The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-11-01
THE RANGERS
OR,
THE TORY'S DAUGHTER.
BY JUDGE d. p. THOMPSON.
CHAPTER /.

"sipg on sing on! my mountain home,
The paths where erst used 10 roam,
The laundering torrents lost In foam,
The snow hill side all bathcd IN light
All, all are bursting on my sight"
Toward night, on the twelfth O
March, l775, a richly equipped doubl,
sleigh. filled with goodly company
Of we'll dressed persons of the different
SEXES. were seen descending from thu
eastern side OF the Green Mountains
along what may now be considered thu
principal thoroughfare leading from
the upper navigable portions OF thu
Hudson to those of the Connection,
River. The progress of the travellers
was not only slow, but extremely toll
some, as was plainly evinced by the
appearance of the rocking and jadeG
horses, as they labored and founded
along the sloppy and slumping snow
paths of the winter road, which waf
obviously now fast resolving itself into
the element of which it was composed.
Tn to the previous evening, the
dreary reign of winter had continued
wholly uninterrupted by the advent Of
his more gentle successor in the chang
ing rounds of the seasons: and the
snowy waste which enveloped the earth
would, that morning, have apparently
withstood the rains and suns OF
months, before yielding entirely to their
influences. But during the night
there had occurred one of those great
and sudden transitions from cold to
heat, which can only be experienced
IN northern climes, and which can be
accounted for only on the superstition,
that the earth, at stated intervals,
rapidly gives out large quantities OF
its internal heats, or that the air be-
comes suddenly rarefied by some essen
tial change or modification in the
state OF the electric fluid. The morn
ing had been cloudless and the rising
sun, with rays no longer dimly
struggling through the dense, obstruct-
ing medium of the dark months gone
by, but, with the restored beams of
his natural brightness, fell upon the
smoking earth with the genial warmth
Of summer. A new atmosphere, in
deed, seemed to have been suddenly
created, so warm and bland was the
whole air: while. occasionally, a
breeze came over the face of the travel
Ter, which seemed like the breath of a
heated oven. As the day advanced, the
sky gradually became overcast "a
strong south wind sprung up, before
whose warm puffs the drifted snow
banks seemed literally to be cut
down, like grass before the scythe of
the mower; and, at length, from the
thickening mass Of cloud above, the
rain began to descend in torrents to
the mutely recipient earth. All this,
for while, however, produced no very
visible effects on the genial face of ma
ture: for the melting snow was many
hours in becoming saturated with its
own and water from above. Nor had
our travellers, for the greater part of
the day, been much incommoded by
the rain, or the thaw, that was in 81
lent but rapid progress around and
beneath them; as their vehicle was
covered one, and as the hard trodden
paths of the road were the last to be
affected. But, during the last hour,
great change in the face of the land
scape had become apparent; and the
evidence of what had been going on
unseen, through the day, was now
growing every moment more and more
palpable. The snow along the bottom
Of every valley was marked by long,
dark streak, indicating the presence of
the fast-collecting waters beneath.
The stifled sounds of rushing streams
were heard issuing from the hidden
beds of every natural rill while the
larger brooks were beginning to burst
through their wintry coverings, and
throw up and push on before them the
rending ice and snow that obstructed
their courses to the rivers below, to
which they were hurrying with in
creasing speed, and with seemingly
growing Impotence at every obstacle
they met in their way. The road had
also become 80 soft, that the horses
sunk nearly to the flank at almost
every step. and the plunging sleigh
drove heavily along the splashy path:
The whole mass of the now saturated
and dissolving snow, indeed, though
ylng, that morning, more than three
leet deep on level, seemed to culver
and move as if on the point of flowing
away in body to the nearest channels.
The company We have introduced
consisted of four gentlemen and two
iadles, all belonging, very evidently, to
Inc most wealthy, and, up to that
lime, the most honored and influential
class OF society. But though all
seemed to be of the same caste, yet
lneir natural characters, as any physi
oghomlst, at glance, would have dis |
covered, were, for so small party, I'M
usually diversified. OF the two men |
occupying the front seat, both under |
.he age OF thirty, the one sitting on
le right and acting as driver was tall,
snowily dressed, and of naughty,
sarlstocratic air; while his sharp fea-
lures lures which set out in the shape Of
uail moon, the convex outline being |
preserved preserves by retreating forehead, an
a Spi1 nose, and chin sloping in
ware, "alu, combined to give him cold,
,epulsive countenance, fraught with
i;aPresslons denoting selfishness and
,,aslncerity. The other occupant of
s u,e same seat was, on the contrary, a
.Uung man OF an unassuming demean-
n, shapely features, and a mild,
tpedsihg countenance. The remaining
e %1 gentlemen of the party were much
tb atr' out scarcely less dissimilar in
S ae,r appearance than the two just
b asol One of them was quaint,
aafsh featured man, of the middle
rs no, WIN an air of corresponding ar
ws sanee and assumption. The other,