Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-11-19
CHAPTER XIV.
OVER THE RANGE.

OVER THE RANGE.
It 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 it home-did not think
of it as such now.
Another held a 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
sum greater than he could, by any
possibility, raise.
He had no hope that it mig hit 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 living, were looked upon as legit-
| innate prey by a set of men who had by
some means obtained control OF the
| courts and of State and National Legls-
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 a mortgage he gave up all
hope, regarding it 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-
tons; 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 a numbness 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 fled, 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 OF 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 90 away out of the cottage
!. and out of the world-that they would
all die to9 ether, and at once.
There seemed to be no place in this
| world for them, and yet they were or:
!, dered to ssmove on Where else could
, they 90 to except to the other world
and who else but Death was to poin
t the way, or be their guide upon the
t Journey
p And Erastus and Lucy were to 60
Y too, and would take the little baby tina
' was not vet born. for they were withou
r a home also-they, too, had been or
Il dered TO move on.
O Then he wondered if Jennie and he
|, husband were to go with them, end h
e was not quite sure about it. The
# would follow pretty soon, of course; TO
: all who tried to get their living by wor
t would be ordered to ''move on soone
or later; but it did not appear that the
: were to die at once. as he and Marth
# and Johnny. and Lucy and Erastus an
- the baby must do.
:. When the clouds which had bee
I gathering all day. broke at last, an
y the rain poured down in torrents.
it did not seem to know it. He was We
r to the skin in an instant. but he wa
is not conscious of it. His rubber co;
n remained tied to the back of the saddle
where he had fastened it in the morr
h ING before starting. The water IA
n from his person and filled his boots, h
t. horse placed his nose close to the cart
ID and plodded on blindly in face of til
-e storm, but his r1der sat the same, or
at hand upon the loosened rein and IL
5 other hanging idly at his side; his ey'
h. fixed upon the ground Just in advanc
as but seeing nothing, taking no note
ee anything.
ne Left to his own will. the hor
c. pIodded on through the mud and ra
I'd at a walk. Before they were half ws
lis home night had set in-night as blat
Sc as clouds and falling rain could NAL
it. Soon the water. still falling in to
to rents, began to fill the gulches wi
It, floods of the color of clay; floods while
he dubbed, and seethed, and roared the
e- way down the hillsides and across tt
to road, forming frothy line of white, Il
Id only thing visible in the pitchy dar
k ness.
Dr. And still the horse plodded onwar
nut fOrding the streams AS he came
nd them; scrambling up the steep al
to slippery inclines where the road woul
ne round the mountain side, avoldln
M either by instinct or that peculiar pow
lid of seeing in the dark which some hors
possess. the deep gullies cut by t
ire rushing water in the clay of the roa
far bed; and still the rider sat motionless
save as ne swayed to and fro with t
his movements of the animal which he TO
Tor and looked straight forward into t
ed night,
i'm Suddenly, when they We're about tv
ng thirds of the way up the mounta
in there came flash of lightning. follow
by a clap of thunder which seemed
ain rend the very earth, and echoed and
er. echoed from peak to peak and til
ms went rumbling down the ravines a
nod gorges. finally dying out miles a
es. miles away among the foothills.
WIN Many people have lived for years
ras California and never heard a clap
he thunder or seen a vivid flash of Zig
ming. A friend of the authors "
md lived for twenty years. a part of
No time in the foothills and part in
-. vallav informs him that never but Oh