The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-02-23
BELLEVUE, La, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY %, 1888.

out into the dark and bitter night with |
the silence and swiftness of shadow.
"You are his murderer we said to
Big Ben as we lowered our weapons,
| and he growled:
Curse him! If we took in every
straggler we should be crowded out Of
house and home before New Years.
What Is it to us whether he lives or
dies?"
think he felt conscience-stricken
within the hour, however, rs he went
to the door and acted as if he hoped to
see the lad standing outside. The boy
had been gone half an hour before we
fully realized what his going meant,
and then two of us went out with the
lantern and searched and called for
him. The snow was being whirled
about in furious manner, and the
wind was rising to gale, and the Bit
ter cold drove us back after quarter
of an hour. 1t was true that we had
| little enough to eat, and that we were
cramped in our cabin, but the idea of
driving that pale-faced orphan boy out
to freeze was something we could not
get over. 1t was just the thing needed
to set US up in rebellion against our
boss, and that night we threw off the
yoke and gave it to Big Ben right and
left. We had two or three rows be-
fore bedtime. and all turned in sulky
and Indignant
| Whew! But what night that was!
The cold increased until the rocks were
split. aud 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 l 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 l 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 that blizzard hale an
hour. and fell asleep to dream of find
ing poor Charley frozen corpse 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 q 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 pains and cramps.
, and it was evident that we had been
t poisoned by the meat. We had no
antidote of any sort, and one after
i, another went to bed to suffer the
9 most agonizing pains and to lose con-
t sciousness. Big Ben was the hardest
t hit of all, while l, perhaps, suffered the
| least. That is, while all the other:
| raved and shouted and lost their senses
! / was all the time dimly conscious ot
| every thing going on. The blizzard
! was still raging. and the thermometer
was marking a still lower degree wher
, the door opened and Charley walked
+ in. I saw him, bat was f1ighty, anc
r it seemed to me that he was dead.
e remember his looking down upon eacf
\ of us in a strange, scared way, and
a starting to retreat when one of the mel
$ shouted louder curse.
|. was the first to come back to life
It as it were, and that was twenty-fou
t hours after being first taken. TIL
1 pains we're gone as l opened my eyes
!. but was weak and wre tched. like on
S lust over terrible fever. The bo.
i Charley was standing before me as
r opened my yeyes, and he bent down AM
0 whispered:
Y "You have all been terribly sick, an
d I think one man is dead. Can you ca
n something?'
l. / did feel a bit hungry, and | ha
g no sooner signilied it then he came
g me with a bowl of broth. As after
), ward learned, the storm had driven
J. couple of hares to seek shelter at tn
d door. and he had secured both Of then
lo he ttlu llOi hlOW tfit CstttcO VI Oai StSr
el ness, but suspected some calamity, an
$ was prepared to feed us rs soon as
ID could eat. 1t seemed that when Bi
N Ben drove him out he stumbled ini
:e the ravine quarter of mile ava,
a and found shelter under ledge. Ho
sr he kept from freezing to death ths
night heaven only knows. lndee'
N heaven preserved him. 1t froze OF
rs water pail solid when standing With
N six feet of the fire. and there he wa
ID out in the cold in a threadbare sui
When morning came he returned to tt
+. cabin to make one more appeal. t
ct found us suffering and out of our mind
d. and the fire about gone out. Had
not been for him we should have frozt
er stiff as pokers, for on that day it w
in thirty-one degrees below zero all ds
long, and it went down almost to for
ve degrees when night came on.
The boy kept up rouslng III
| I: fo,. and .