The Forrest City times., 1896-03-06

MS o"h III thc pune WOOuS, nall mile
beyond our place, came Gathering,
muleback, along the road that leads to
Citrus park. Seeing my brother on
the veranda, Dandy pulled up and
shouted:
"De's cole wahe commit Look out
fer yer cukes!"
Ruel laughed outright. 1t sounded
like a joke.
"Oh, Use a-tellin' you de troof, Cap'n
Rool!" Dandy cried. ''She's comm
fer shot"
"Bring on your cold wave," Ruel re-
marked, laughing. Just ccme out
into the field, girls, and see those bean
heads poke up the dirt!" he continued
swinging to his feet. We all followed
him, but had scarcely turned the corner
when felt cool puff of wind from
the northwest.
"Ah, doesn't that feel refreshing?"
Gene exclaimed.
Yes: fetch on the cole wabe,'" said
Ruel, and he stopped to take a good
long breath. We then noticed that the
sky in the northwest had turned dull,
dark color.
"Well, that's queer!" Ruel said, look
ing along the bean-rows. They've
stopped hopping. But don't the rows
of whitish-green bean-heads look odd.
just coming out Of the ground: What
would they think of this in old Yer
mont for the 7th day of February?
You must write mother about it, Mat"
While we stood there for less than
ten minutes, looking at the beans. the
sky darkened so rapidly that the sun
shine faded out, and scattered drops of
rain fell. Such cool puffs of wind
came that quite suddenly Gene turned
up the collar of her thin shirt-waist.
You're not cold!" Ruel said
No; but it is really a great deal
cooler" she replied.
Gene and l went back to the house ,
and in ten minutes more we were clos
ing the windows. The wind blew in
gusts, and the whole sky had turned
dark.
Ruel came in and put on bis Sweat
err then wheeled out his bicy Gle.
I'm going up to the Park Station"
he said to u.s.
The distance is three miles, and he
was gone about 40 minutes, l should
think; but before he came bacl,
Gene and l had kindled fire and PIT
on our wool dresses.
did you ever see such wind -
Ruel exclaimed, as he opened the door
on the west veranda. Here, Gene,
come shut this door when l take in nv
wheel, or you will he blown out of the
room. A cutting cold wind, too /
could hardly keep warm riding.
'And do you know what the opera
tor at the station says, girls?" he
added. He says there's northcr
coming, and l begin to believe it, Have
you looked at the thermometer?
We had not, but we found on inspec-
ton that the temperature had dropped
to 54 degrees, full 81 degrees in two
hours.
We'll, thank fortune, it is still %
degrees above the freezing point."
Ruel replied, coming to the fire. II
don't believe it will drop low enough
10 freeze the crops. It's because we
wear thin clothes and the early part
of the day was so hot, that we shivcr
So"
The wind increased toward night,
and so did the cold. Gene and / be-
stirred ourselves to prepare warm
supper. Ruel was out of doors stop.
ping the windmill, which had pumped
the tank full of water and was flooding
the bacl, yard. He looked blue and
cold when at last ne came in
"No oranges or grape fruits for me
tonight! Fry some bacon. girls, and
let's have some nice hot, baked pota-
toes" said he.
While we were cooking he went out
into the field to secure three or four
fertilizer barrels that the wind was
rolling about. 1t grew dark by six
o'clock--an inky kind of darkness. One
could not see objects two yards dis
.ant from the veranda steps, and the
searching wind blew out the two hang
,ng lanterns which we usually kept
burning near the door.
"Forty-six degrees!" fuel an
nounced when he came in. Girls, I'm
frightened! You don't suppose every
thing is going to freeze, do you? Think
what that'I be to MS! Why. our all is
III it'll"
For the first time real anxiety was
felt b. us, and the hot supper failed to
cheer us, for frost would destroy near
ly everything we possessed. Ii Yer
mont we had sometimes lost few
green plants in the spring or in the
fall, but had never known any real
anxiety from the cold weather. Here
we had 80 acres of tender, green vege-