Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-05-22

yer same nreS. NE ana the oOys WAS puu1
10 Tampa with load of mandarin and Tan
gerine oranges mice prime uns they was,
tool, leaving brother Sam to look after the
Pullet and the Chicks. The Puliet's nv old
CONAN. 1 called her so when fust com
menced honeysucklin' round her-and she'd
think l were sick or mad if \ was TO saw
'Missoury Ann
"Well. we hadn't been gone no time fore
nelShoor klIgore, three mile away sent MS
boy after Sam to come and doctor him nm a
little, beings he were takened purity bad.
mere Warn't no doctor closter N forty mile.
ana as sam had done good deal in that
line, ne couldn't very well help from going,
though he did hate to leave the folks alone.
but the Pullet's as plucky little 'ooman
as ever eat scuppernongs. She he'd Aminee
tshe was fourteen), and Sed Che was purty
nigh ten), and then little Sudie, the baby.
Wen, Sam, he didn't come home that night.
being as Jim Kigore were so bad of. In
TACT, pore ole Jim, he petered out in the
night.
Il can't jest tell We how it all happened.
out IN the night the hammock clost to the
mouse was set aflre, an when the folks
walked twas to find the flames so clost to
the cabin they saw 'twere bound to burn.
But that warnt the worst. The fire had
ketched in a solid ring round the cabin, and
there didn't seem to be no way for the folks
TO git out 'cepting to walk right thro' the
flames.
There warn't no time to lose, nuther, for
the open place were a Citing smaller N
smaller. So the Pullet, she snatched Quilts
and soaked 'em and wrapped the children
In 'em, fixing all three head of children SOS
they could run. Then she climbed up on
the ladder to see where the flames was
thinnest. Hard choicing, it were, she
said, but there warn't no time for fooling
80 she told the two oldest to hole the quilts
over their heads, and when they come to
the fire to make break till they didn't feel
the heat no more. Then she took the baby
All wrapped in quilt. She might got out
an right, for these yer piney woods amt
thick, and the grass don't git high enough
to make high blaze, but she were small.
and the baby We're heavy, and something or
other must have tripped her up, for she fell
jest as she reached the edge, and the quilt
come of from the little un's head.
''She thought they was safe, but afore
she could get up, blazing branch fell from
a tree over their heads, right down across
the baby s.eyes OF course, it didn't take
the Puilet second to snatch it off-but-
and-well, stranger, ye know the rest l
tell ye, friend. when come home and found
every thing in the world l could call mine
gone to ashes, it were purity hard But
when had to believe that my little Sudie
mad lost Tor always the light out of her two
bright eyes, I'd have been glad to see a
million of dollars burn clean up afore nv
eyes, and never lifted finger to save it.
If d have brought back her sight. But there
ain'tno good of hoping for any such happen
ing, for the best doctor in New York
reckoned she'd never see no more.
when we got roof over our heads
onct more, we lived on mighty slim rations,
and in twoyears we d saved enough to take
me and the little girl to the big city. But
came back with my heart heap heavier
than 1t was when we set out. 1 must have
hoped purity strong, but 1 never sensed it
till that doctor had looked at her eyes-and
then looked at me.
he didn't say one word, but jest reached
out his hand; and took it in both of mifie,
and L never said nothing, too. | never
wished were 'ooman but onct, and that
were the time, for it 'peared to me like NV
pore ole heart d break if didn't find let
out somehow; and what the girls call a good
cry 'ud done me powerful sight O. good.
But beln's were man, Jest sot and held
hard onto that there kind hand till Sudie put
her little fingers up on my face, and had to
choke down the hurt and speak to her. Pore
little girl! she warn't old enough to sense
how much that look were meaning to her.
even If she could have seen 1t. Well. I've
been eyes to her ever since, and I've seen
more IN the last five year n ever saw in nv
whole lifetime afore
Look down in that there bay-head over
you. It's the head of big hammock. and
If We don't say it's enough sight the purtiest
place We ever sot eyes on, then I'm plumb
out o. my reckonin'. There's where Sudie
and me-but hyer they come in the OK cart
now, and ye'll see for yerself how she loves
her ornery ole dad."-C. S. Cowenhowen, in
N Y. Ledger.