The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1885-02-05
A EAEl ,-fARTYS.

Il
hillside on the ro;.d between Santa
Barbara and the Cjal, the horses walk
ing with painful exactness in the mid
die OF tie deep ruis and siancinT with
occasional nervous Gistrust at the bor-
der. of rank-looking grass on either side
OF the way. The constant rains, alter
mating with fierce suns. had rendered
the whole soil continuous, puffy,
spungy mass, and more than once they
had passed by the decaying, hal;-snn-
ken eagcasses of stock mired within
easy reach of the drivers whip.
As the stage took an eXtra-heavy rut
a faint whimper from a bundle carried
by woman on the back seat reminded
the passengers of the presence of baby.
THAT puts me in mind" said an
erect, gray-whiskered man in the front
seat, ''of q queer experience lot of us
army fellows had with baby way back
in-in-"
In GA. major. put in handsome
young lady of about 20. who sat beside
the SPEAKER and who had received the
undivided attention of Il couple of drum
mers on the back seat, they evidently
taking her for the old gentieman's
daughter.
Won't you tell us about it, sire''
said one of the pair, overwhelmingly, all
the lady passengers, married and SIN
gle. indersing the request
We'll, '"said the major, with a retro
spectiye smile, '.you see was stationed
at Fort Laramie at the time, and was
sent with detachment of twenty-five
men to escort Gen. Whipple, who was
visiting the fort, and his staff to an
other post about 1000 miles further
north. The country was full of Indians
on the war-patil, but we didn't mind
them so much as the weather, which
was simply fearful. Snow breast high
and steady norther blowing that
would cut the ey..s out of you. We
struggled along somehow for couple
Of days, but finally the snow began to
fan again and we lost the trail. The
whole party was Just on the point of
giving up Tor good when one of the
scouts came to report that he had found
lew miles further on certain log
and stockade that we had been aiming
Tor. Of course that braced us up once
more, and We soon reached the house
and started up roaring fire you may
suppose. As the men were bringing in
their last armfuls of wood they heard
faint call for help on the wind. A.
forlorn hope volunteered to 90 out and
see what was the matter, and pretty
soon they brought in an emigrant fam
lily whose teams had got showed in,
and who had just about laid down to
die some half-miie from the house.
There was the father, three boys, and
q little girl carrying kitten, and the
fhnv xr-ffh lN.>f.
q dozen shawls.''
'.Dear, dear me,' exclaimed the lady
passengers in chorus.
1.-The log house had a small room in |
one corner, and we gave that to the |
poor family, and made them comfort I
able. That night it blew gale, and
the wind swept the trail SO clear that
the emigrants decided to push on south.
Our party concluded to wait another |
day for the weather to settle, and well
enough it was, as the snow hegan
again. Some time during the next
evening Cne of the officers happened
to 20 into the room that had been oc-
cupied by the emigrant family, when
he heard sort of low cry, and, going
toward bunk, saw something move
inside a bundle lying there wrapped up
in an old red shawln'
"A blue shawl, major" interrupted
the young lady. merriiy.
$50 it was," said the old officer,
glancing fondiy at his companion. ''He
was Il. brave fellow, that lieutenant; but
be ran out to Us as pale as death.
Gentlemen said be, in the excitement
OF getting away, those people have
left their baby"
''Eou never saw such a scared lot of
men in your life. There we were,
showed in, 500 miles from civilization,
with baby. A grizzly bear would
have been more welcome"
s'Oh, you horrid thingr shifted the
mother on the back seat.
You don't seem TO grapple with the
proposition, ma am" explained the
major. .'On canvassing the matter we
found that there wasn't but one mar
riei man in the whole command, and
he, as luck would have it. had never
had baby. We didn't have any more
idea how to take care of a baby than
the man in the moon. Oh! it was
dreadful and the major wiped the
perspirat;on from the face at the mere
recollection.
Had the poor darling been all that
day without anything to eat?' indig-
nantly inquired q young bride who sat
up with the driver.
Ito drink, You mean," said the ma
jor. THAT was just it. There wasn't
even a can of condensed milk in the
outfit, so we went into a council of war
as to the proper thing to give it to est.
One officer said -four and water was
the correct thing. Capt. Brown in
sisted on milk. Boggs thought that
meat chopped up fine would answer.
Somebody else argued that the proper
ration for baby was sugar tied up in
a rag somehow. A young ensign be-
ieved they sucked the juice of a piece
Of rubber, so to speak. while old Whip
pie stuck it out that babies were fed eX-
clusively on paregoric. You never
heard such wrangie.
ssAnd the poor little creature suffer-
inc all that time, murmured the moth
er, wiping a tear of her nose.
ssIhe result was that we agreed to
make an impartial mixture OF all these
things, on the theory that if one missed
fire the other would sort of counteract
il, as 1T were. So we made sort of
stew in the coGee-pot, which included
a whole bottle of paregoric from the
medicine chest, for most of us rather
leaned toward Whippie's ideas after
all. Then we hunted up a small tin
funnel used for filling the whisky keg."
..What was that for:?'' gasped the
lady passengers, who by this time had
worked themselves into state Of sup
pressed fury.
why, to run the compound into the
baby with, so as not to spill il" con-
tinued the major, calmly; $50 when
the committee on pap concluded the
mixture was cool enough we started to
feed the"
Il wonder it didn't kill you," inter-
rupted the briie, looking knowingly at
the majors companion. ''Of course,
can see how it all turned out. You
were the baby, and the major brought
YOU up and married You.
..Jnst wait TIL fin;sh," went on tic
major.
Just as we started for the bunk there
was terrible crash of firing, followed
bv veil that would have curd.ed your
blood. We were attacked by the
Peaches. They had surrounded us on
snowshoes. OF course we had TO jump
to our euas, and it was just nip and
tuck all that night 10 keep t':em OIL
At daylight onr repeating rifles were
too much for them, AMI tley finally