his daughter, am sitting in
y porch of a quiet cottage home amid
eleiordshire orchards, idly gazing out
pon the shadowed-fecked lawn, sloping
om my feet down to the swiftly flowing
esern: Crossing the river on my left is
IL old bridge, wide and bulky and many
led; in fronta gentle hill rises from the
neam, and covering this hill is a little
WI as picturesque and irregular, as old
a'nloned and time-stained as can be found
any county of England. A massive
Iaicn tower, old as the Domesday, crowns
Using proudly amid mingled trees and
W vS' Ihe ruins of the castle are hidden
. tne shoulder of the slope; but from my
w. AZ the door of our black and white cot
49, can see up the wide street which
AUS from the bridge until the prospect is
(ato by the gloomy arch Of the Broad
s@,a great leafy elm waving above it. 1t
GUNNER, and there is q humming Of bees
Nn ne'lng abovethe sweet-smelling old-fash.
E UiIa lowers-the old man, the London
rr na' the columbine-which fringe the
'TTeeasward at my feet.
s 1n's is not my home, but I am SO often
mr. Whenever, in fact, my uncle can
Snssre lhe-that many people believe Mrs.
us.si11Ve to be my mother. She died when
Ii lbs porn, the news of my fathers death
p 4a'is her; and Mrs. Cosgrove. who had
noh uer friend, became indeed a second
6tn,Hs. 20 me, and so brought me home to
bana Z ark. The gallant Colonel, her bus.
Ea sl lell at Delhi, and before the mutiny
lad sVamped oNt two Of her three children
ill., with the eldest she settled in the
yitb; piaek and white cottage at Ludford,
be,m.In a dozen miles of the park. AND
Ia "eeh these homes have I passed my
fn"is stlll summer afternoon, though Ey
SS's are knitting, and my eyes gazing