The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1888-03-31
What is it to us whether he lives or

within the hour. however. as 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 tie
wind was rising to gale. and the Bit
ter cold drove us back after a 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. 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
tho 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 that blizzard halt an
hour. and / fell asleep to dream of find
ing poor Charley's frozen corpse on the
trail leading down 10 the Forks. and
of his big blue eyes being wide open
and staring at me in q 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 pains 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 agonizing pains and to lose con-
seriousness. Big Ben was the hardest
hit Of all. while l. perhaps. suffered the
least. That is, while all the others
raved and shouted and lost their senses,
l was all the time dimly conscious of
every thing going on. The blizzard
was still raging. and the thermometer
was marking still lower degree when
the door opened and Charley walked
in. saw him. but I was Eighty. and
it seemed to me that he was dead. 1
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,
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 wre tched. like one
Just over o terrible fever. The boy
Charley was standing before me as I
opened my eyes, and he bent down and
whispered:
"You have all been terribly sick. and
/ think one man is dead. Can you eat
something's
did feel bit hungry, and l had
no sooner signified it then he cami to
me with q bowl of broth. As ! after
ward 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 sick
ness, but suspected some calamity. and
was prepared to feed US as soon as we
could eat 1t seemed that when Big
Ben drove him out he stumbled into
the ravine q quarter of q mile away,
and found shelter uader 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,
out in the cold in a threadbare suit.
When morning came he returned to the
cabin to make one more appeal. He
found MS suffering and out Of our minds.
and the fire about gone out Had it
not been for him we should have frozen
stiff as 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 he kept forcing
strong coffee down our threats. That
doubtless helped us to pull through.
or at least four of us. The other man,