The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-05-29

EIRLI d. rs N ILLINOIS.

Nv hen | was Il young man out In
Mclean County, H." nd Elm lthan
Rockwell, an octogenarlan Of this
city, 81 walked four miles through a
deep snow to SEE my girl one night,
and more snow began falling so hAavi
" that coul Int get back home
across the prairie, and had to STAY at
her folks house all night. There
was nothing s;rlnge in that. rs set
tiers were few and far between. and it
was common for neiohbors to stay all
night with one another. here was
nothing strange, in my having on a
pair of bucks skin breeches, for cloth
was scarce article with us i'll those
DAYS, and what we had was houSemade.
Deer were plentiful, and huck>kln
clothing was common wcallng arp'rtl
in the winter.
Il he brooches went sparkling III
that night were made from "A skin
that hadn't been property dried. and
were little green yet. My girl 5
folks h I'll moved from their first loL
house into IA new enc, and as thtr
new house. like all dwellings of the
prairie had but one apartment. they
made Il shakedown for me in the va
cant log house. There WASH any
door to the old house. | laid my
buckskin breeches on the floor by the
side OF my bed. Some time during
the night either the family dog or ii
wolf or two, seeming that green buck
skin. came into the cabin and stole my
breeches, and took them away some
where and ate lhem. saw the tracks
in the snow INSIDE the log house, bur
the falling snow had covered them up
on the outside.
cit was terribly cold, and all | could
do was to lie in bed and wait for de-
velopments. | should have been up
and eating brrakfas long before day
light, and, daylight coming. and not
having put in in appearance vet, my
girls mo h + clme u t e VIII II
was the matter. llere was gr, a. c'm
motion when she found out, for there
WASH t another pair of breeches within
four miles, except her husbands, and
he wanted them himself. The con-
sequence was that | had to lie covered
up in the old log house until he could
go all the way through the snow four
miles to our house, get my father 5
breeches, and come back with tn IN to
my relief. In the condition of tn
prairie, the snow being 2 feet deep,
this trip took nearly all the rest of
The day, and my faith Il had to 90 to
bed until | got home with his breeches.
BY the time | got there mother ha |
"A new pair of buckskns nearly rca ly,
and everything was all right.
Not Ion. after that | fixed it So
there would be no danger of my get
ting into such a scape again. | mar
ried my girl, and we went to keeping
house right. Our house was IL log
cabin | had built.
"Our nearest neighbor Was five
miles away, and the first winter we
lived on our place all the company We
had was wolves that came boldly into
the yard and picked up what they
could find, wild turkeys that came and
ate the crumbs that were swept out,
md deer that came from the timber
and tried to sneak share of the corn
fodder we fed our COWS and oxen on.
That winter nv wife walked five miles
and back, morning and evening, for
three days, to do weaving for Il neigh
Dor, her pay being pair of chickens
that we wanted to start Il flock with.
"When our baby was 3 months old
my wife used to leave 1t on the bed
while she drove the oxen as | pIowed
up the stiff prairie sod. We had a good
dog, which always stayed in the cabin
at such times. My wife would 90 t.
the house every half hour Or so. to see
if everything was all right. One dtv
she started on one of these trips and
met the dog, covered with blood. and
so badly hurt that he was dragging
himself along toward where we We're
She almost flew the rest Of tha way to
the honse There she found the baby
on the bed alright, but in front Of the
bed lay big wolf, dead, and nearly
torn to pieces. Tn, coalition Of the
dog WAS explained.
The wolf hal come down to tn
cabin while we were away, and but
for the dog wolld have devoured our
child. We never left the baby alone
after that, and h is living right here
in New York today, and so is his moth
er. '-Nrw Iorh SIN