News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-03-19

[From Harper's Magazine.l
During the summer of 1870, steamer
was making its way down the Red River
of the North for Fargo. In design and
appearance it was of the usual Western
type. And the Red River is of the same
general order as most streams of the
West-a shallow zigzag of stream, ap-
parently going nowhere in particular,
but, for all that, in its own leisurely
fashion, knowing its own business very
we'll as it heads northward for Lake
Winnepeg, now wide, now narrow, with
here bluff of poplar or oak upon its
banks, and there belt of willows bend
ing down into the yellow-brown waters,
while few solitary log shanties at wide
intervals tell of the settlers presence.
There are but few passengers on the
cabin deck of the steamer-one or two
officers of the Hudson Bay Company 60
ing on to their posts in the wilderness,
a number of farmers and emigrants in
tending to take up homesteads in Mani
toba. One of the Hudson Bay Com
pany's officers has with him his young
wife and child, tiny girl three years
old-a pretty, prattling, fearless, fasci-
mating youAg woman. She is every
bodys pet, from the rather dandy wheels
man, who tries to entice her up to his
pilot-box, which towers above the vessel,
down to the grizzled, grimy deck hands,
whose acquaintance she has somehow
or other made on the lower deck.
On the floor of this lower deck, with
er she has been taken by her nurse, she
has seen three men lying bound, chained
hand and foot. They are on their way
to be tried at Fargo, and the sheriff,
who has effected their capture, never
leaves them, for they are known to be
desperate. Certainly there is no lamb
like innocence about them. They con-
stantly talk to one another and to the
sheriff, whom they call Bill, and who,
to do him justice, enters fully and SYM
pathetically into all the exploits Of the
"boys." They are confessed ruffians
and DULLES, and they don't seem
ashamed of it. They guess the game is
up, and they accept their fate, not
cheerfully, but as matter of course.
They swear, in a copious and charteris-
tic vocabulary of their own, against their
i'll luck; but they have got thar at last,
and they know it.
The little child came to them and
looked at them curiously; they looked
silently at her. They had probably
never seen anything so dainty or so
sweet before. She saw nothing in them
to brighten her. So she advanced and
spoke to them in her broken words; she
even touched the letters on the hands
of one of them, and smiled in his face,
and asked him what they we're. The
man smiled too, without replying. As
she walked there was sudden quick
jerk of the whole ship. its further side
ground iarringly against some unyield-
ing substance hidden in the water; it
tilted over slightly, the child lost her
balance, and, with a scream, fell over
the side into the water. The vessel for
an instant was stationary. The three
prisoners saw her disappear. The pris-
oner to whom she had spoken, and
whose handouts she had for mo-
ment touched, exclaimed: Don't ye
shoot, BillP' Then quickly rolling him
self over and over, he dropped into the
water beside the child. AS his hands
were bound behind him, 10 caught the
child's dress in his teeth, and treading
the water with his fettered feet, kept the
child above-water until help came. As
everybody's attention was diverted to
the opposite side of the steamer, it was
some time before he boat from the YES
sell reached them. But the child was
saved.
Splendid" said the chief, with flash
ing eyes.
Yes, it was splendid, magnificent,
noble. Needless to say the thankful
ness of the poor young mother or the
gratitude of the father.
81 guess you air white man, Rik,
after all. said the sheriff.
purse was made up Smong. the pas
sengers for the man, whose name was
Erikir, Scandinavian by birth.
1t was afterward learned that the
sheriff told the story to the ledge, and
the Judge, with Western freedom, and
that admiration for gallant act which
covers a multitude of sins, so arranged
that when it was found that Erikir had
mysteriously disappeared, nothing was
done beyond little official bluster, and
he escaped.
It would be interesting to know what
was the result of the episode upon the
man, Was the mission of the child to
save the man? 1t often is so. But
nothing has ever since been heard of
the fate of Erikir.