Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1898-03-24

created. AS she held the reins while
I warded off a great blazing fir bough
that came hurting down upon US, with
her eyes sparkling with excitement, her
face pale as ashes, and her lips set, she
looked like another Queen Boadicea
driving her chariot of wrath over the
necks of her proud Roman insulters.
Even in those moments Of agony won
dered how she kept up so marvelously.
We were now about half way home
and almost in the belt of flame. Things
might now get better, and if we could
hold out for another half hour there
was chance of our getting off with our
lives. tried to speak, but my throat
was SO parched that could not utter
sound.
The heat was frightful. Clouds Of
dense white smoke settled about us in
suffocating closeness, while the thun-
der of the falling giants of the forest,
together with the sharp fusillade pro-
duced by their swapping branches and
the ever-increasing roar of the flames,
made up n grand and awful diapason.
And the fire came closer and closer
and finally-it reached US.
"Tess!" I shouted, as I put my arm
about her waist and drew her down be-
low the sides of the crazy old vehicle,
"dear girl, our time has come! Good
by!"
Dear Ben, good-byl" read rather
than heard from her lips. 1t was i'm
possible to hear her words.
And after that, as the novelists say,
all was like dream. have a confused
recollection of heat so terrible as to
almost force my eyes from their sock
cts and shrivel my skin up to parch-
ment-of the old horse dropping to the
ground-of standing over my brave
Tess fighting off the blazing branches
of agonizing burns on my head, face
and hands. And then there came ter
rible crash! seemed to see 10000 stars
and all was darkness!
Inever knew just how long 1 was I'M
conscious, but it must have been for
many hours, for when consciousness
again mounted her throne in my soul
it was broad day. AT first could not
open my eyes at all. Then L managed to
Just separate the lids, but it was the
acutest torment to do so. afterwards
found that they had been horribly
burned.
Full sensibility came back very slow
N T i -
think-only gaze upward stupidity at
the clear sky ard wonder what had
happened. Soon, however, it all came
back-all the horror and pain-and I
attempted to start up.
"My God! Tess!" I groaned, as re-
allied fully where 1 was and what had
transpired. But 1 found I was too
weak to do anything except barely
move my head.
When I could see about me, what
desolate scene it was that met my
blurred and crippled vision. AS far as
my poor sight could reach there was
nothing but blackness, except overhead
"a landscape in jet silhouetted sharp
ly against the soft azure of the clear
sky. A few feet from me lay the fig
ure OF human being! My God! 1t
was Tess! And was she dead? Merci-
full Heaven! About half of her clothes
were gone and she lay motionless, as
though dead.
How I suffered at that sight no one
but myself can ever know. 1t was
worse than my own misery. But l
could not move, and the hot tears, of
which I was not ashamed, distilled
from my eyes like drops of liquid fire
and plowed red-hot burrows down my
scorched cheeks. And then 1 again
lapsed into Inconsistencies.
Whole ages might have passed before
1 knew anything more. Then suddenly
opened my eyes and saw. 1 was in
bed at home. BY the bedside sat my
small sister Jennie.
you have been sick just three weeks,
Ben," said she, land 'Tessie' EVERY
one of us said '"ressie" and not Miss
Mills-"is just able to walk around"
1t came out afterwards that Tess had
received her worst burn while trying to
ward off great blazing branch from
my head, after I had become uncon-
scious Of course, she was lionized for
her bravery-"when 1 didn't do any
thing brave at all" she afterwards said
to me, with a bright blush. Ididn't say
anything, and what did is scarcely
worth recording.
The doctor says will bear no perma-
nent evil effects of my adventure save
several deep, ugly scars on my head and
arms.
But when I take my youngest boy on
my knee and pour into his never-tiring
ear, again and again, the story of my
escape from a fiery death, and then look
over across the table where sits my
sweet-faced wife, shudder at the recol-
lection of that night of horror and mar
vel at the strength Of a true woman's
love-N. Y. Ledger.
1-<9-y - ~ AZ.