Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-08-01
terry Of his life, which has been placed
on the market and from which he has
derived considerable sum.
A TOUCHING STORY.

In the rugged Cumberland Mountains,
which bound Dickenson county on the
west, the stranger is pointed to a cliff
or cave where in the bleak month of
December, 1866, a little boy who had
passed only his third milestone of the
road of life was frozen to death. The
cliff is situated in sequestered place,
and looks as if it would afford some
shelter or protection from the rigors of
winter. The surrounding country has
the appearance, l imagine, that it had
IN those primitive days, when the wild
beast roamed the forests unmolested by
man. 1t is true that some invasions
have been made upon these wilds, and
little farms have been opened here and
there, and rude log cabins are sighted
by the passerby. This story is touch
ing one, and will go straight to the
hearts of parents who have these little
prattlers about their knees.
The mother was at a neiphborinp
house, weaving upon a handloom, as
was the custom, when three of her
children, the little boy of whom write.
and two elder ones, followed her. When
she saw them her motherly instincts so
far forsook her that in something of a
passion she sent the children away, tell
ing them to go back home, and strongly
reproved the elder ones for venturing
out IN the snow storm which was then
prevailing. AS they turned to retrace
their steps homeward, the little boy
asked his mother for some bread and
milk, but she rather impatiently told
him to go on home. (Alasl that a feel
ing like this should be in a mothers
heart when such a fate is impending
The children left; it was growing near
nightfall, the storm became more vio-
lent, in fact binding, and they became
separated, the two elder ones reaching
home without the younger one. When
the mother reached home and saw the
terrible state of affairs, she gave the
alarm, and the few persons that could
be collected in that sparsely peopled
neighborhood began a search, but all
through that long, dreary night their
efforts to find the missing one were
fruitless. Morning, at length, dawned,
and the earth was covered with mantle
OF snow, while the angry winds chilled
every heart, when they thought of the
fate of the poor lost child. The search
was kept up for three or four days; the
men from all the surrounding country
for miles turned out enmass to ioin in
the search, but all to no purpose. If
the child had been carried off the face
of the earth, every trace of it could not
have been more completely obliterated.
The search was abandoned as useless.
and the heart-broken mother had TO
bear her grief alone, for the father had
been slain in the cruel war, which had
just then closed.
Time passed on; some two years had
come and gone since the sad event
which moved the people to pity, and
tears, had occurred, when Mr.. Swindall.
farmer of that vicinity, happened to
pass by the cliff and found piece of
child's clothing and some bones, which
he at once took to be all that remained
of the little wanderer, who all alone in
the darkness of that bleak December
night sought shelter from the cruel.
binding snow under the overhanging
mass of rock. The man took the piece
of cloth to the mother who recognized
1t at once as piece of her lost child's
clothing. She had woven it herself
upon the old fashioned loom in which
she was plying the shuttle when she so
sternly sent the little boy away, to
meet him no more this side of the shores
of eternity.
The angel of death called upon that
mother some years ago, and let us hope
that she rejoined her little one, and
that the bitter is all forgotten. -Ex-
change.