The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-02-02

| 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, and the wind roared until our
cabin threatened to topple over ut
every blast. At midnight Big Ben crept
carefully ont 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 half an
hour, and fell asleep to dream of find
ing poor Charley's frozen corpse on the
trail leading down TO the Forks, and
Of his big blue eyes being wide open
and staring 1T me in Il reproachful
way.
For breakfast next morning we had
some canned meat-Opened new can
from our slim store. We thawed it out,
and al 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.
aad it was evident that we had been
poisoned By the meat. We had no
antidOte of any sort, and one after
another went to bel to suffer the
most a%oaizing pains and to lose con-
sciouoness. Big Ben was the hardest
hit OF all. while |, perhaps, suffered the
least. That is, while all the others
raved and shouted and lost their senses,
was all the time dimly conscious of
every thing going on. The blizzard
was still raging, aud the thermometer
was marking Il still lower degree when
the door opened and Charley walked
in. l saw him, but | was tiighty, and
it seemed to me that he was dead. l
remember his looking down upon each
Of us in strange, scared WAY, and
starting to retreat when one Of the men
shouted louder curse.
was the first to come back to life,
rs it were, and that was twenty-four
hours after being first taken. The
pains were gone as | opened my eyes,
but WAS weak and WI etched, like one
just over a terrible fever. The boy
Charley was standing before me us |
opened my eyes, and he bent down and
whispered:
You have all been terribly sick. and
| think one man is dead. Can you cat
something's"
l did feel bit hungry. and l had
no sooner signilied it then he cams to
me with a bowl of broth. As | after
ward learned, the storm had driven n
couple of hares to seek shelter at the
door. and he had secured both of them.
He did not know the cause of our sick
ness, but suspected some calamity, and
was prepared to feed Us as soon rs we
could eat. 1t seemed that when Big
Ben drove him out he stumbled into
the ravine Il quarter of mile away,
and found shelter under a ledge. How
he kept from freezing to death that
night heaven only knows. Indeed,
heaven preserved him. 1t froze our
water pail solid when standing within
six feet OF the fire, and there he was,
ont in the cold in threadbare suit.
When morning came he returned to the
cabin TO make one more appeal. He
found lis suffering and out OF our minds,
and the fire about gone out Had it
not been for him we should have frozen
stiff rs pokers. for on that day it was
thirty-One degrees below zero all day
long, and it went down almost to forty
degrees when night came on.
The boy kept up rousing fire,
dressed his rabbits for soup, and all
day and all night long be kept forcing
strong coffee down our throats. That
doubtless helped us to pull through,
or at least four of Us. The other man,
whose name was Hale. had his teeth
nrmly clenched. and from the way his
features were distorted and his limbs
drawn up it was evident that h. died
in great agony. In a couple of hours l
was able TO be up and assist Charley in
caring for the others, but it was far
into night before the last man could
use his tongue in sensible manner
1t WAS Big Ben, and when conscious
MI ha hn
faced boy bending over him the great
tyrant whispered:
AYE! The corpse of the lad has
risen up to confront and accuse me! 1t
was cruel thing l did to drive him
out, ard the Lord will never forgive
ME for it!'
While out Of danger we were yet
weak and almost helpless, and none of
Us could attend the fire or do bit of
cooking for nearly a week. The whole
work devolved 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
4 couple of birds. and l don't believe q
spoonful of the broth went down his
own throat.
Well, l, 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
10 the Lord to do the slma. I'm rouCh
and wicked. but to turn lad like you
oat o doors on such hight as that
y ,,nn Ill Oh Satin ,,.,,.t hn "a