The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-02-14

themselves of the sleighing to start for
the Corners, early that morning, to de-
liver two heavy ox-sled loads of grain Al
the railway station and, if she had hap
pened there at the very moment that
she had given a ''snub," TO Manoah Pat
nam.
Sam Williams. the picture Of his sister
in everything but good looks, had been
experimenting the delivery Of the grain
while the father was making purchases
in the village, when the belated passen-
ger train came pulling and blowing its
way through the storm up to the plat
form Of the station. 1t stopped only for
moment, and bat to land single pas
senger and his heavy leathern portman-
teau. The latter was promptly dragged
under shelter, but its owner-a tall broad
shouldered bearded parsonage, in heavy
fur cap and other voluminous protection
from the westher-strode forward and
put his hand on the shoulders ofSophiA' s
brother.
"How are you, Sam ?"
Jerusalem p' whistled Sam. "Is that
you? Well ifI amt glad to see yei /
reckon nobody knows you're coming or
we'd ha' known oft"
HReckon not" said the stranger but
surprise won't hurt EN-"
Then followed a volley Of questions and
answers in the way Of inquiries and in
formation concerning the life and health
of people in the valley.
"And now" said the stranger at last
"now Pm here, the puzzle is how l am
ever to get over home"
"Oh," replied Sam, that puzzle amt
worth a cent. The old man and I've
both got our teams here, and you can 90
when we do. "Tain't half a mile from
your house to our'n."
"Thatll do. Thank you. But when
are you going TO start ?"
"Can't tell 'xactly. Go when the old
man gets ready. l know III tell We
Just what TO do. You can drive oxen's
well as can. You put your trunk on
my sleigh and go ahead, and I'll wait and
come with him. How's that?"
splendid" !" exclaimed the stranger,
and in few moments more he was
standing in the front end of Sans long,
heavy sleigh, fourishing the gad over the
double yoke of oxen and shouting to
them as if he had done nothing else all
his life
That was what had been happening at
the Corners, and so it came to pass, as
Sophie and her pony began to draw near
the 'cut" she heard the hoarse tone Of a
mans voice on the other side ofthe ridge
encouraging his oxen to plunge forward
and break their way through the deep
drift.
@That must be Sam or father" said
Sophie, "a-,d 7 0naSs I'd better turn
round. It's a mean place for that,
though"
1t was not, indeed, the best kind of a
locality to wheel cutter in, and Sophie
saw that in order to DO so she must drive
out of the rapidly disappearing track into
the drifts at the side. Pony was up to
anything, however, and sprang boldly
forward at the first touch Of the whip.
Alas for him and for his mistress and
that he was so small an animal For the
first half dozen yards revealed the fact
that the road had been deeply ditched
on the side, and the pony almost dislP-
peared in the snow-covered hollow, drag
ging the cutter after him. Two or three
plucky, persistent struggles he made to
extricate himself, and then stood still in
his fieecy bath, turning his frosted head
back at Sophie with a look that seemed
to say: There, now, it isn't bit of use.
What shall we do about it ?" Sophie
sympathized strongly with her pony, bat
she laughed long and hearty over her
funny predicament, shaking the snow
from her dress and the budAlo-robes, but
glad enough to feel sure that help was so
near.
And now It was rapidly coming nearer
for Sophie could see the horns of the
oxen, and she stood up in the little
sleigh and shouted:
"SAm, Father Do hurry up and help
me Pony and Are caught in the drift. "
No answer came to her sum mons, and
as the oxen lsbored closer to her inyol-
untary halting- place, she could discern
nothing familiar in the form or the
hoarse, deep, singular vo.ce of their
driver.
A tall, strony-looking fellow he was,
with heavy beard and mustaehes now
thickly tangled with frost and the driv-
ing snow. This and the fur cap drawn
over his brow and ears and his heavy
wrapping Of overcoat and shawl prevent
ed almost entirely any such thing as a
look at his face.
Sophie was woman enough, however,
even then to note that from his boots 10
his cap everything was Of style and
texture not to be found among the or
dinary drivers of oxen in the valley.
Although the stranger was neither
Sam nor her father, he evidently had
pity on poor Sophie, for he halted his
team and plunged into the drift to her
assistance. Not word he spoke, but, to
Sophie's astonishment and Indignation,
he picked her up in his long, strong
arms, waded back and put her down on
some robes and blankets in his own
sleigh. His next exploit was to loosen
the pony, lead him out of the ditch,
hitch him on behind the ox-sled, and
then pick up the cutter bodily and put IT
in Just behind Sophie. As if not content
with that, he had no sooner fairly ar
ranged and secured his new cargo than
he agau picked up Sophie and put her
back in her cutter, so that she was now
riding on two sleighs instead Of one, and
then he started his oxen forward, with
out uttering syllaoie-
The pony trotted on behind in very
contented frame of mind, bot Sophie was
dumbfnunded. Never before, in her
admired and petted existence, had she
been treated so uuceremoniously and
yet, as she looked first at herself in her
queer perch and then at the tall form Of
her snowy driver in the front of the