, 1884-02-16

kadini to the swamp leaves tho main road
not fur from the shingle-tres stump. I'd Of
ten heard that lost children would never an
swer when called, but at night, when every
thing was quiet, they'd cry and make a
noise. 1t seemed as though the hull kcntry
had been well sarched, but l still believed he
stickini somewheres in that huckleberry
marsh.
''Now, l don't want anybody to think I
was a h~erowine, for l wasn't. / think / felt
more,n common sorry for Rachel Nyfer, be-
cause I'd had n dislike to her for quite a spell
1t growed out of an egg trade. 1 wanted a
settin' Of goose-eggs; she had some, and said
she'd let me have a dozen for two dozen hens
z Well, we traded, and l s'posed it was
all right, till one dry she come over and said
she thought she orter have about another
half-dozen < for she'd opened q gooss-egg
she'll and then broke two hens eggs into IL,
and it wasn't quite full. 'Tworld have held
easy half another eggi 1 counted out six
eggs, and she lugged 'em homo; then told
Miss Luke Wilson and one or two other
women that l was purity thick with, and we
made no end Of fun about 1t whenever we got
together.
az didn't like the general makeup Of the
woman. She had i've purity children, but
she didn't seem to take no kind o. comfort
Win EN-, JUST puSnel gill Oue sluo AM uiuN
ahead with her work. Sho and Nyfer both
seemed to think all tho duty they owed their
young ones was 70 make 'ern mind from the
word go, and dig away like all possess, to
make property for en- But l was there that
evenin' when Ben came homo without the
boy, and l saw 'em stand and look In each
others faces, like the end Of the world had
come, and neither one could help tho other.
Then she went bou putin a bit of supper
onto the table; but when she set out Sans
little tin plate and mug, all tho mother in
her broke loose, and she flung herself down,
~shudderin' and sobbin' in a way I'll never
forgit Well, seein' as how I'd kinder mis-
judged the creetur, for havin' no heart, ] felt
pushed to make one more try for that poor
lost kid O. bern; 30 / jumped right up and
said out loud:
"'With tho Lords help, IN find him YETI
81 lit my lantern and shaded 1t so It let
Just a little light down onto the ground.
Then / vent over tho road, just as l guessed
the boy had done, 'turnin' of on the trail at
the big red oak stump, and took right down
to the swamp. There / stopped and listened,
still as death Sure as there's mercy for us
all above, 1 hoard him almost right away.
"'Oh, mar Such a pitiful CALI Than be
cried and whimpered, very weak, like his
breath was most gone, and his he irt most
broke. / followed that sound and found
him easy. he was mired to his arm-pits In
mud and water. I couldn't at first see how
/ was to got to him There was
the body Of a big walnut tree lynn
back On the hard ground, and the bark was
loose I pulled 1t Off In slabs and throwed
'em onto the humnocks, and so bridged my
way out to that little yaller head. He strug-
g4ed wild when 1 first pulled him out; then
gave up In a kin of faint. l carried him
home in a hurry. sThere was still a good
many people at Myers They made some
milk warm and put a taste of liquor
in 1t, and forced a few drops down his throat,
as you've done to n chilled lamb on n winters
mornin'. He was bathed and rubbed and
wrapped In soft hannin and laid in the baby's
warm nest afore the fire. Nyfer aud his
wife stood lookin down at him
"'Raich,' said he-and she looked up, hor
black eyes a-swimniin' and her face all
a-tremble. Then he took her in his arms and
held hor cloast-'Raich, we hain't loved one
another enough, and we hain't loved our
children enough. There's that that's better'n
money and land, and for the rest OF our lives
we'll try and keep holt Of it
"And l believe they did TIL little boy
had a fever, but he came out all right at last.
Miss Nyfer died about five years after that,
and he took the family and went back east.
or course, I wouldn't have odd this story
Just as l have II any of 'sm had been
around"
The p,oplo had listened closely, and when
Mr- Lockery put on her bonnet and re-
sumed her seat the hush was so profound that
we could hear, high o our heads, tho
twittering ciamor of a nest OF young tana-
gers, to whom the mother-bird had brought
a worm
The next to address the assembly was q
noble-looking old man with silver white hair.
1t was Mr.. Luke Wilson, or Squire Wilson,
as he was generally called. He had II firm,
intellectual head, and when he spoke his Ian
guage was correct and well chosen
The Widow Lockory," he began,
'hns dsclaimed all right to. the title
of heroine. Do not let the verdict
be rendered till l have finished what I am
about to relate My friend and ueighbor
for forty years will, I know, pardon mo II 1
for once lift the veil from a passage OF her
experience TO which she seldom alludes, and
of which many In this audience nave mover
heard. Nothing has been told horc to-day,
nothing could DO told, moro strongly illus.
trative OF tho courage and ondurnneo of the
pioneer spirit, ut least OF the spirit or one
brave pioneer.
''Ons winter evening, many years ago, a
Stranger pTtStfItu nlulstlL ut Lut tdDln Oh
Thomas and Ruth Lcckery aud begged q
nights lodging. He was n Canadian,
completely tired out, and far from vol.
Neither Lockory nor his wife had 1t in them
to turn n sick trangcr from their door; so
they gave him supper and a bed Tho next
day he was unable to rise, and beforp night
be broke out with smallpox
1.-THE following morning when / went out
10 feed my cattle / happened to look toward
Jockeys, ard saw on a sharp rise OF
ground, about half way between the two
houses, a woman standing and reckoning to
me. 1t was my neighbor here. I went to-
ward bor, but whilo / was some distance
away she halted me and told me in a few
words about the man with the smallpox, and
charged me TO watch the road and warn the
community. She said she had been in
oculated, and would not take the dis
ease, but she feared for her husband and
children. That day I rode eleven miles to
the nearest doctor. His wife cried. and
would not let him go He read his books for
an hour, while my horse rested, then he made
up a package Of medicines for me and l
started back I left the medicines and stimu-
lants on the scrub oak hill, nni Tom came
and got them
As Ruth had feared, bar husband and
their two children were taken down Several
out OF the nearer families than offered to
take the risks and help her nurse her sick, but
she finally refused their assistancs.
"I can get along alone she would say
from her post on the hill. The Lord gives
me strength for all l have TO do, and this hor-
rcr must not spread Everything she needed
was furnished promptly and abundantly, and
this was all she would suffer us to do. Ths
stranger had the disease in the mildest form,
but Lockery and the little boys, Amos and
Willy, were hcpesessly bad from the first.
Ono morning tho poor old woman
called TO me that both the
children were dead, and told mo to
hnvs two collins brought to the hill that eve