The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-02-28
old FRIEND AIDS
A DYING DAKOTAN
BUSHES FROM IOWA TO ICE CLAD
sHANTY ON PRAIRIE FOR
HIS pal"

st. Paul, Feb. 2S.-- Forty years ago,
A. L. Hubbard, a carpenter, and s.. Nc
Cammant, ditch digger, became
friends in Iowa They became close
friends--the kind who would share
their bread, their money, their clothes
with one another. They lived near
fredericksburg. Last October, Hub
bard bade his companion goodbye.
I'm going into North Dakota and
stake out claim he said. Maybe L
won't ever see you again."
The Old Friends Separate.
Good bye. Andy McCamnant re-
piled. Take care Of yourself"
They separated, McCammant remain
ing In fredericksburg doing odd pieces
of work, and Hubbard going to his
claim. They heard nothing OF each
other. Neither were much on writing
letters. Neither had anyone to write
for him. Hubbard's wife died years
ago, and McCammant and his wife had
separated back in the sos. Mrs. Nc
Cammant had gone away with an
other man, so the formers husband
said.
A few weeks ago, word came from
the North Dakota claim, where Hub
bard had built his sod house.
McCammant Comes to Aid.
I'm ILL.," the message said. II may
not get WELL"
McCammant boarded the train for
Dakota His friends sod house was
far out on the bleak prairie, thirty
miles from the little town of Hettinger.
There he had remained through all the
winter. the temperature ranging down
as low, as twenty-five degrees below
zero, and the north winds driving sleet
and snow through the chinks OF his
house. Not far away was another sod
house, where his daughter and her hus-
band had staked out a claim. They had
helped keep the sick man supplied with |
the necessaries of life. They had look |
ed after him as best they could. There
was no we'll on his claim. They melted |
snow that he might have water to |
drink. They took him food. During |
the long hours of the night when the |
cold winds howled, they had kept watch |
at his bedside. There was no doctor |
nearer than Hettinger, thirty miles
away.
He Just Wanted Mccamman+.
But Andy Hubbard wanted his friend |
He called for him. |
Eventually McCammant arrived. and
had doctor with him. The physician |
examined the man who was i'll.
He can't get WELL" he told them.
He's done. You might as well take |
him home-take him back to Iowa. /
Cancer in the stomach is killing him." /
The little group sat in the sod house |
and contemplated the Journey. Hub |
bard had come there strong, deter |
mined. He did not know the nature 1
of his illness.
Thursday moaning, lying fat in the |
bottom of a bob-sled, with a crudeiy |
tent over all, McCammant |
with Hubbard and one companion set |
out across the fat fields of snow for
the railroad. The wind was not cold |
Over Fields of Snow to Train.
The snow was deep and the bob-sl |
moved easily. Hubbard did not suffer |
on the journey. The trail was clearly |
,ut.
At Hettinger McCammant placed his |
friend aboard a Chicago, Milwaukee & |
Puget Sound train. They reached St |
Paul this morning, and are now at the |
Merchants hotel. At 1880 o'clock to- |
night they will begin the last lap of /
the journey home. Hubbard is almost /
too weak to walk. His friend holds /
rightly to his arm as he moves. But
he will live, 1t is believed, until he |
gets back home-Iowa.
"The doctors say there is no chance"
MIR. McCammant said this morning. |
And / guess there isn't. Andy and |
me have been friends for forty long /
years. We settled in Iowa right after
he war; and"
He paused a moment before he
added:
There isn't anything / wouldn't do
or him.
Hubbard has a son at Frederieks-
burg. and it is to his home he will be
aiken. The two old friends--McCam-
nant and Hubbard-attraeted little at
ention at the big hotel. But their de-
,otion to each other was evident. II