The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-04-06
BLOOMSBURY, Pa, FRIDAY, APRIL 1888.

caps and buffalo overcoats on. The Ian.
tern threw red light over us through its
smoky side, and the open jaws of the coal
stove brought out every line of our faces
as though we were the witches in "Mac-
beth" huddled around the caldron. On
our heads the sifted snow fell at intervals
like showers Of red flakes of gold, while
the frail structure creaked and groaned
in the blast, the snow lashed the windows,
and rushed like a pack of wolves about
the door. After food and warmth, we sat
thus talking and singing till we felt
weary and sleepy with the cold; and then
our host led us TO the upper story of the
house, where the bed stood which Moore
used when he came to sleep on his claim,
and upon this we piled our blankets and
robes, and then crept under them.
Outside the storm lashed and Kissed
like an ocean. There was q fluttering
roar, as of myriad wings, rattle of dis
tant musketry, the bowling of innumer-
able wild beasts, and the walls of women
in agony. There were vague sounds of
rushing, Of swirling, and the tinkling as
of distant, falling, driving sand. / re-
member waking in the night and listen
ing in awe to the tumult, fancying the
wind some huge beast disappointed of his
prey, and wreaking his rage on the wood
OF our frail retreat. He seemed to grasp
and shake the house as lion would a rat,
while his voice sank to deep raucous
snarl of convulsive fury. We seemed
such puny creatures, such notes in the
blasting tides of icy sands, that was
glad when sleep put an end to my specu-
lations and fancies
When l awoke the next morning all
was still--still as the grave; not sound
save the heavy breathing of my compan-
ions and the occasional cracking of the
wood under the terrible cold as still as
though the snow had buried us deep un-
der its soft weight. And shall never for
get how it looked as stepped out into the
morning air:
Like an enternal changeess sea
OF FURNISHED marble lay the plain,
In dazzling, shoreless, soundess waste,
Horizon girt, without n stain.
The air was still; no breath of sound
Came from the wide expanse;
The whole earth seemed to lie In trance
In hushed expectant silence bound
And oh the beauty of the morning sky
Where famed the herald banners of the king
And as gazed with famished eye,
Lo! day came on me with a spring
before this calm plain had been lashed
uhu uiiNch W an tppulllHS ttiHptSU. He
terrible ride of the night before seemed
almost dream. There was no receding
swell upon this ocean, as upon the Allan
tic; ON the contrary, it looked so marble
like and still that one could hardly mag
inc it ever being moved again. The bril-
liant sun flashed from millions Of ice
points on the snow, making broad way
of dazzling gold and diamonds-a
royal way for the coming of the
morning. Its glory was almost, not
quite, a compensation for the experience of
the previous night. That night, as we
sat around the cannon stove in the Wam-
burger grocery in Bloomtown, Moore told
our story with trimmings" adding,
among other things, the actual fact that
the thermometer was 3S degs. below zero
The other trimmings, which were not
facts. will not mention. Moore is good
fellow, and undoubtedly regrets the ex-
aggerations which the enthusiasm of the
moment induced. .-Harpcr's Weekly.