St. Landry democrat., 1885-09-12

tiny grave, she remembered with pang
keen as the thrust of a dagger, must be
left without any to care for it, without
a permanent Enclosure even, perhaps to
be forgotten, Obliterated, trodden upon.
But these thoughts only served to recall
her to herself, for with the poor, to think
of the dead is, always to recall thought.
to the living, the living whose necessi-
ties lay claim to every waking thought,
to every effort of the hands and feet.
Her thoughts recalled from the past
to the present from the dead to the
living, without ceasing her work or even
turning around, but intending to address
the little girls who yet stood silently
beneath the weight of their childish
thoughts of the wonderful, perhaps dam
gerous, journey to their father which
they understood was to be taken, Mrs.
Parsons asked:
''Where's Erastus?''
Her voice broke the spell which was
upon the children, and snatching their
sun-bonnets from the bed upon which
they had thrown them when they fol-
lowed the neighbor in with the letter,
they whipped out of the house and DART
ed around the corner in the direction
from which came the sound of the boys
axe.
Across the pasture lot they sped,
catching their sun-bonnets from off their
heads as they ran and carrying them in
their hands, until out of breath and
within talking distance of the object of
their search, the oldest girl broke out
with:
''Oh! Ras! what ID spose? Mas got
letter from pa, and he amt comm
home, cause he's been froze out again,
but he's going to send money home for
US to go to California on, and E1r, Peters
is a coming down right away to see if
we can be ready to start next week,
and
why, Ras, il you amt cuttin' up
rails!'
wall" replied the boy, his look
changing from that of a very interested
listener to one of set determination,
''wall, s'posen am? Didn' t your mother
say she wished she had some dry wood
to wash with tomorrow? and ain these
rails dry? Guess they are, fur your
father split 'em and laid 'em up him
self fore he went to California. Shud
think they ought to get dry in six years
if they are ever goin' to. y
'.But they're rails, protested both
the girls at once, their Unborn idea of
the wrong involved in the destruction
of property causing them to forget every
thing else for the moment. They re
rails, and if you cut 'em up for wood
they will be spoilt, and besides the cat
tie win get into the field.''
g 'Spose they do, who caresP faint
our field. They stole it. Wish the cat
tie would get in.
''Bet they don't get many rails with
this place. he added, bringing his
axe down with all his strength and fin
ishing the destruction of the one he was
at work on.
Then he shouldered his axe and the
three returned to the house, the girls
still swinging their sun-bonnets in their
hands and talking excitedly of the COM
ing journey to their father, and the new
home which they were to have in the
beautiful country to which they were
going, while the boy strobe on by their
side saying less, but with look and
step that proved him not less excited
than his companions.
The week that interviewed before the
coming of Sy Peters, like the weeks
that Immediately followed it, was occu-
pied by the family in devising means for
making the most of their possessions.
They already had team which sly
thought with good care would stand the
| trip, but the wagon and harness were
not sufficiently strong to risk yenturing
4 upon so long q Journey, and Mrs. Par
sons bent every energy to the task OF
devising how best to turn this and that
and the other article into things it was
| absolutely necessary that they should
have before they could start.
A new wagon was bought at the
wagon shop in the village payment be-
ing made in the old one backed by two
cows. The pigs were sold to get can
vas for the wagon cover, the chickens
to pay for shoeing the horses all round
4 with new shoes; a better harness was
obtained from a neighbor in exchange
/ for the old one and such cheap imple-
ments for tilling the soil as they had
been using on the farm; calico and mus
lin for garments fol- the girls, and cot
ton leans for a change for the boy were
procured somehow, the few cooking
utensils and the beds needed upon the
road were packed into the wagon with
their remaining provisions; the feeding
box was hung to the tail board, bucket
for watering the horses and a pail of
grease for greasing the spindles We're
! hung under the hind axle, and one
morning in May when the sun came up
over the tree tops and looked down into
the little clearing, he saw only a de-
serted and abandoned log house, from
whose chimney no wreath of smoke