Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-06-05

tain mad started 70 lOpe dCIOoS INC
open way from thicket to thicket. and
had paused to survey the valley az
his feet, with his back toward a dan
ger he could not possibly foresee.
Hearing Tens shout, he glanced over
his shoulder, arched his hack, and
leapad straight in air as the flying
sled came upon him.
Beneath that whirlwind of vibrat-
ing, dagger-like claws, Tom threw
himself fiat on his face, his leg rising
to receive a vicious stab as the wild
cat caromed off, turned a somersaut,
and dashed away up the mountain
side, splitting and growing.
Then, in only a fraction of the time
required to tell of it, the lad felt
briers and bushers tearing at his
head and shoulders, and next shot out
into the treeless pasture, headed
straight for the quarry, a half-mile
away. Owing to the interference of
the frightened cat, he had stopped
steering, had failed to maesatA turn,
and was now rushing headlohE Toward
the very ~peril he had planned from
the star to avoid.
His first impulse was to roll off the
sled, but on that icy slope he knew
that he could not check himself, bu.
would fall straight down and over the
ledge of rocks. So, instead, he dug
his left toe into the hard surface, and
strove to edge away, so as to clear the
farther corner of the quarry and en-
ter q ravine that made off from the
pasture to the southeast. Such n
course was bad enough, but infinitely
to be preferred TO a sheer fall OF
fifty feet upon the conical roofs of
the kilns.
Any one who has ever tried to steer
a sled diagonally across a steep and
slippery slope knows the difficulty in
volved. and in Toms case it was in
creased a hundred per cent. by the
terrific speed with which he had en-
tered the pasture. In a second he
| turned the sled in the right direction,
but it slued so violently as nearly to
throw him off.
He bore down with half mis- weight,
| till the leather was worn through on
the toe of his extended foot. Thus
he worked his way across twO-thirds
Of the upper face of the quarry, but
a fall into its farther corned seemed
inevitable Two or three seconds
L, fok
The pasture, although cleared years
before, was far from being perfectly
smooth. Here and there an old
stump protruded from the snow, but
they were minor dangers, which Tom
could do nothing to avoid. Twice, by
what seemed almost a miracle, he
shot past scraggly monsters that
would have fatally injured him had
he stuck them squarely; and then, as
he was almost upon, although nearly
past, the quarry, the sled ran into the
deep hollow caused by an overturned
tree of long ago..
1t was hardly ten feet above the
yawning chasm. The shock turned
the sled half on it's side, but it right
ed against the snow-padded roots, the
sluing was checked, and Tom flew by
the corner of the quarry, so close to
it thai he caught glimpse of the bot
tom.
In FIVE seconds he was humping
down the ravine. This was no cleared
road, but a narrow gorge so cluttered
with huge stones and bushes that he
could not have gone dozen feet anil
lived but for the deep mantle of
snow.
Branches whipped his face and
twigs tore at his homespun clothing.
Fortunate was 1t that grandsir had
built the sled of stoutest seasoned
hickory, seemingly twice as heavy as
was necessary, and that the years
had not detrac;ed appreciably from its
strength, fer never was sled subjected
to harder test. Tom hung on GRIM
ly, waiting for the end.
The ravine, two hundred yards down
the mountain, made a sharp turn to
the right. The sled ran straight at
the slope ahead, mounted it for
score of feet, turned over, and its
rider was pitched off sidewise, falling
to the bottom, where he lay uncon-
scious for a half-hour
At nightfall. a ragged lad. with
blood-smeared hands and face, limped
painfully into Bent's Corners, drag
ging a battered but still serviceable
sled.
Old Doctor Phillips patched him up.
whimsically congratulating him upon
Tie alleged fact that coru pone and
side-pcrk always make strong bones,
else his would have been shattered.
Then the boy bartered his peltries for
molasses. coffee, gunpowder and cal
leo, as directed. and was given a
shake-down in the annex of the coun-
try store. The next morning he
caught ride on freighter's sleigh to
the mouth Of the notch, and thence
dragged his bruised limbs homeward.
Youths Companion.