Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-01-01

never saw that again. A scratch on his
forehead was bleeding cupiOusly, and his
first definite observation about himself
was that his eyesight was Clouded, be
cause the blood made his eyes close for
the smartng. Still he pushed out and
out of the wreck. He stood at last free,
free, barcheaded, lame and bleeding. in
what, by comparison must be called "the
open" And in the open this perpetual
snow, snow, snow
The less of such accommodating the bet
ter. Yes But how shall one go back to
the camp? Not up this abats of tangled
hemlOck trees. Shall one keep to the
right or to the left there Sargent thrust
his hand into the deep pocket OF his hunt
ing shirt to draw out his compass and his
hand brought up two or three bits of bro
ken glass the cover of the little box; the
box itself, II good deal twisted, and moth
ing more. He sat down. With the most
delicate care he turued the pocket inside
out upon the flap of the shirt. A little
three-cornered bit OF steel, which was
clearly the point of the needle, had worked
its way into the stout linen. This WAS
all. The rest of the needle even had dis
appeared.
Not till then, think, did the majors
heart fail him. But then, why? 1t will
not do for him to ask What now He
made the wretched search as carefully as
possible. He examined the snow shoes
with such care as to show that they were
of no more use He satisfied himself that
the abatis could not be scaled. And then,
as standing still would not help, he start
ed. 1t was surely lighter! But which
side does the light come from Snow,
snow, snow
He was not half mile from his camp
That he knew But, on the other hand
he knew also that his men could not fol
low him, would not follow him for an
hour, and that then his trail would be
hal lN., \ In Iu,, il,,,f Ia.
knew that he had the only compass in
their party, and that now Wardrop and
Perkins would be forced to wait in camp
till the snow storm should cease and they
could tell west from east
As he used to tell the story fifty years
after, old Governor Sargent would say ::
81 should have stayed where | was.
could not do anything to help myself
But | was young then, and | did not
know"
SO he worked out of the ravine toward
what was rather more open, in fact,
though to him 1t was all snow, snow,
snow. He turned to the right, because
the wind, blowing against the escarpment
of rock, had made an eddy which had
cleared the snow away. He pressed ON
over the blue-gray lichens, ana still the
rock rose at his right and the rock, as he
saw, was misleading him. lie had II no
ton that he was walking north. All of II
sudden the clue-it it were & clue-of the
cliff failed him. He was in the forest
again. No drifts here. Only ten inches
OF snow to sink III at every step. Westward
rop behind him orin front OF him ? Who
would say If he kept on j. line he
might strike the lake, or hc might he
going away from it. still he went ON,
like ii fool ds | was he used to say fifty
years after.
But no sign of Wardrop's party. Snow,
snow, SNOW But no token of the sort Of
!
broken rocks were all gone. The :nder-
growth was different. The forest above
was different 1t was broad daylight now.
But even Sargent'S experience could not
tell east from gdiStinctly. The wind
lit 1t had not changed, the liChens ON the
trees, gave some sense which was north
and which was south, but this was very
vague. Ills gun was "Wet through" from
one end to the other, hadhe dared to fire it.
Rum, he had none, nor had he tasted Il
biscuit ever since five clock the day be-
fore. His head began to feel light. II
was not only acting like Il fool" the old
gentleman would say years atterWard,
but began to feel like IL fool. was
beginning to wonder whether had not
better lie down aud 90 to Sleep-thc fool
iohest thing of all-when | heard ont
there in the wilderness, Ding, dong, bell.
ding, dong bell as plain It's you boys
ever heard Cephas Wheatland ringing ion
meeting Sunday morning.
And then the old man would turn fond
ly to look at grandmamma as she sat
knitting on the other side of the fireplace
and smiling, yes and blushing, because
she knew wnat was coming. And |
really thought ,boys,-l was so 'maZed
and dazed-that it was the bells ringing
for Phebe's wedding. Not that | had ever
heard any bells ring for any weddings.
But we had songs about wedding bells,
which Phebe and had sung together, and
| knew that there were places where they
rang the bells at weddings And that
was the first thing fancied when heard
this ding, dong, bell
Then rubbed my eyes with my beaver
mlttens to wake myself up. | struck the
old hemlock tree with one fist, then with
the other, till the knuckles smarted
surely | was not asleep. Ding, dong
| bell; again ding, dong, BELL the thing
kept on Il joyful, light kind of way, and
could tell perfectly which side ii came
from. | thought it was northeast, but il
was northwest BY this time was afraid
of nothing. No. didn't think now that
/ was going to your grandmother's wed
self up rs IL prisoner But you know
might as well be scalped as lie there fro
zen to death in the snow; and had no
rum, no biscuit, no compass, and wet
gun so JIst tramped on. Boys, | tramp
Ell on half an hour, marching and run
/
ward that ding, dong. bell
when came there, | knew the place
in two seconds. 1t was where Rogers had
burned a saw mill in the spring. He had
never told me, and think he didn't know
that there was IL little shed there which
one of the fathers used as chapel. AND
in front of this shed they had girdled 1
! spruce tree and left it. And on the lowest
branch of this spruce tree they had hung
this bell tell you Of And there the old
| prest-a white haired old man,-with hi,
black gown on, with Il silver cross on hi,
breast, ANA with nothing on his head, wa,
ringing it and ringing it, Ding, dong
| BELL
For it was Christmas Day"
Little did | know of Christmas Day
then, the Old man said once when he
told the story. Il had heard some of the
/ haltbreeds talking about Christmas in the
| fort, but | had not counted the days
and neither knew nor cared on what morn
| ing ii was coming.
] "Dpar old Father Francis sunnosp n,