Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-10-17
tasks, and yet she kept ON. and real

- NAAeAS bLS SIN was =
She had not been out-of-doors for
nearly a week, not since she had gone
to meeting the Sunday before. Ange-
line never went ou~t-of-doors in the
winter, unless she was sent on an
erraad or bound for meeting.
She went farther and farther into
the woods. Everything was silent,
except for the occasional chatter of
a squirrel or the note of a partridge.
Once a rabbit crossed her path. There
were some wild beasts, which might
be dangerous, in the woods, but An
geline did lot think of that. She
had small Imagination for evil.
All at once. as she sped along, the
silence was broken by a far-off cry,
and she stopped and listened. Her
first thought was that it must be
a wolf or-a wildcat; it sounded a lit
| tie like a wildcat. Presently it came
again; it was very distant and very
faint, but her ears, trained to hat
frequent sound of her day and gen.
Grafton, recognized 1t. It was a hu-
man cry for help.
Angelina did not stop to think what
a young girl all alone could do to
aid a man, possibly, even probably,
beset by wolves or, although that
was doubtful, by Indians. She raised
an answering cry in her clear young
voice, and set off at the top of her
sDeed.
From time to time she stopped and
listened for the feeble cry, which
sounded nearer and nearer; then she
sped on again. She ran as she had
never ran before. She was thankful
when she came to open spaces, where
she could take long slides over the
CLASSY snow. At last she saw ahead
something which made her heart
leap; a dark heap on the snow be-
side the bridIe-path. huddled in the
strange and unmistakab1e huddle OF
human helplessness.
Angeline went up to the man, who
was lying quite still and no longer
crying out for help. She bent V e
him and turned his face, fearfully, up
toward the light. 1t was Joseph
Wyatt. He was emaciated and hag-
gard; his thin face was overspread
with a wild stubble of beard; but she
knew him.
She caught him by the shoulders
and shook him with all her young
strength. She knew that if he lay
there motionless longer in the bitter
cold his fate was sealed.
Joseph! Joseph!" she shrieked at
him. Joseph, don't you know me?'
Then she shook him again, and he
opened his poor eyes and looked I'M
seeingly at her, and that vas all.
Angelina looked at him in a frenzy.
She did not know what to do. She
could not by herself carry him to
shelter, but if she left him there he
was lost. She shook him again. She
rubbed his hands violently, but all
with very little avail.
Finally she grew desperate. She
thought quickly. She remembered
hat her father was at work not far
from there, if she could cross the
woods instead of following the path.
Stripping off her homespun blanket.
she bound it securely over the freez-
ing mans head and shoulders. Then
off came the thick wool skirt of her
gown, and that she fastened around
his feet.
Then she took hold OF two ends
of the blanket which she had left
loose at the top of his head, and start
ed, dragging him, picking the smooth
est way hat she could, bending for
ward almost to the ground with the
strain. but never once giving up.
1t was well that Angelina came of
sturdy ancestors, for she needed all
her strength that day. She often
stopped 20 examine the young man
and make sure hat she was not in
3uring him by that rough progress,
but the thick blanket protected him
well, and sometimes she broke off
branches of underground which were
in the way.
At last she heard the sound of her
fathers ak and gave one cry: 30
father. father. father!"
Then she sank to the ground beside
Joseph Wyatt, for her strength was
gone.
She remembered only dimly after
ward what her father said and did
when he came running up and saw
her ~bareheaded, in her sack and quilt
ed petticoat. She always had a vision
of him going homeward carrying on
his back the poor young man who had
escaped from the Canadian Indians
and found his way home through in
credible hardships, and of herself
trailing weakly behind him.
She came to her full senses after
ward, when Joseph Wyatt was tucked
up in the great feather bed in the
forenoon. and his father and moth
er and Mary Ann, who looked ten
years younger since morning, were
flying back and forth with bowls of
hot herb tea and warming-pans, and
such JOY was in the house that it
seemed fairly to illuminate it even
after the evening shadows had fallen.
Mary Ann came and held Angeline's
smooth, brown head against her slen-
der shoulder and thanked her. H
would have died if it hadn't been for
you, Angelire," she said.
eyes. he would. and after all he had
been through to get here!" said her
mother, tearfully. AS for Joseph
WAITS father and mother, they
could not make enough of Angelina;
but all the time, in the midst of her
delight and thankfulness hat she
had been able to saw Joseph Wy
ats life, there was a little, tiny, in
cessant prick of her conscience.
Wba0 Tho bouSa was uTIiaf at last