The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-09-10

with them long Norwegian snow
shoes. / never stopped on the trip
for nothin, bein always more anxious
to get through than to rest, but this
particular mornin I'm tellin OF I'd
started out feelin languid and dis
pirited, and by the time I'd struck
the summit I felt sort of dead beat
out My feet was cold and cramped
from too tight bucklin of the shoes,
and altogether made up my mind
to sit down for a minute or two and
get pulled together again before ]
started on.
There wasn't much wind, and the
sun was out warm and comfortable,
and the idea of stretchin out there
ON the snow for ten minutes rest
just suited me. I sat down with my
back restin against an old dead stump
that came up through the snow, un-
buckled the shoes, unslung the mail
pouch from my shoulder and took
out the little snack of bread and meat
I'd brought along and which gen.
orally eat on the way without max
in any special stop for it.
while / was eatin, lookin off
down the slope I'd just climbed up,
thinkin what bad luck I'd struck all
along the last few months, my eye
caught on to some lines in the scrap
of newspaper I'd wrapped round the
lunch and which was lyin spread out
on my leg under the second piece of
bread just within good readin dis
lance. Idon't justrecollect just how
the words read, but the drift of it
was that lots of men failed in gettin
what they wanted in this world just
because they didn't want it hard
enough and didn't keep askin and
prayin for it untilthey got it. These
lines somehow hit my case, it seemed
to me. / hadn't had much early re-
ligious trainin, and the idea of just
prayin hard for what you wanted
and gettin it struck me as somethin
new and simple and very satisfac-
tory. There was no end of things ]
wanted, ana wanted bad, and if they
was to be had by just wantin 'em
bad enough and askin for 'em violent
enough was goin to get 'em sure.
"Then / says to myself, why not
start in right now with silent pray
err? So set at it. closed my eyes
and squeezed my lids together hard
Il was so dead in earnest. 1t was a
terrible sweepin, vigorous prayer
handed in. First, wanted good luck
in a general way and asked for it
hard Then l got more down to par
tic'lars, and asked to be rich and
prosperous, and wound up with a
sort of side handed suggestion that
it would suit me down to the ground
to have Prot fall off his luck and gee
poor, while l grew rich. All this
WASH t right, of course, as I see now,
ma'a But ! wasn't so much pray
in for bad luck to Prot for its own
sake, as for the effect of it all on my
gettin on with Kittie German.
when prayed for the blight on
PROT / was so sorter brought up by
the whole business that-just, sup
pose, to give things partic lar point
Il fired out my right leg so vigor-
ouslike and struck the snowshoe to
which I'd buckled the mail pouch so
hard, that-zip|whiz like a shot
it was on its way down the hill, 1t
made clear shoot for about 500 feet,
every now and then spinnin about,
when an end would strike snag, I'M
til it brought up short against a ledge
that cropped out across its track,
sending splinters of stone all about
when it struck, for, with the mail
pouch buckled on to it, it picked up
considerable speed and hit hard. 1t
bounded up and turned clean over,
and then stopped altogether, held
from slidin any further by the crop
pins.
well, ma'am, while that snow
shoe was pirouettin down the slope,
I was that surprised and mad all
through that, although I'd just been
within in prayer, as you might
say, I let loose line of language that
if there'd been any stop or feelin to
that snowshoe it would have brought
up within so feet. / mention this
with regret, ma'am, because l feel
now that if / hadn't been moved to
make them remarks, just fresh on
top of the prayer, things would have
turned out different But, bein
young and hot headed and thought
less then, of course ] didn't look
ahead for consequences.
There was nothin to do but go
down to the ledge where the snow
shoe lay, pick it up and the mail
pouch and get on my way again. The
edge was rotten with the weather
and pretty we'll broke up already,
and aside from the small DiaceS inst