Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-07-22

exhibited no tendency toward horizon
tai movement. Reasoning thus, it
was clearly Hafe to blow up the land
lords stump, which must infallibly be
lifted, broken and dropped upon the
neighboring land.
This, like the other attempt, was to
be surprise, and owing to the i'm
pressive size of the stump, and to
guard against failure, Ingar placed
two sticks under it.
That stump was blown squarely
through the clearinghouse, from
side to side, and Tngar, who had re-
treated to safe distance to watch the
explosion, fled from what he believed
to be q scene of death. Faith had Or
dained, however. that at the supreme
moment the landlord and his wife
should be in the kitchen, engaged in
high alteration with the cook, and
no one was in .he front of the house,
which was the part devastated by the
meteoric stump.
In the instant of shock, the cook
departed in cloud of dust, and re-
fused to go near the place again, be-
cause she suspected the landlord of
having arranged the whole affair with
q view to getting rid of her without
payment Of wages due. SO she sent a
lawyer to collect the money, and tho
landlord engaged the same legal gen
!leman to arrange the settlement Of the
damage with Ingar.
The honest lad, who had striven so
earnestly to emulate the American
spirit OF enterprise, was now called
Ingar, the Dynamiter. The merchants
would trust him for anything else, but
with respect to explosives they re-
garded him as a dangerous theorist,
and he could not buy dynamite in any
store on the range.
In spite of oil this it was another
sort of experience that gave the Morse
man lasting fame. 1t happened one
day when the new powderhouse had
just been completed, on spur of the
mine hill and among the only trees
that had been left standing on the
location"
Some Italians were engaged in
transferring the powder ind dynamite
from the temporary to the new store.
house, and one of them carelessly left
the door of the new building open.
Coming up the hill. the men had to
turn ledge of rock before they could
see the new magazine, which was COW
cred with corrugated iron and fresh
coated with red paint. On the first
trip up, after the careless man had
bluudered about the door, the party
passed the ledge and came upon a
sight at which every man turned white.
Through the open door, not hun
dred feet away, serenely examining
the deadly stores strewn all about,
was Master Norman Roberts, aged six
years, son of the mine superintendent.
His sister, toiling up the path and
calling his name, explained the child's
presence there.
Master Norman, at the moment
when lie was discovered, had possessed
himself Of some dozens of Illuminating
caps, which he thought were excellent
playthinss, and had scattered the
bright brass literally on the floor.
The situation was desperate. With
in the space of n few feet were hun
dreds of pounds OF every sort of high
explosive, from ordinary "giant" to
the most terrific combinations of nitro
glycerine. The conclusion of al ex-
ploding cap, of the sort with which
the lad was playing, meant death and
destruction to every soul on the hill.
The italian who first got view of
the situation went down upon his
knees somewhat gingerly, to be sure,
for he had twenty pounds of dyna-
mite in his hands. A dozen men
huddled together behind him, afraid
to startle the boy bya sound, lest they
might hasten the moment when those
childish feet would annihilate them,
and not daring to run because they
knew they could not get away from so
much dynamite. Besides, there was
the superintendent little boy.
Ingar Nelson, swinging up the hill
on his way to the power house, where
his brother now worked, saw the shrink
ing group and hurried to them. One
of the foremen delegated to watch the
filling OF the powder-house had re-
covered himself enough to signal fran
tically to Normans approaching sis
ter. She, astonished by the earnest
pantomime aud not d;vining its cause,
stopped on the hillside and ceased to
call her brothers. name.
Ingar understood the instant he ar
rived, for he knew something about
dynamite now. He stopped moment
and scratched his head. The circum-
stances did not seem to favor CONVEX
sation, and besides, Ingar was rather
pause, in absolute silence. he tiptoed
steadily toward the open door.
Little Norman had his back turned
to the interested spectators of his
play, and was joyously tossing his new
found playthings about. The men in
the path bent forward gntil their
trembling fingers almost touched the
ground. One cannot avoid some ner-
vous agitation when lie approaches q
baby who is playing with illuminate
among cases of nitro-glycerine, and
the palms of Ingar's hands were moist
before he made many steps.
Softly he stole to the door. Norman
was babbling merrily and thinking it
all fine fun, when he was suddenly
gripped by the back OF his waist. A
powerful arm raised him, struggling
and crying with fright, and held him
high above the dangers with which
the floor was spread. Then Ingar,
tossing the tiny figure upon his
shoulder, pranced down the hill, re-
lieving the tension of his nerves by
giving such cheerful whoops that Nor
man concluded it was all lark.
Twelve crouching figures straight
ened and twelve voices made so much
joyful noise that all surface work at
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