Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-06-25
A MOTHERS ORDEAL.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
by h. ". M'LACIILAN,
HERE had been foI

mai HERE had been fol
4 !: 4: !: I. I : i: : ! 8 !: 4: ! J !
days great fire i'll
I-EX the forest up toward
49, EatAr Onion Peak, and q
RyA dNJA strong wind was
A1NSys{l, ,3E16M driving it so far to-
JWtN8'k'ESf/IN ward the settlement
N,,EHE7WS.5WS$ on the Upper Ne
| n II MN ID halem that some OF
yaa~ the people watched
-=ES@asr it with fear. But
| to Jered Ames it was bringing small
harvest of silver, for he was a guide
as we'll as freighter on the river. and
fire on the Oregon heights meant game
on the lower, accessible levels. Jered
had taken two parties of hunters ur
the river already; to-day he was away
with the third, and on his return he
must deliver three pigs sent to him fol
a settler named Keegan.
Usually Jered's young wife did not
fret at being left alone with the year.
old baby. but now the heat and smoke
oppressed her Imagination, and made
her think of the end of the world, and
set her wishing for some neighbor to
talk with. The baby, too, was ill al
ease in the sultry, smoke-scented air,
and cried fretfully as she tried to rock
it to sleep after her early supper.
From her seat, which was under q
pine behind the cabin, the little WON.
an could see long stretch of the path
on which her husand must return from
his boat, but she could not see his
boat-house or the river. 1t was pos.
sible that he might come home that
evening, and her heart was sore with
longing to see his tall form stridine
toward her. 1t was possible, too, that
somebody, some messenger or hunter,
might come up the path to engage him
as guide or freighter, and she watched
the path lest some stranger should
take her by surprise.
While she rocked the little one and
sang to it, letting it lie unhugged ON
her lap that it might be the cooler,
its crying ceased, and it seemed about
to sleep with its face turned from her.
But suddenly it shrieked as if from
some instructive alarm, and turned to
her, clutching with its feeble little
hands and burying its face in her lap.
The mother, wondering what had
aftrighted the child, stared down the
path, and there saw a moving thing
which instantly disappeared
"a dog" she thought "Some-
body's dog-its owner is coming for
Jered. Whoever it is will have to stay
all night. for it's too late now to GO
back to the settlement. l must hurry
in-the man will want supper"
She clutched the baby, and at hel
grasp it screamed as if in the widest
terror-a note which made her again
wonder what allied it. Into the kitchen
she ran, put the kettle again on the
stove, and thrust in some kindling
Then she went into her bedroom, Just
off the kitchen, and tried to brush hel
hair and "tidy" herself with one hand
while she held the crying baby will
the other.
1t struck her, after little while
that she ought to have heard the foot
step, or voice, or knock of the stranger
and she turned from her tiny looking
glass toward the door of the bedroom
beyond which is the open door of the
Kitchen. There stood a full-growr
cougar, or mountain-liOn!
She recognized the beast at the frs
glance, although she had never seel
one before, and in that one dazet
glance she wondered if all wild beast!
were so gaunt and rusty-looking.
In the next instant the wild shriel
of her baby reused her to action, ant
she threw her shoulder against th'
door just as the rusty, tawny, lonl
body crouched. The latch snapped
down; then the door shook as if from
one blow of a heavy, wadded mallet
and the thin partition of upright board
ratified and creaked. The little woman
stood in mortal terror, and the baby
which had instinctively ceased to cry
pressed its head to her bosom an,
clutched with trembling hands.
For an instant the partition SCENE,
likely to be pushed down, then tn
mother heard the fierce sweep of will
claws across the boards, and the
there was a great crash in the kitchen
Nothing but fall of crockery coul
account for such noise, and Mrs
Ames knew that her plates and cup
and saucers, her preserve dishes, he
admired glass pitcher, and probabl
her treasured syrup jug, with the Ger
man silver top, had all tumbled a
once from the shelves fastened to til
partition. In an instant she was a
/. angry as if Jered had upset her che,
ished things; her courage came bac
in full force, and she pulled open til
door recklessly to scold at the cougar
He had been frightened badly a
ready; he had leaped like frightene
cat ont Of the kitchen at a bound, br
he had not leaped out of the hous,
He had gone the other way. His hea
had been toward an open interio
door when the precious crockery fell
and his leap had sent him into til
''front room," where he stood su
; prised, alarmed, awaiting somethin
/ dreadful.
: As angry Mrs. Ames, her bal
frightened into silence by the nois
opened the bedroom door, she saw
the kitchen looking glass the rehectio
of the cougar in the front room eyir
her, and she screamed at it with sue
shrillness that the scared beast shrau
into the dark space between the "che
of drawers" and the north corne
The small woman understood instant
that the cougar was frightened. and