Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-15

up country, and every last one on 'em says:
so this Is THE Land Of Flowers" Huh,
don't see many As il flowers could bloom
and have to fight fire every yearl Why, it's
as much as this yer old tough wire grass
can do to stand the firesI
but were going to tell We about my LIT
tie girls eyes, which twas all along OF these
yer same fires. Me and the boys was gone
TO Tampa with a load of mandarin and Tan
ger1ne oranges mice prime uns they was,
tool, leaving brother Sam to look after the
Pullet and the Chicks. The Pullet's my old
'ooman. I called her so when fust com
menced honeysucklin' round her-and she'd
think were sick or mad if was TO say
'Missoury Ann s@eS >sfsasssifH '.-'s
"WeIl, we hadn't been gone no time fore
neighbor Kfgore, three mile away, sent his
boy after Sam to come and doctor him up
| little, beings ne were takened purity bad.
| There warn't no doctor closter n forty mile,
! and as Sam had done good deal in that
/ line, he couldn't very well help from going,
/ though he did hate to leave the folks alone.
sBut the Pullet's as plucky a little 'ooman
| as ever eat scuppernohgs. She he'd Aminee
| (she was fourteen), and Sed Che was purity
! nigh ten), and then little Sudie, the baby.
| Well, Sam, he didn't come home that night,
being as Jim Kilgore were so bad OF. In
fact, pore ole jim, he petered out in the
night.
II can't jest tell We how it all happened,
but in the night the hammock clost to the
/ house was set afre, an when the folks
walked twas TO find the flames so clost to
! the cabin they saw 'twere bound to burn.
I But that warn't the worst. The fire had
4 ketched in 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 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.
| So 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
/ all 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 were 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
tree over their heads, right down across
the baby's eyes. OF course, it didn't take
the Pullet second to snatch it off-but-
and-well, stranger, We know the rest.
+a1l ~ 7 bOroa md found
every thing in the world I could call mine
gone TO ashes, it were purity hard. But
when had to believe that my little Sudie
had lost for always the light out of her two
bright eyes, I'd have been glad to see a
million of dollars burn clean up afore my
eyes, and never lifted finger to save 1t,
/ if d have brought back her sight. But there
amt no good of hoping for any such happen
ing, for the best doctor in New York
reckon ed she'd never see no more.
''When we got a roof over our heads
onct more, we lived on mighty slim rations,
and in two years we d saved enough to take
me and the little girl to the big city. But l
came back with my heart heap heavier
than 1t was when we set out l must have
hoped purity strong, but I 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 mine,
and / never said nothing, too. l never
wished were a 'ooman but onct and that
were the time, for it 'peared to me like my
! pore ole he art ID break if didn't find a let
out somehow; and what the girls call good
! cry 'ud done me powerful sight O. good.
/ But bein's were a man, l jest sot and held
hard onto that there kind hand till Sudie put
/ her little fingers up on my face, and II had to
choke down the hurt and speak to her. Pore
little grill she warn't old enough to sense
how much that look We're 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 my
whole lifetime afore.
Look down in that there bay-head over
you It's the head Of big hammock, and
If ye don't say it's enough sight the purtiest
place We ever sot eyes on, then I'm plumb
out o. my reckontn'. There's where Sudie
and me-but hyer they come in the OK cart
now, and yell see for yerself how she loves
her ornery ole dad."-C. S. Cowenhowen, in
n. Y. Ledger.