The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-03-04

tAA'hAAh II ~ Allt -bbh hllllI.
An Adventure.
Early one cold morning in Decem-
Der last, in company with gentleman
from Oakland, whom shall designate
as Truman W, | started for the wilds
of West Virginia on hunting expedi-
ton. y horse and buggy, two guns,
two capacious game bags and a good
supply of ammunition completed our
outfit. Being novice in hunting |
had little hope of killing anything
when | started out. Years ago while
| was passing through a thicket /
came upon rabbit sitting upright
with its face turned from me. / had
with me an old blundorbuss which had
not been shot of for a year or more.
| raised this ancient piece of musketry
to my shoulder, shut my eyes and
pulled the trigger \ loud report, and
then, shall tell it? found myself ~
ing on tire ground. | gathered my
self together and went in search of the
rabbit Nitro-glyccrine could not
have blown a rabbit to atoms as efTec-
lively as did with my ancient foul
ingpiece. | had not done any hunt
ing since,and it was with no little tim
idity that | went on this expedition.
After a drive of about TWENTY-FIVE
miles we arrived at the home of Mr..
H, where we put up our team
and partook of a sumptuOus dinner.
In our great anxiety to find some wild
turkeys, which were said to be pier ii
full on the adjacent mountain, We
made haste to get to work. We had
been roaming around the woods for
several hours when dark and threat
ening clouds began to gather We
concluded to go back to our stopping
place and take an early start the fol
lowing morning. Blacker and blacker
grew the clouds until we were com
pletely enveloped in darkness. We
searched in vain for some path or trail
llitlb NtuiA lCsiNl US OuJ vi lllt NOOuS.
We were lost but not disheartened.
We kept walking, we knew not in
what direction. This does not feel
right" said Truman, 1--WE are treading
on rock as void of vegetation as the
palm of my hand. Stop he cried.
we must investigate this place before
,g.1 L. l. -
down on his hands and knees and
moved carefully forward a few feet
and lit a match. Come here, crawl
and move cautiously" he said. He
lit newspaper and threw it from him;
down, down it went into deep abyss
the bottom of which on the next morn
ing proved to be seventy or eighty
feet from the place where he had
knelt the previous night. 1t was sew
eral moments before either arose from
our kneeling posture. 1t seemed as
though we were riveted to the spot.
The silence was broken by Truman
saying: I'VE have had a very narrow
escape Yes | replied, I'VE can at
tribute our safety to Divine interpo-
sition alone" We turned from this
awful chasm in hopes of finding some
way by which we could reach a hui
man habitation. We had not proceed
ed far when we saw a glimmer of
light peeping through the intervening
trees. We hastily directed our steps
along a well beaten path which we
had fortunately come across, and
which led down to the base of the
mountain where we found a comfor-
table looking two-stOry dwelling and
made haste to seek accommodations,
if possible, for the night. A trim and
matronly looking woman of about
forty years answered our summons,
and invited us into the house. We
accepted the kind invitation and at
once proceeded to warm ourselves be-
fore a good fire that burned in the
large chimney place.
Madam" 1 asked, "can you tell
me how far it is from here to where
Mr.. H lives?' Law sakes
alive, stranger, hits more'n seven
miles. It's across the mountain, yam
DER Thereupon we concluded that
it would be madness to attempt to go
in search of Mr.. HIS as the night
was very dark and light rain had
commenced to fall. This we told
the lady and asked if it was possible
for her to entertain us during the
night. "Be you single men," she
inquired. Truman told her that he