The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-03-10
THE. PROGRESSIVE FARMER MARCH 10, 1886

instheg air,aafightf OH his feet upon
the haiphlslbRok With peffecs ease;
Sohetihes, GboI be acepmpanied
iaddef1eAsdmi To t1e-top Of some
high building, he would ascend it,
and seating himself upon the top
most rung, would wave his forward
paHsi in apparent expectationao of the
applause that once greeted his per
formances. He was extremely fond
of swcetmeats, and while other dogs
seem gene1any.t prefer meat, Pink
would perform almost any ltrick he
had ever been taught for a slice OF
cake or a bit Of candy. Two years
passed. They were prosperous years
With John and Mary Wistersidte,
who had built and moved into a new
frame house, situated on a road near
half a mile from the old "dug-out'
in the creek bank, where they had
made theirfrfirst humble homestead
ON their large and now profitable
farm. The old earth house had been
abandoned, though not filled up.
For a year or more not even John
himself had been, to it, and Minnie
had almost forgotten it. On the day
Of my story John was at work at
the farther side Of his farm. On
coming home to dinner, he remark
ed to Mary that the air seemed very
''muggyo-am dT thatifitwerernotzso5
late in the season, he should fear a
cyclone. 1T An hour later he = went
back to his labor. Minnie and Pink
went out together, too; and Mary,
as usual, became busted with her
household cares.
An hour later, the Industrious
housewife, having finished her work,
was dressing for d pleasant evening
hour with John, Minnie and Pink,
enlivened, possibly, by a call from
their neighbors. or by a ride around
the broad, green farm, when she no.
ticed that the room had grown sud
denly dark. The air, too, had all at
once become strangely heavy and
close. What John had said at noon
came into her mind. She ran to the
door; and there a singular, and even
to those who are accustomed to the
tempest-phenomena of the West, an
appalling spectacle met her eye. A
lurid gloom was in the sky. At the
same time a frightful roar burst up
on her. ears; andsupVin' the, north
west she saw what nearly froze. her
heart with terror and anxiety. A
vast, balloon-shaped pillar of what
at one moment looked like black va
por and the next instant seemed
like Illuminated dust, g%littering
against the dark sky behind it, was
rushing down across the country
coming directly towards the farm
and the house in which Mary stood.
The ragged edges of cloud about it
sparkled as if with flame. Onward
it came, a messenger of death and
destruction, with steadily increasing
roar. At the base of it, where this
stormy apparition touched the
earth, a fiery, lambent "foot" seemed
to play to and fro; and wherever
this CHASTITY foot touched, houses,
trees, straw-ricks, barns, everything
disappeared on the instant. AS it
drew nearer in it's destructive course
Mary saw that all around it
and high in the sky about it, the.
air was filled with branches of trees,
boards and fragments of whatever
had been in it's path.
For an instant she gazed, fascina-
ted by her fear and the awful gran
deur of the sight. Then, recalling
Johns frequent instructions what to
do in such emergencies, she a into
the cellar. Scarcely had her foot
left the last stair, when with a roar
and a deafening crash, the house
above her was lifted, whirled around
and swept away. Timbers, bricks
and under-pinning-stones fell into
the cellar, and a torrent of rain,
mingled with hail, dirt, straw and
leaves, half buried poor Mary where
she crouched and elung in a corner.
But the cyclone passed as quickly
as it had come. In three minutes
it was over; and then Mary Wistar-
side, in an agony of terror, for her
loved ones, not for herself, for she
was safe and unhurt, crying aloud
to God to protect them, hurriedly
climbed up the broken stairs and set
of. in search of. John and Minnie.
What a spectacle was that which
met her eyeawhen she looked over