Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-11-04

hOInef was weakly and mad to take
care of her and the children. I was
older than the rest by good deal. 1
had the crops to raise, had to pillow,
hoe, cut and shuck corn, chop down
trees and haul them, and do all that
man does and heap that woman
does. The four years of the war
seemed forty years to me. All the
men for miles around were gone, and
all the boys that were big enough to
shoulder muskets.
but at the time was speakin' of,
one of our neighbors, young man,
was home on a furlough; he'd been
wounded i'll the arm. Him an me
had always known each other and
liked each other the way boy and girl
will, you know. Well, one day his
mother come over to our house and
she says to me:
Rose, where's Louis gone top
don't know, Tn sure, says I,
ara blushed up, for L was bashful and
it plagued me to have her make out
that | knew more about Louis COM
ings and goings than she did. I'd
been wondering why he hadn't come
around the day before, for he'd been
in the habit of droppin in every day.
Louis was a great hunter. I've
known him to go off in the mountains
by himself and stay a week or two,
hunting and trapping But L knew
that wasn't where he'd gone now, for
his arm wasn't strong enough yet to
carry gun.
"a few days after his mother was at
our house the door opened and Louis
walked in. Mother had taken all the
children and gone to see neighbor a
little ways off. so 1 was alone. 1 was
weavin carpet.
Louis came over to the loom. He
had buckskin pouch in his hand.
Without sayin' word he took out
ten-dollar gold piece and laid it on the
carpet right under my eyes. Then he
took out another and laid it alongside
of that one, and then another and
another, till they stretched the full
width of the carpet and part way back.
There was fifty of them. Then Louis
says:
Rose, will you share these sinners
with me?'
ga little streak of sunshine
came through the window and
made the gold glitter till it hurt
my eyes. L looked up at Louis.
His face shone yellow like the gold. 1
don't know why, but as 1 looked at
him 1 didn't like him as we'll as 1 did
before he went away and came back
with all this money. 1 was trou-
bled in my mind.
How did you come by all this,
Louise
" 4 earned it..
" 'How?'
BY saving all army?
What army? And howY
"He began to brush the gold into a
pile with his hand.
&" 1T amt fair for me to answer
dozen questions for you before you
answer one for me, says he, laughing
kind of queer; but girl must always
have her curiosity settled. Well, this
army that L saved from bein' cut to
pieces had got into mighty tight
place. The enemy had heard it was
goin' to cross the mountain, and they
throwed up Notifications on top and
fixed regular trap for it. At GER
tain place that they'd have to pass,
trees were nearly cut down so that u
few licks would finish them. Men
were hid waitin' for the army
to go by, and then they were to topple
these trees across the road and shut
off retreat. Things were planned
mighty well but the army got wind of
it somehow. They couldn't go back,
for they were runnin' from an enemy,
an they couldn't go on, for there was
another enemy waitin for EN- in front
They didn't know how to get out of
the trap. Then a feller who knowed
about me bein' at home, goes to the
General, and says: There's man not
fur from here that knows every inch
of ground on these mountains. If any
body kin lead us out of here, he's the
man
'' Fetch him here double quick!'
says the General.
4" so this feller-'
who was it, Louise says I.
| Dub lo SLluhci iuOuty dSulHSt
my shuttle and laughed at my curiosity
again.
This feller and five more, armed
to the teeth, comes across me one
morning and says: You're to come
with us and no questions asked
" 80 they takes me to the General.
He tells me the fix they're in and asks
if there's any escape. says yes. He
waits for no more.
Lead me out and you'll be richer
by five hundred dollars. Refuse, and
you'll be a dead man inside of five
minutes.
"I thought of you, Rose, and led
them down through the valley and
well on toward Covington.
"'Was it our men?' says 7.
"I remember how dry my lips
were and how choked 1 felt in the
throat.