The Northern Pacific farmer., 1885-03-12
BABY MARTYR.

Ihe Stage was descending q sloplng
hillside on the road between Santa
Barbara and the DIAL, the horses walk
ing with painful exactness in the middle
of the deep ruts and glancing with oc-
casiona1 nervous distrust at the border
of rank-looking grass on either side of
the way. The constant rains, alternat-
ing with fierce suns, had rendered the
whole soil continuous, puffy, spongy
mass, and more than once they had pas
sed by the deoaying, half-sunken car
casses of stock mired within easy reach
of the drivers whip.
AS the stage took on extra heavy rut
a.faint whimper from bundle carried
by q woman on the back seat reminded
the passengers Of the presence of a
baby.
"That puts mo 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-"
I'm '64, MAJOR" put in a handsome
young lady of about 20, who sat beside
the speaker and who had received the
undivided attention of couple of drum
mers on the back seat, they evidently
taking her for the old gentleman's daugh-
ter.
wont you tell us about it, sir ?" said
one of the pair. ingratiatinglY, all the
lady passengers, married and single, in
dorsing the request.
SWELL, said the major, with retro
spective smile, "you see I 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 another
post about 1000 miles farther north.
The country was full of Indians on the
war path, 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
eyes out of you. We struggled along
somehow for a couple of days, but finally
the snow began to fall again and we lost
the trail. The whole party was just
on the point of giving up for good when
one of the scouts came in the report
that he had found two miles farther on
a certain log house and stockade that
we had been aiming for. OF course
that braced US up once more, and we
soon reached the house and started up
q 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 go out and see what was
the matter, and pretty soon they
brought in an emigrant family whose
teams had got showed in, and who had
just about laid down to die, some half
mile from the house. There was the
father, three boys, and little girl car
rying kitten, and the mother with the
small baby wrapped in adozen shawls.
''Dear, dear mel" exclaimed the lady
passengers in chorus.
The log house had small room in
one corner, and we gave that to the
poor family, and made them comforta-
BILE. 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 we'll
enough it was as the snow began again.
Sometime during the next evening, one
of the officers happened to ge into the
room that had been occupied by the
emigrant family, when he heard a sort
of low cry, and, going toward bunk,
saw something move inside bundle
lying there, wrapped up in an old red
shawlw
"A blue shawl, major" interrupted
the young lady merri]y.
$50 it was," said the old officer, ,glan-
cling fond1y at his companion. "He was
brave fellow, that lieutenant; but he
ran out to us as pale as death. Gen
tlemen,' said he, in the excitement OF
getting away, those people have left
their tiny baby"
"You never saw such a scared lot of
men in your life. There we were, snow
ed in, 800 miles from civilization, with
q baby! A grizzly bear would have
been more Welcomes.
"Oh, you helg thing! !" shifted the
mother on thda -
"You donf u sgfapple with the
proposition, ma'am," explained the
major. s."On canvassing the matter we
found that there wasn't but one married
man. in the whole command, and he, as
luck would have it, had never mad g
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 perspitation
from his face at the mere recollection.
"Had the poor darling been all that
day without anything to eat?" indig.
nantly inquired young bride who sal
up with the driver.
"To drink, you mean," said the ma.
jor. "That was just it. There wasn't
even can of condensed milk in the
outfit, so we went, into q council
of war as to the proper thing to giveit
to eat. One officer said fou1
and water was the correct
thing. Capt. Brown insisted on milk
Boggs thought that meat chopped ul
fine would answer. Somebody else ar
gued that the proper ration for baby
was sugar tied up in a rag somehow. A
young ensign believed they sucked 5h'
juice of piece of rubber, so to speak
while old Whipple stuck it out tina
babies were fed exclusively on pare
goric. You never heard such wran
gle."
"And the poor little creature suffer
ing all the time, . murmured the mother
wiping a tear off her nose.
"The result was that we agreed tx
make an impartial mixture Of all thes'
things on the theory that if one missed
fire the other would sort of counterac
it, as it were. So we made a sort o
of stew in the cotfee-pot, which included
q whole bottle of paregoric from tn
medicine chest, for most of us rathe1
leaned toward Whipple's ideas after all
Then we hunted up a small tin funne
used for filling the whisky keg."
"What was that for?" gasped th'
lady passengers, who by this time hat
worked themselves into state of sup
pressed fury.
uWhv to r11r, tho connnO11nd into th