Sharp County record., 1885-04-09

going on to their posts in the wilder
ness, a number of farmers and eml-
grants intending to take up home
steads in Manitoba. One of the Hud-.
son Bay Company's officers has with
him bis young wife and child, a tiny
girl three years old-a pretty, pratt
Ting, fearless, fascinating young
woman. She is everybody's pet, from
the rather dandy wheelsman, who tries
to entice her up to his pilot-box, which
towers above the vessel, down to the
grizzled, grimy deck hands, whose ac-
quaintance she has somehow or other
made on the lower deck.
On the floor of this lower deck,
whittier 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 affected their
capture, never leaves them. for they are
known to be desperate. Certainly there
is no lamb-like innocence about them.
They constantly talk to one another,
and to the Sheriff, whom they call Bill,
and who, to do him justice, enters fully
and sympathetically into all of the ex-
ploits of the "boys." They are con-
fessed rufians and bullies, and they don't
seem ashamed of it. They guess the
game is up, and they accept there fate,
not cheerfully, but as a matter OF
course. They swear, in copious and
characteristic 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 frighten her. So she advanced
and spoke to them in her broken words;
she even touched the fetters on the
hands of one of them, and smiled in his
face, and asked him what they were.
The man smiled, too, without replying,
and the child moved away. As she
walked there was a sudden quick jerk
of the whole ship, its further side
ground jarringly against some unyield-
ing substance hidden in the water; it
tilted over slightly, the child lost her
balance, and, with scream, tell over
the side into the water. The vessel
for an instant was stationary. The
three prisoners saw her disap-
pear The prisoner to whom she had
spoken, and whose handouts she had
for moment touched, exclaimed:
"God! don't We shoot, Bill!' Then
quickly rolling himself over and over,
he dropped into the water beside the
child. As his hands were bound be-
hind him, he caught the child's dress in
his teeth, and treading the aCater acih
his tettered 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 the boat from the vessel reached
them. But the child was saved.
"Splendid," said the chief, with
flashing eyes.
Yes, it was splendid, magnificent,
noble. Needless to relate the thank
fulness of the poor young mother or the
gratitude of the father.
81 guess you are a white man Xix,
after ALL said the Sheriff.
A purse was made up among the pas
sengers for the man, whose name was
Erikir, Scandinavian by birth.
1t was afterwards learned that the
Sheriff told the story to the "Jedge,' y
and the Jedge, with Western freedom.
and that admiration for gallant act
which covers 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.
1t would be interesting to know what
was the result of the episode upon the
man. Was the mission of the child to
reclaim the man? 1t often is so, But
nothing has ever since been heard of the
fate of Erikir. -Harper' Magazine.