The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-12-26

wife yet, they said.
But Torgeson remained bitterly
against her Only the babies gave
her love and comfort.
A January day came when the
sun rose warm over the snow GOV ar
ed prairies and in the air there was
II false whisper of spring. The hay
meadows folk on their way to the
school shook their head. They had
learned that this beauty of nature
at such time meant coming terror
of binding sleet and deathly cold.
All through the morning the sun
shine flooded the interior Of the
schoolhouse and the water dripped
from the snow covered sod caves,
but the pupils within did not trust
the warmth. At noon they ate
their lunches by the open door, but
none failed to notice the growing
grayness Of the sky in the north
and the change in the sweep of the
wind.
When school closed, frightful
blizzard was upon them. The ther-
mometer had fallen to far below
zero and the air was filled with sleet
that cut the skin like chopped glass.
The twelve pupils of the school
looked at each other in the growing
darkness. Every woman present
had a man to guide her home but
Anna Torgeson. Every child had
man protector but the children of
Anna Torgeson.
"The rest of you will go on" said
Anna Torgeson. "There is some
fuel here. | and my children will
stay until this is over"
Some offered to guide her home
before they went their own way, but
she said the storm was growing
worse every minute and they must
hasten for their own safety. They
scraped together such food as they
had left from noon and gave it to
her. 1t was not much for four
mouths, but for the baby there was
Anna Torgeson's breast. Just as
the others prepared to leave Anna
Torgeson called to one:
Stay msanent. Torgeson will
worry. l will send him a note. Get
it 10 him somehow when you can
sx&t he may know / am safe"
And she wrote in English.
Dear Husband: / am safe in
the school with the babies. Don't
worry about NE. Annie Torgeson."
Late that afternoon, with the
most awful storm he had ever
known bowling about his home,
Ta&eson got that note, and the
besyAr did not dare to leave him for
his he so fierce was the blast.
"1 can't read it," grumbled Tor
geson.
SO the other read it to him, and
then Torgeson crumpled it in his
hand and said:
'Let her stay there. She cares
more for the school than for me-"
He sat before his good fire hour
after hour, and once in awhile
when he thought he was unobserved
he would glance at the writing Of
the note he could not read. At mid
night he could stand it no longer.
He was Torgeson, the obstinate, but
his wife and babies were over in that
schoolhouse without much fuel or
food. He took with him the man
who had brought the note, and they
brought the horses out of the sta
bles, and they fought as men never
fought before against snow and
cold, and they gained the school, a
mile away, in two hours, and Torge-
son beat open the door, and the
blast came with him, but the anger
and the old pain had gone from him
forever.
Bending over the stove to keep
herself and babies alive, Anna Tor
geson heard his voice, knew by its
note that out of the horror he had
struggled with to reach her new
love and hope had come, and she
leaped to him and was caught in his
arms, never to be put from him
apain -ChioaUo paoord Harald