The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-04-27

INSTABILITY " await results.
The plug was not driven in with suf-
ficient force, however, and was blown
out without making the desired report.
Running forward with one impulse, the
boys would have recharged, but George,
waving them back, exclaimed: "One
mans life is enough at a time and
going to the log, was proceeding TO
pour in more powder, when ii ex-
ploded directly in his face.
With eyes fast shut he made straight
for the raintub. and, plunging his head
In, shook it violently about. When he
raised ii, with hair all sinsed and eye
brows and lashes gone, he presented
strangely altered appearance; but there
was not a culver on the small powder
burned face, as, turning to his com
panions, he asked:
Does it show much?"
The least candid OF them was obliged
to admit that it did; but George, still
sanguine of escaping detection, hoped
that after it stopped smarting it would
look better"
When the doctor returned from the
distant call that evening, however, he
found patient awaiting him at home;
and in the quiet seclusion of the two
or three days following the adventure
the future admiral had leisure in which
to concoct new plans for the entertain
ment of himself and his young friends.
During the Mexican war he was an
ardent worshiper at the shrine of Gen.
Taylor, who clicked the enemy every
time He never tired of looking at
picture OF him which hung in his own
home; and when the boys, catching the
military spirit which pervaded the air,
fought sham battles. he always in
sisted upon personating "Old lack"
assigning the part of Santa Anna TO
some one else, an apportionment of
characters sometimes resulting in a
| mutiny.
One night one of the younger SET
then "6-year-old," and not allowed to
| go with the big boys, recalls the fasci-
nation which his society had for him,
| and the hair-erecting stories of the
yellow-back variety with which he
sometimes RECALLED him. On certain
memorable evening the smaller boy,
stealing away from home at dusk
Joined young Dewey and two of his
associates and accompanied them up a
deep ravine to an old-fashioned saw
mill, which they set in motion, the
double object thus accomplished being
| the seeing of 1.-The old thing shake
itself to pieces" and the securing of a
| days holiday for their friend, the mil
ler's son, by the suspension Of opera
tons consequent upon draining tn,
pond.
The immense amount of snow which
| falls in the mountains and valleys o
| New England and the large deposits of
| ice which form it's rivers make the
breaking up Of winter in that far
northern climate a period to which
every boy endowed with a spirit Of
| adventure looks eagerly forward.
Two small rivers, the Winooski and
the Onion, come together in Montpelier
in such way as to form the letter T,
and around this letter the town is
built In the spring, when these streams
are swollen by the melting SHOWS and
pieces of ice are hurried along by the
current, the boy who gets upon the
smallest cake" which will bear his
Notwithstanding often in water four
or five inches deep-and succeeds in
effecting landing upon the mass Of
pulverized ice, interspersed with huge
endwise and criss-cross blocks. which
lodges six miles below, becomes the
hero Of the hour.
On such occasions young Dewey was
in his element, leading the way in
every daring enterprise and acquiring
that hardihood and utter disregard Of
danger of which the victory at Manila
| was the glorious outcome. 1t was
while guiding his ice raft past bridges
and piers, over cross-currents formed
by the influx Of lesser tributaries and
around quick bends in the river, that
he learned his first lessons in the
science OF navigation.
What man has done, man can do"
was the motto which formed the pro-
polling power of his young life, carry
ing him through every boyish under
taking. Who knows but that it may
have inspired his later achievements
as we'll?
OF his experience at the Washington
County grammar school in Montpelier.
the first educational institution which
he attended, much has already been
written. It's pupils, taught by first
one teacher and then another. had ac-
quired the reputation of being rather
difficult subjects, and Dewey Is said TO