Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-10-30
CHAPTER XIV.
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CHAPTER XIV.
OVER THE RANGE.
1t was three o'clock on a short Oc-
tober day when John Parsons left
Phippsburg on his return to the cottage
where his wife and crippled boy awaited
him.
He did not call IL home did not think
of IL as such now.
Another held claim against it for
all it was worth in money, and his past
experience led him to expect no mercy.
He had not stopped to ascertain who
held the mortgage, or anything about it,
further than that it existed and was for
a sum greater than he could, by any
possibility, raise.
He had no hope that it might prove
a mistake in any way; that it might
have been paid and not cancelled. He
accepted it as what he ought really to
have expected would happen sooner or
later, for he had come to believe that
the poor those who labored in any way
for a living, were looked upon as legit-
innate prey by set of men who had by
some means obtained control of the
courts and Of State and National Legis-
latures, and who in one way or another
but always under the guise of law
would rob the people Just as men rob
the honey bees, taking the honey, but
letting the bees live in order that they
might store up more honey for the rob-
bers when their turn comes for being
robbed again. And so from the first
mention of mortgage he gave up all
hope. regarding IL as but another of the
ways--of which experience had taught
him that there were many-of taking
from him and his their little accumula-
tions; and but one thought, one i'm
pulse remained-to get back to where
his wife and crippled boy were and die
in their presence and with them.
His brain seemed incapable of
thought There was numbncss about
his whole body that made it difficult
for him to retain his seat in the saddle,
and several persons who saw him pass,
swaying to and fro in his seat. thought
that for once he had been drinking and
had taken more liquor than he could
we'll carry.
But he was not drunk. He was
crushed.
All hope had fed, never to return
again. No ray of light came to him
from any source.
He paid no heed to the inquiring
| looks of those whom he met as he
| passed through the streets of the little
town and took the road leading up into
the mountains; no attention to the
guidance of the animal which he rode.
He had no clearly defined idea of
what he should do or say when he
reached the spot where his wife and
and johnny were, or of how they could
bear the terrible news.
He felt isolated from the entire
world; was unconscious of what was
passing around him or of the rapidly
gathering storm overhead.
His one dim idea was to get to where
his wife and boy were; and think he
really expected that once there they
would all go away out of the cottage
and out of the world-that they would
all die together, and at once.
There seemed to be no place in this
world for them, and yet they were or.
dered TO "move on" Where else could
they go to except to the other world
and who else but Death was to point
the way, or be their guide upon the
| journeyp
And Erastus and Lucy were to go,
too, and would take the little baby that
was not get born. for they were without
a home also-they, too, had been or.
dered to move on"
Then he wondered if Jennie and hel
husband were to go with them, end he
was not quite sure about it. They
would follow pretty soon, of course; fol
all who tried TO get their living by work
would be ordered to ''move on" sooner
or later; but it did not appear that they
were to die at once, as he and Martha
and Johnny, and Lucy and Erastus and
the baby must do.
When the clouds, which had been
gathering all day. broke at last, and
the rain poured down in torrents, he
did not seem to know it. He was wet
not conscious of it. His rubber coat
remained tied TO the back of the saddle.
where he had fastened it in the morn
ing before starting. The water ran
from his person and filled his boots. his
horse placed his nose close to the earth
and plodded on blindly in face of the
storm, but his rider sat the same, one
hand upon the loosened rein and the
other hanging idly at his side; his eyes
fixed upon the ground just in advance.
but seeing nothing, taking no note oi
anything.
Left to his own will, the horse
plodded on through the mud and rain
at walk. Before they were half way
home night had set in-night as black
as clouds and falling rain could make
it. Soon the water, still falling in tor
rents, began to fiji the gulches with
floods of the color of clay; floods which
bubbled, and seethed, and roared their
way down the hillsides and across the
road, forming frothy line of white, the
only thing visible in the pitchy dark
ness.
And still the horse plodded onward.
fording the streams as he came to
them; scrambling up the steep and
slippery inclines where the road wound
round the mountain side, avoiding.
either by instinct or that peculiar power
of seeing in the dark which some horses
possess, the deep gullies cut by the
rushing water in the clay of the road
bed; and still the rider sat motionless-
save as he swayed 70 and fro with the
movements of the animal which he rode
and looked straight forward into the
| NIGHT