The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-10-25


 crooked pine projects out over the water. He reaches the pine, crawls out upon the trunk, and locking his loweT limbs about 2 hanging branch, bends down and a~.... ,.s approach of the house. An! the limbs sweep against the roof.
 "Throw up your arms v yelled Pete
 A pair of arms are tossed franticaliy upward. The stout young lumberman grasps the other by the wrists, and drags him out of the very jaws of death, as the house dashes against a rock and floats away in pieces down stream.
 Summer has come and gone, and the fruits of autumn have been gathered And now, the chill breath of gray old win- ter touches with magic fingers the leaves, the grasses and the surrounding land- scape, is covered with the mantle of snow
 The mar whom Pete Jacobs saved from waiery grave, the spring before, gave his name as Winders Forney. He told his story in so traightforward and unhesitating manner, that none could help bu, believe him.
 He had been hunting up in the cedars, and upon nightfail finding himself sep arated from his companions, he went into deserted house. Tired from the tramp through the forest in quest of game he lay down, fell into slumser, and was only awakened when he felt the waters creeping about him. Ere he could rush from the house 1t was swept away. and he was obliged to crawl upon the roof for safety.
 He did not seem anxious to leave Arcott; and, when Stephen rebuilt the mill, he applied for position, which was granted him. There was a certain some thing about Winders Forney that did not produce favorable impression upon the Arcost people. They were bluff, open and frank he, on the contrary, was quiet, reticent, seeming ever impressed by some impending shadow of calamity, or haunted by the visitation of some pas, horror.
 During the past summer strange, hor- Diying discovery had been made, which produced considerable excitement in the immediate vicinity.
 A party of fishermen while passing through the cedars, came suddenly upon the skeleton of a man. The bones had been picked bare by the animals. Every vestige of clothing had been carried away or destroyed. There was no sign no trace of anything remaining that might possibly lead to the identification of the unfortunate being. The remains were conveyed to Arcott. and, after the coroner's inquest-which, under the cir eumstances, was but a mere form-the bones were inferred in the burial ground.
 No headstone marks the unknowu's resting place. oaly a mound, now cov- cred with snow, tells where the dead one sleeps.
 It is New Years eve. Comfortable fires glimmsr in the homes of Arcott. In the glow of the ruddy blaze, many an anxious face is turned toward the s,ory- eller as the quaint and almost unreason- able incidents arc related. The frozen sacondaga lies like silvery serpent, winding in and about the cedar clumps, md ragged pine and hemlock-clad hills.
 In the one and only hotel of which Arcou boasts, the sound of the violin 'wept by the rude bow of some professor 'f the Old Zip Coon," Money Musk, 'r Virginia Reel" order is heard.
 Festive lads and rosy-cheeked lasses are ushering in the new year to the time ,f "balanee at the head" " first two for yard" swing at the head, and the rest 'f the merry refrain.
 The ciang of the grim old clock down l n the bar-room, as it peals forth the mid | night hour, falls upon the ears of Winders | Fomey, tossing sleeplessly on his bed in he room over the merry-makers.
 "Curse the bumpkinsl Will they never cease their orgies cannot sleep. Per- aaps the midnight air will cool the fever | 'f my brain," he uttered. Rising, he 1ressed himself passed down the stair | way and out of doors.
 The shadows of the tall pines, stunted 'edars aud rugged hemlocks are sharply defined upon the glit,ering crust. The is silent and motioniess. From its paddles long points of crys- aline ice, gleaming in the moonlight ike huge dagpers. hang down to the