Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-11-26
HARRY's CORDIAL.
By Henry Herman
Copyright 1897, by Tillotson and sonl
CHAPTER 1.


CHAPTER |.
A stupendous chaos of whites and
browns, canopied by boundless frmo.
mont of lead.
A Rocky mountain solitude majestic
in its awesome desolation, with the lev
wind bowling, whistling, roaring
through the gorges and the CANYONS and
dashing itself with a frenzied fnrv
against the mighty rocks that rose ON
all sides, sheer and steep and black.
save where the flying snow had found
a ledge or tree stem on which to fas-
ten its ghostly pail. A mountain tor
rent flinging itself headlong into space
from dizzy height of lNndreds Of
yards, had become monstrous fantas-
tic sheet of grayish ice, against which
the patches of snow which it bore stood
out dazzling white The forest giants
bent and cracked beneath the force Of
the tempest, and their bare branches.
reft from the mother stems, whirled
through the snow sodClen air like huge
uncanny ravens.
No sound or sign of man or beast or
bird of the air in the midst of this
CHASTITY, wailing, raving storm monot-
ony, save one figure that moved slowly
and painfully through the binding hur-
ricane.
Where the rough, snow covered pla-
teau inclined prairieward and the
mountain wilderness seemed to stretch
gigantic arms toward the vast plains
that lay like white sea at its feet, barely
perceptible through the thick, snowy
haze, tall man climbed across the dan
gerous broken ground. The snow lay a
yard deep everywhere, and every now
and then treacherous chasm between
the uneven powders threatened terri
Bile death. The hidden tangle of unseen
creepers, stripped of all foliage, and the
naked briery network of the underbrush
mingled in sharing pitfalls beneath the
covering snow, like a vast web of prick
covered whip cord, ready to punish each
unwary step.
The man appeared to be accustomed
TO the dangers which would have af-
frighted many a stanch and stout heart.
He seemed to be fashioned of iron, with
face of glass, against which the
whirling snowf1akes dashed harmlessly.
His long hair chung TO his neck and
shoulder like wave of snow, with here
and there patch of black in the midst
of the white powdering foam His
beard resembled the frozen waterfall
for its grotesque covering of icicles, and
his brown buckskin clothing was cover
ed with brittle patches of CLASSY gray.
There was naught visible of his face
save his shining black eyes, for he had
tied a red cotton handkerchief across
his nose and mouth and it had become
frozen sheet like the rest of his cloth
ing.
The man climbed on down hill IN
daunted. Many time he slipped and
staggered and fell but rose again, pant
ing and now and then suppressing a
low moan that surged to his throat in
spite of him. The rags which he had
tied over his hands showed broad red
stains through their dingy frozen folds
and he limped more and more painfully
as he proceeded ON his awful journey,
but not a sound escaped him. He might
have been a suffering dumb creature
struggling for life against the murder
GUS fury of the elements.
At last the ground sloped more even
ly, the fiendish webwork Of naked brier
and creeper ceased TO impede the foot,
and, save for the sheet of snow, yard
deep, through which the man had to
wade, progress was easy and unobstruct-
ed.
At sudden turn of the mountain
nestled against a towering spur OF the
foothill which sheltered IT from the
fury of the wind and surrounded by
some threescore of leaf1ess cOttonwoods,
the traveller espied the low, snow Gov
cred roof of a human habtatiOn. The
smoke curled away Justify from its clay
chimneys, and the warmth Of the fire
beneath had melted the white shroud
which covered the rest of its Slopes ana
thus revealed the brownish yellow lay
er of clay and prairie grass which had
served for tiles in its construction.
The man strobe on, as with new
heart, as the near proximity OF life and
warmth strengthened his stiffening
nerves His failing sight grew keener,
and he even thought that sensation OF
existing presence, painful, yet reassur-
ing, returned to his nearly frozen hands
and arms. The huge projecting hillside
deadened TO him the blast of the tenn
pest, which still ragged and rioted over
head, to waste it's now victimless fury
until, in it's widening sweep, it touched
the barren, rolling plain far inland.
The desperate journeyer had reached led
level ground, and some 300 or 4Oo
strides brought him to the log hut that
lay so snugly ensconced in the protect,
ing shadow of the mountain The Wlnd
had piled small hillock OF snow
against its side, and no window or open
ing of any kind was visible. The man
plodded his weary way around the BACK
of the house where the warmth OF the
chimneys had transformed the snowy
covering of the plain into swamp OF
freezing slush, and, again turning the
corner, reached the side where inc
thickly clustered cottonwoods had al
forded stanch screen against the drlIt,
ing flakes. Here the rough bark covered
logs and the clay filed crevices were
still in pristine greenish brown save