Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1885-11-05


dream, for the hands showed just ten
minutes after. six.
All, wo's the day! II was the mourn
fullest time the hall had ever known
Tom, bereft of wife and child by one
stroke. was at first crushed But in an
hour he rallied and was in the saddle.
And long beforemid night every man and
boy in all the country-aye, and the
women. too-were out on the search for
the stolen child. The night passed, ard
the next day, and week went by, but
never trace of him. There was band
of strolling gypsies in the neighborhood,
and there wasn't . scrap Of paper even
in all camp that we didn't unfold and
turn over in our search. But all to no
avail The child was gone, gone, gone.
Tom never gave up the search, how
ever. He could think Of nothing else
Month after month went by, and still he
kept it up. At last, in midwinter, he
struck what seemed clew. The gypsies
who had been here were reported to be
encamped for the winterin valley near
Franconia, in the bleak White mountain
country, and to have strange child
with them Tom was off like shot,
alone in his haste, for it would have de-
layed him an hour to wait for comrades,
and he would not waste even one hour.
1t was journey of several days in
those times. His father and ], who were
left at home, heard nothing of him, and,
indeed, expected to hear nothing, for
nearly q week But one morning, long
before daylight, uncle called to me from
his room He had started up from his
sleep, and felt strangely uneasy. We
sat together listening to the raging Of
the storm without. until morning dawn
led. And then, as we descended the
stairs together we were startled to no
;tice that the old clock had stopped, for
the first time in its history, and its hands
were pointing to ten minutes past 6, just
as they point to-dav; for they have never
been stirred from that hour to this.
Reports came to us Of that storm It
had ragged that night and until late that
morning all over New England. Roads
were blocked. The party that set out
to follow Tom got snow-bound for a
week, and at last came back without
having reached their destination. The
mountain passes were blocked with
snow, and the gypsies' valley was mac
cessible And there had been terrible
snowslides and avalanches in the Franco
MIA Notch As for Tom, they did not
know what had become Of him. He
had reached Franconia safely, and set
out on horseback and alone for the val
ley where the gypsies were. His road
led through the Notch. Further than
that no one knew what had become of
him. Possibly he had reached the camp
and was there now safe and sound, but
shut in by the same snow that shut us
out. At any rate, nothing positive could
be ascertained until spring came, OF a
thaw opened up the roads. But his
father and Invent right up to Franconia
and staid there, so as. to be as close to
Elm as possible There we waited, and
the roads remained impossible for a long
time. At last / made my way through,
with a couple of guides, just in time
to find that famine had forced the
gypsies to break camp and pass out
by another road, where the snow was
not so deep. I followed on as best
could, but it was slow work for one so
weakly as / was. / tracked them on.
but could not overtake them, ana at
length, in the spring, reached the end Of
the trail. That was at fishing port on
the Cape Ann coast. They had stolen a
small costing craft and set sail in the.
night--the Lord only knew whitherl
And so / turned back, with my long
chase in vain, save that felt sure Tom
could not have been with them. When
Preached Franconia again the snow was
fast breaking up My uncle and / felt
algrowing certainty that Tom must have
pbrished in the storm of that night. So
VIE kept constant watch among the
melting snowsdrifts. But the last one
vanished, and no trace Of him yet was
seen. In one place, however, the road
was choked by landslide. A huge
avalanche of earth and rocks and snow
had swept down, twenty feet deep, COY.
ing the Notch road for half mile. When
did-it fall9 The people told u.s. It was
the night Of the storm-the night Tom
RODE toward the valley by that very
wayl Well, we soon had men at work
digging and blasting. For two weeks
they worked. Then one day a shout
went up. A man, prying up a huge rock.
found a hat underneath Toms. We
knew it at glance. Them with dread
deepened into despair we stood by while
stronger hands than ours rolled away
huge boulders and dug away earth until
the crushed and lifeless bodies Of
Tom and his horse lay before us AS
the men gently raised Tom to
place him in their cart his watch drop
ped from the pocket. and one Of the
men picked it up and handed It to me.
The case was crushed and broken by the
forcesof the same torrent that had bur-
led its owner, and as held it in my