The National tribune., 1883-03-22

milk than anything else, but milk was out of
the question, aud bread and water would
hardly do.
"Wonder if could make her pudding!n
said Ted, after thinking the matter over
Mother puts eggs in puddings, know, and
there are two eggs in the cupboard. / wonder
what else she puts in? Milk? Yes, and l
haven't any milk. Maybe it III do without
milk. Let's see."
And with that he carefully planned pud-
ding. He tried to remember what his mother
did when she made q 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 yolS
and the white separate, the beating did not
make it look quite right
1t II 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. Breaking 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 a 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 froEc 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 big tongs for a lever, and
after bending them nearly double in trying to
start the log, ne succeeded. The log gave way
suddenly, Ted fell over it, and q great mass of
snow fell upon him, completely burying him.
He scrambled out in a moment and shook the
snow off, making Baby laugh at what she
thought was one of Ted's Jokes The log was
now loose but it took Ted 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 go 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 c0w-hOuse
would lead past the big wood pile, where there
was plenty of wood, and Ted meant TO go 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
timbers Of the summer kitchen that he could
knock loose with the axe.
It's only an old she'd" he said to himself,
"and 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-piIe, I'll burn the chairs and tables
and bedstesds, and all the floors in the house.
l won't do that if can helpit; but one things
sure, and that is that the Baby's got to be kept
warm"
So he took the axe and knocked the summer
kitchen to pieces, and piled the wood in the
house ready for use. For the baby's supper he
boiled the egg that was left, and after putting
her to bed he was glad to go to bed himself.
Morning came again, but still no word or
sign from the absent mother. Ted was very
uneasy about her, but it was of no use to worry,
and he had the baby to care for. The eggs
were gone now, and so for Baby's breakfast he
made q sort of Cruel of corn-meal, and to help
out he gave her what was left of the bread
first wetting and sweetening it and making it
hot.
But now he was growing very uneasy. The
bread was all eaten up, though Ted had not
touched crumb OF it himself and he did not
know what to give the baby to cat for dinner
and supper except Cruel. He tried to make
soup out of bacon, but it was only greasy salt
water and he could not give her that. Then
he remembered that the hen-house was near
the wo0d-pile, so he made up his mind 70 keep
ON working at his tunnel until he should get 20
the hen house, no matter how tired he should
be. But first be mixed up some eorn-bread and
set it to bake. By the time that was baked he
had got as far as the wood-pile with the tunnel,
and this was lucky, for the wood from the old
shed was nearly all burned up.
After carrying in wood and building up big
fire he went back to his digging, leaving the
baby tied in little chair so that she might not
get TO the fire. IN order to keep her from cry
ing he made it a rule TO run IN every few min
utes and make funny face or do some queer
prank to make her laugh His legs and arms
| ached with the hard work, but he was getting
on, and he must have q chicken before he quit
digging. At last he reached the hen-house,
and few minutes later Master Ted sat in the
house showing Baby how TO pick chicken
Baby was very hungry, and q little cross on
that account, but Ted kept up his jokes, and
managed to amuse her. She stood by while he
cut up part of the chicken, and watched him
put it on to boil.
Ted didn't know much about cooking, but he
made pretty good broth that night. He
thickened it with flour as he had seen his
mother do, and was about to put pepper into it,
when he remembered that pepper would spoil
it for the baby. At last il was ready, and the
two sat down to their supper. The eorn-bread
was not very good, because Ted had forgotten
to nut any salt in it, but it did very we'll TO
crumble into Baby's soup, and she ate very
heartily, and then fell asleep in Ted'S lap.
That night Ted lay awake for a long time,
thinking about his mother. He was sure some
thing must have happened to her, or she would
not have left him and Baby so long. At last
he fell asleep, and long after the fire had died
down to dull red he was startled by the sound
off noisy banging on the door, and loud voices
calling him.
Now let's see what happened TO Ted's mother.
When she rode away to visit her sick sister she
hoped to get home again before dark, though
the distance she had to travel was very long.
By the time she had done what was needed at
her sisters the snow had begun to fall, and so
she hurried away on her homeward ride. But
the wind blew in her face, and the snow-drifts
were so deep that she had to travel very slowly.
Night came on, and the storm grew worse. In
little while she could not tell where the road
was, but still kept on. She was frightened
about her children, and in her anxiety she
grew nervous and confused. She had lost the
road, aud was plunging about helplessly in
snow-drifts not knowing where she was or in
what direction she was going At last her
horse became worn out, and fell as he was try
ing to struggle over some fallen trees covered
with snow. The poor animal was unable to
rise again, and the half-froZen, half-dead
woman went on on foot, toiling through the
great snow-banks, and staggering with giddi-
ness from cold and fright and WEAKNESS.
Hour after hour she kept on going all the time
further away from home; for she had entirely
poor woman gave up. Then she sank down in
the snow, and knew no more.
farmer passing by that way il the early
morning to look after his cattle saw her dress,
from which the wind had blown away the
snow, and he quickly dug her out and carried
her to his house. She had wandered twenty