Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-04-05

and called upon the names OF those he
had known in his childhood. Every
man went about his own business,
VIII ch was largely the formulating of
fervent and eloquent oaths anent the
heat, the drought and the delay, and
apparently no one heard his cries.
Water was the one thing he wanted,
and the one thing they could not get,
so, after they had put his boots under
his head to make him comfort able, they
let him alone. Under ordinary circum-
stances Missourian more or less was
of no great consequence to yankee
Bill" but this break in the ranks
shattered the last vestige of hope.
Whatever may have been done after
that in the effort to keep up their spir-
its was mere bravado, for each man
foresaw the end.
The Missourian had been a quiet
sort in the camp, a2d no one had ever
heard him talk much, but now he
talked necessarily in the soft, thick
drawl of the south. And always of
home scenes. of the memories of boy
hood that whetted the edge of their
torture till it was beyond all endur-
ance. Now he was fishing along some
stream; now he was in school strug
Cling with some problem he could
never solve beyond carry seven"
Always coherent enough to call up
memories in their own minds of
youth, misspent for the most part.
They could not move farther away
because they were camped under the
only shade in sight They thought of
dragging him off beyond ear-shot, but
while every one would have been glad
to have done it, no man could do it
himself. Their horny hands had grown
gentle in their ministering touches.
Escape was long since out of the
question, for the horses were worse
off than the men; not one of them
could carry saddle, much less rider.
Each man had saved last charge in
his revolver, knowing that that per-
haps would be their only deliverance
from death too horrible to name.
All but 'East-Side," who, when n de-
cision had to be made between himself
and his horse, had led her out behind
little ACTIVITY and put his last charge
through her game little heart. Now
he must make his exit in some other
way, if he would let his disem mbodied
spirit pass on unincumbered by a sun
parched frame. The knife he carried
in his boot was miserable hack of
thing. fit only for shaving tobacco or
chunking bacon. He felt momentary
regret rs he ran his fingers along its
jagged edges that man with his record
should be obliged to make his end
with so mean weapon. The big
Swede in moment of madness had
raised his pistol MS if it had been a
Jug, saying: "Wal, boys, here's to
wetter country" But he had not
shot. The cold iron seemed to cool
the rashness of his brain, and the mir
age of hope lured them on day far
ther.
After the second day the Missouri
ans talk began to grow less, his raving
subsidized in a weak, incoherent bab-
bling; at last it ceased altogether, and
he lay staring wide-eyed into the re-
lentless sky. As they had done every
thing else, they did this silently, stole
ally. A shallow bed was scooped out
and the canvas taken off the wagon
for winding sheet. When the
broken circle closed in around the
open grave, the boss cleared his throat
and said: "Boys, before we go any
farther, some one must make prayer,
sabe?"
They sabed, but although every
mans soul might be consumed with a
voiceless cry to some power above
himself for the repose of the departed
soul and release from like fate, they
were all dumb when confronted by the
thought of taking the name of God
reverently. Instinctively they turned
to ''East-Side."
'It's your lead, East -Side," they
said. And East-Side," cropping
blindly backward toward the memo
ries OF his youth, tried to recall some
thing of religious import. Slowly
through his desiccated brain percola' ed
line from church hymn, "From
Greenland's Icy Mountains. but al
though the thought was pleasant in
this burning desert, the words were
not to the point besides, that was all
he knew of it. He shook his head
sorrowfully. I'm the beginning. =
he thought he had struck the right
lead there TN the beginning, God
created -" But asein he was stuck
and uld 60 no further.
Lead up, 'Fast-Side"" they urged.
Then the light broke. The lack ward
cropping had brought him down to the
days of his childhood, to the words
his grandfather had been wont to say,
| as with bowed heads the family IN