The midland journal., 1908-06-12
miles an hour, and only seventy miles

7 miles IN hour, and only seventy miles
away
| Though montally afraid of such .
thing, ] almost laughed at the idea
| of a blizzard with the sky as clear
and the sun as bright and warm as
q day in June. Nevertheless / aided
Uncle Billy to hook up and get away.
| We logged along at a good steady
gait, but uncle was silent as tomb
stone
do you think we shall have a gem
uine blizzard, uncle?" said !, ven
| turing to break the silence.
"You can't tell one minute whatn
happen the next" was his only re-
ply.
His next word was at the halfway
| post, and that simply to mention the
fact that we were passing 1t, and
was spoken to the horses more than
| to me.
A little gust of wind caused him to
straighten up and look toward the
sun, and brought from him the sig
nificant remark: "All depends on the
| team, my boy"
/ was ready to think the whole
| thing a huge joke on tenderfoet,
! and was about to say so when my
eyes caught sight of long, dark wall
moving rapidly toward US. Already its
western end was obscuring the sun
and the air was beginning to chill
my blood
| Uncle laid ON the whip till the
| horses were on the run. We passed
the last ridge hiding our home from
vision, and the long line of cotton
woods indicated that we were near
| ing the ranch.
| BY this time the sky was growing
so dark that / hardly dare look back;
and the dark wall was rising higher
and higher, and growing blacker and
blacker with the passing of every min
ute.
/ The horses were doing their best,
their furious driver apologizing to
| them for his unwonted cruelty, when
| he suddenly yelled with the ferOcity
| of a madman: "If that falls on us be-
| fore we reach home, you freeze 10
the Buffalo robe and Doll, and III
take my chances with old Ned"
| Those were the last words / heard
till uncle pulled me out of thesrobe
an hour later. The thing fell sure
I, enough, and yet the frightened team
would not stop. They kept lunging
and plunging and pulling one another
| m nv turns after a fall
| AS for me, could not endure the
snow for a second. There were no
fakes just snowbanks. These came
straight down, only to be whirled
about by the wind to make room for
more; so l rolled me up in the great
robe and lay down in the wagon-box,
awaiting orders from Uncle Billy.
Though we were not more than
twenty rods from the barn when that
wall fell on us, it took the team an
interminable hour to reach that barn.
We had left the big double doors
| open that morning when we started
for town, and well for US that we
had done 50; for no sooner had the
faithful horses landed on the barn
floor than they dropped from sheer
exhaustion. Uncle closed the doors,
and then pulling me out, shouted:
"They made it all right, but look at
'em."
We set to rubbing them with all
| our strength, and soon had them dry
and warm and bedded in their stalls
with hay to their backs.
/ A.. oo%
tie and sheep had taken refuge IN the
long, low sheds built for them, and
were comparatively safe and COM
| Portable.
The next question was, How can
we get to the house?"
! After tying long line to my wrist,
uncle took the other end and lunging
| into the snow told me to follow when.
he pulled. At the first indication OF
| tautness, made a bee-line for the
house without waiting for another
tug on the rope. To my surprise,
reached the kitchen door without fur
| ther assistance. only to find at once
that my uncle. was not there.
Having thoughtlessly released the
rope from my wrist, a sudden Jerk
drew it far out of my reach and l
dared not follow.
Intuitively. almost, I took down the
old musa1et and began firing blank
shots, hoping thereby to attract my
uncle's attention toward the house.
In this was right. Although
| blinded with the snow and chilled
with frost, Uncle Billy was soon be-
side me in the shanty. safe and sound.
For three days and as many nights
we dare not open the outside door,
such was the roaring of the wind
and the cracking of the frost.
We spent the time playing checkers
and writing to our friends back East
that we had the record for fast driv-