The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1888-02-01

Ben right and left. We had two or
three rows before bedtime. and all
turned in sulky and indignant.
Whew But what night that was
The cold increased until the rocks were
split, and the wind roared until our cabin
threatened to topple over at every blast
At midnight Big Ben crept carefully out
of his bed and opened the door, and then
| almost forgave him for his brutality.
Conscience had been at work, and his
heart was touched. He hoped to find
the boy crouched on the Threshold and |
heard him sigh and mutter to himself as
he shut the door and returned to his
blankets. The strongest man in our
party, clad as we were for the winter,
could not have stood against the blizzard
half an hour, and l fell asleep to dream
of finding poor Charley's frozen corps on
the trail leading down to the Forks, and
of his big blue eyes being wide open and
staring at me in a reproachful way.
For breakfast next morning we had
some canned meat-opened new can
from our slim store. We thawed it out,
and all ate our full shares, and were on
the point of starting out to search for
the boy when one of the men was taken
| i'll. Inside of half an hour all of us were
down with rains and cramps, and it was
evident that we had been poisoned by
the meat. We had no antidote of any
sort, and one after another went TO bed
to suffer the most agoniziag pains and
to lose consciousness Big Ben was the
hardest hit of ALL while |, perhaps, suf-
fered the least. That is, while all the
Others raved and shouted and lost their
senses, l was all the time dimly con-
scious of everything going on. The
blizzard was still raging, and the ther-
mometer was marking still lower de-
gree when the door opened and Charley
walked in. / saw him, but was fighty,
and it seemed to me that he was dead.
remember his looking down upon each of
us in strange, scared way, and starting
to retreat when one of the men shouted a
louder curse.
was the first TO come back to life, as
it were, and that was twenty-four hours
after being first taken. The pains were
gone as opened my eyes, but ! was
weak and wretehed, like one just over
terrible fever The boy Charley was
standing before me as opened my eyes,
and he bent down and whispered:
"You have all been terribly sick, and l
think one man is dead. Can you eat
somethingl"
l did feel bit hungry, and had no
sooner signified it than he came to me
with bowl of btoth. As | afterward
learned, the storm had driven couple
of hares to seek shelter at the door, and
he had secured both of them. He did
not know the cause of our sickness, but
suspe, ted some calamity, and was pre-
pared to feed us as soon rs we could eat.
1t seemed that when Big Ben drove him
out he tumbed into the ravine q quarter
of mile away, and he found shelter
under a ledge. How he kept from freez-
ing to death that night heaven only
knows. Indeed, heaven, preserved him.
1t froze our water pail solid when stand
ing within six feet of the fire, and there
he was, out in the cold in a threadhare
suit. When morning came he returned
to the cabin to make one more appeal.
He found us suffering and out of our
minds, and the fire about gone out. Had
it not been for him we should have frozen
as stiff as pokers, for on that day it was
thirty-one degrees below zero all day
long. and it went down to almost forty
degrees.
The boy kept up rousing fire, dressed
his rabbits for the soup, and all day and
all night long he kept forcing strong
coffee down our throats. That doL btless
helped us to pull through, or at least
four Of us. The other man, whose name
was Hale, had his teeth firmly clenched
and from the way his features were dis
torted and his limbs drawn up it was
evident that he died in great agony. In
couple of h)urs was able to be up
and assist Charley in caring for the
others, but il was far into the night before
the last man could use his tongue in q
sensible manner. 1t was Big Ben, and
when consciousness returned and he saw
the white faced boy bending over him
the great tyrant whispered:
"Aye! I he corpse of the lad has
risen up to confront and accuse mel 1t
was a cruel thing did to drive him out,
and the Lord will never forgive me for
itn
While out of danger we were yet weak
and almost helpless, and none of us could
attend the fire or do a bit of cooking for
nearly a week The whole thing de-
volved upon the boy, and no one could
have done better. He was cook, nurse,
doctor and protector all in one. He got
three more hares and couple of birds,
and | don't believe spoonful of the
broth went down his own throat.
Well for one had been watching
Big Ben to see what he would do The
first moment he was able to sit up he
called Charley and pulled the frail little |
fellow down on his breast, saying:
IF you'll only forgive me I'll pray to
the Lord to do the same. I'm rough and !
cked, but to turn lad like you out o.
doors on such a night as that wasn't me
at all. Old satan must have had pos
session Of me-"
That great big fellow cried like child, |
and Charley cried with him, and might /.
as we'll own up that we all cried. What /.
made it the more solemn was the fact
that we had a corpse at the door When |
it was known that Hale was dead, none /
of the other four of us could lift a hand. 7.
How the boy got the body out of doors | .
never could understand, but get it out he /.
did, and it was three long months before .
we could give it Christian burial.
On the morning when we all got out of .
bed feeling pretty strong again, Charley |
went TO bed with fever, and before noon .
was raving crazy. | tell you it was awful !
to hear him cry out every few minutes in
his delirium:
EOh Rem don't drive me ont I'll I