Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-09-10
CHAPTER XIV.
BUILDING THE DAM.

MIS-. Jones anu the C0lIuTSQ.
CHAPTER XIV.
BUILDING THE DAM.
The events recorded in our last chap
ter served, for time, to arouse John
Parsons from the unhealthy mental
condition into which he was sinking;
for so long as the lads life was in dam
ger every other thought gave way be-
fore the one great fear of losing John
nv, his baby, his only boy. But when
the more imminent danger was past,
| the fear of losing their home came again
with redoubled force as he realized that
his child must always remain cripple,
dependent upon others for every neces-
sity and enjoyment in life.
1t was at thought of this, toe, that
Mrs. Parsons broke down.
Always heretofore she had been the
one to preserve cheerful countenance
and to encourage her husband with ex-
pressions of hope that the danger to
their home might not be so great as he
feared, or if so there would come some
way out of it.
1.-The law will compel the company to
make good the damages if they occur"
she would tell him; land even if we
lose the land we will still have the stock
and household goods and a nice little
sum of money in the bank, and we are
not very old yet and will manage to
live comfortable, [ am sure; so don't
worry, dear, it will all come out right
in the end"
But nowi
When she got down from the spring
wagon, and Johnny was lifted out and
carried in and laid upon the cot. from
which, unaided, she knew he was never
to rise again, an awful feeling of desc
! lation came over her. She was as one
| bewildered and lost in the woods. The
sky. the hills, everything about her,
| took on the look they have when seen
| through a piece of smoked or stained
glass. The house itself, nay, the very
| faces of her husband and children,
seemed strange and unnatural. and she
moved from room to room as if in a
| dream, and when she spoke she heard
| her own voice as if it came from afar
| off, and was the voice of another.
| All day she was in this condition; but
| the second day she aroused herself by
an effort of the will and resumed her
usual round of duties, except that much
of her time was of necessity given to
the crippled boy, who lay in little cot
which had been made for him and
| placed on wheels that he might be
moved about the house easily and out
into the yard on pleasant days.
| Her husband now spent most of his
| time in the house. The winter rains,
which had set in some weeks previously.
rendered outdoor work impossible for
DAYS at time, and if they had not done
so John Parsons had lost all love for
work on the ranch. Besides, Johnny
claimed his almost undivided attention
/ now.
| The little fellow had taken to his
/ father from before the time when he
/ took his first baby steps, and had never
been quite so well contented as when
in his arms, or perched upon his
shoulders, or following him about the
place; and now he could not bear to
have him out of his sight during his
waking moments.
| Often, too, in the night he would
waken and call in weak, piping voice,
| so different from what it had been in
| health; and his father would arise and
sit by his side for hours, moving his poor
wasted body this way or that to give
| him little more ease, or divert his
mind by tales such as children love to
/ hear, until he fell asleep again or forgot
/ his pain.
During the day he wheeled him about
| the house; or, if it was sunny, carried
| him out in his arms to the poultry yard,
| that he might drop corn to his chickens
and ducks; or to the pasture lot, that he
might put out his hand and pet the colt
that had been promised should be his
when both were grown, upon which
promise he had built thousand castles
| in the air, of encounters with grizzly
bears and Indians, besides taking pre-
miums for speed at all the fairs in the
| country.
1t seemed that the man had but one
thought, one object in life now-that of
caring for the crippled boy.
Certain it is that he never laughed,
except when once in great while
something provoked the child to laugh
ter; then the man always Joined in, but
at no other time did any member of the
family see smile upon his face; and
not even to neighbours.
One day word came that there was to
be meeting at the school-house to de-
wise means to save the settlers from the
overflow of the mines. and that his
neighbors were anxious for him to be
present, for by this time the danger was
apparent to all. The floods caused by
the rains had overfiowed the valley to
much greater extent than usual, al
though the amount of water which had
fallen was no more than common at
this season of the year.
The washings from the mines had
filed the creek bed, and at places had
formed dams that checked the water
and caused it to overflow fields never