The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-03-20

Wnab! asked the g~TannIatnef
"What was / telling them?''
"Oh, about your running"
why, yes, that was true enough,
Jimmie. 1t was my first fight, and
there was an awful lot of noise, you
know"
Jimmie seemed dazed that this idol,
Of it's own will, should SO totter. His
stout, boyish idealism was injured.
Presently the grandfather said:
"Sickles' colt is going for a drink.
Don't you wish you owned Sickles' colt,
Jimmie?"
The boy merely answered, "He amt
as nice as our'n." He lapsed then to
another moody silence.
One of the hired men, a Swede, de-
sired to drive to the county seat for pur-
poses of his own. The old man loaned a
horse and an unwashed buggy. 1t ap-
peared later that one of the purposes of
the Swede was to get drunk.
After quelling some boisterous frolic
of the farm hands and boys in the garrett
tho old man had that night gone peace
fully to sleep, when he was aroused by
%olamoring at the kitchen door. He grab
bed his trousers, and they waved out be-
hind as he dashed forward. He could
hear the voice of the Swede, screaming
and blubbering. He pushed the wooden
button, and as the door few open the
Swede, a maniac, stumbled inward,
chattering, weeping, still screaming:
ode barn fire! Fire, firel De barn fire!
Fire, fire, firel"
There was a swift and indescribable
change in the old man. His face ceased
instantly to be a face it became a mask,
a gray thing, with horror written about
the mouth and eyes. He hoarsely shout
cd at the foot of the little rickety stairs,
and Immediately, it seemed, there came
down an avalanche Of men. No one
knew that during this time the old lady
had been standing in her n~ightclothes
at the bedroom door yelling: whats
til matter? What's tn matter? What's
til matter?"
When they dashed toward the barn,
ii presented to their eyes it's usual ap-
pearanoe-solemn, rather mystic in the
black night. The Swede's lantern was
overturned at a point some yards from
in front of the barn doors. It contained
a wild little confagration of its own,
and even in their excitement some of
those who ran felt a gentle secondary
vibration of the thrifty part of their
minds at sight of this overturned Ian
tern. Under ordinary circumstances it
would have been a calamity.
But the cattle in the barn were
trampling, trampling, ~trampling, and
above this noise could be heard a hum
ming like the song Of innumerable bees.
The old man hurled aside the great
doors, and a yellow flame leaped out at
one corner and sped and sped and waver-
ed frantically up the old gray wall. 1t
was glad, terrible, this single flame,
like the wild banner Of deadly and tri-
umphant foes.
The motley crowd from the garnet
Lad come with all the pals of the farm.
They flung themselves upon the we'll. 1t
was a leisurely old machine, long dwell
ing in Incidence. 1t was in the habit of
giving out water with a sort Of reluc-
lance. The men stormed at it, cursed
it, but it continued to allow the buckets
to be filled only after the wheezy wind
lass had bowled many protests at the
mad handed men.
With his open knife in his hand, old
Fleming himself had gone headlong into
the barn. where the sitting smoke
Ewirled with the air currents, and
where could be heard in its fullness the
terrible chorus of the flames laden with
tones of hate and death, a hymn of
wonderful ferocity.
He flung a blanket over an old mares
head, cut the halter close to the manager,
led the mare to the door and fairly kick
ed her out to safety. He returned with
the same blanket and rescued one of the
work horses. He took five horses out
and then came out himself with his
clothes bravely on fire. He had no whisk-
ers and very little hair on his head.
They soused five pailfuls of water on
him. His eldest son made a clean miss
with the sixth pailful because the old
man had turned and was running down
the decline ana around to the basement
of the barn, where were the stanchions
Of cows. Some one noticed at the time
that he ran very lamely, as if one of the
frenzied horses had smashed his hip.
The COWS. with their heads held in
the heavy s%tanchions, had thrown them
selves, strangled themselves, tangled
themselves-done everything which the
ingenuity of their exuberant fear could
suggest to them.
Here, as at the well, the same thing
happened to every man saw one. Their
hands went mad. They became incapa-
BILE of everything say the power to rush
into dangerous situations.
The old man released the COW nearest
the door, and she, blind drunk with
terror, crashed into the Swede. The
Swede had been running to and fro,
babbling. He carried an empty milk
pail, to which he chung with an uncon-
scious fierce enthusiasm. He shrieked
like one lost as he went under the cows
hoofs, and the milk pail, rolling across
the floor, made a flash of silver in the
gloom.
Old Fleming took a fork, beat off the
COW and dragged the paralyzed Swede
to the open air. When they had rescued
all the cows a v one, which had sc
fastened herself that she could not be
moved an inch, they returned to the
front of the barn and stood sadly, breath
ing like men who had reached the fna'
point of human effort.
Many people had come running. Some
ono had oven oOnp to the church auf