The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-05-06

came to a region of pine and oak, and
here found certain proof that he was
on the right track; for, scattered on the
top of a smooth log, were a few crumbs
of cornbread, while several fresh marks
on it's surface showed that. when eat
ing her lunch, the child had amused
herself by trying the edge of her Ak.
The underground of young poplars
and other brush was very dense in this
tract, and even the skilled %woodsman
had some difficulty in keeping astraight
course. Nevertheless, it was not yet
three o'clock when he came out to a
public road on the north bank of the
river Thames, where stood a settlers
cabin. His heart beat high with hope
as he approached the door; for if his
daughter had got thus far, she was safe,
and it was certain that she would have
called at this, the first human habita-
ton she had seen on her way. On en-
tering the house, Robert Lee found
within only a grief-stricken young
woman and an aged man, the husband
and son having fallen in the late battle.
In answer to his inquiry, the poor
widow assured him that no white per-
son, man, woman or child, had passed
there during the preceding four days:
and he turned ~sorrowfully away, being
now convinced hat Margery had lost
herself in the deep woods, and, if still
alive, must have suffered terribly, as
there had been a quite severe frost over
night.
Instead of returning on his own trail,
the alarmed man now broke into a run
and sped away two miles up the high
way, when he came to another lonely
log shanty. But neither here could he
obtain any tidings of the wanderer.
Then, remembering what Margery
had said to her mother about marking
the trees in case of losing herself, he
struck once more into the woods, TAX
ing an obliquely downstream course, so
as to intersect such signs, if any ex-
listed. For nearly an bour he pushed
resolutely forward, and at last, on the
upper edge of the beech tract, came to
a 'blaze," evidently cut within twenty
four hours. This led to others along a
tolerably straight, northward bearing
line, and it was plain that the bewil-
dered child had finally begun to travel
in a direction exactly opposite to the
one she intended to take.
Passing with all possible speed from
tree to tree, the sturdy pioneer reached
the margin of a vast tamarack swamp,
and here the guiding marks turned at a
right angle and led away parallel to it's
border. Lee pressed forward on this
naUv an,,y~So for u hcy,t q "i1o ard {ha-
from far in front, he heard a sound
which, while sending the blood in
curdling terror to his heart, caused him
to redouble his exertions.
AS, swiftly and silently, he threaded
the tangled maze, the terrible sounds
became each moment more plainly
audible, until, on peering out from a
clump of heavy underbrush, he saw, not
thirty yards away, a bowling pack of
| great gray wolves. The ravenous brutes
were sitting on their launches and gaz-
ing SO intently upward at some object,
to him unseen, that they had not heard
nor scented his approach.
To sink on one knee and bring his
ri1e-barral on a level with two of the
creatures ranging in line was but the
work of a moment, and as the wslip-like
report rang out, both rolled over in the
throes of death, while the rest of the
cowardly pack disappeared as if by
| magic.
Then the wondering man had rushed
forward, but had made only a step or
two from cover when from somewhere
above his head, there came a faint shout:
"Oh, father, father, father, I'm here!
I'm here" And, looking up, he saw
sitting in the crotch of a spreading
branch, and apparently unhurt, Mar
gerry herself.
Robert Lee. who died in 1851, aged
seventy-three, at which time / was
twenty-seven years old, has often told
me that this was the most supremacy
happy moment of his whole life,
but that on hearing the voice of his
child he was so stupeied by surprise
and JOY that not until she had slid down
the smooth tree trunk, and was actually
clasped to his breast, could he utter a
single word.
"Then," the great six~-footer used to
say, Il made a fool of myself, for l just
sobbed and cried like a baby; and poor
little Madge was half frightened out
OF her own wits before mine came
back"
When Margery came to tell her story,
it appeared that she had lost herself
early in the afternoon of the first day,
and, after wandering in a circle for
hours, had begun to blaze the trees. &C
cording to promise; but instead of GO
ing toward the river, as she thought,
she struck only a few points off a home
ward course, until checked by the great