The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-07-29
A Klondike Hero.
The Story of a Boys Dilemma.

hind the dog sledge, alone! His father
and Uncle Jim had been his companions
at the outset of the journey across the
hundred of miles of unbroken snow.
But after the first week out his Uncle
Jim had been left at miners shanty,
having fallen i'll of congestion of the
lungs. Then Johnny and his father
trudged on and on together. Two of the
best dogs had died, too, and they were
fearful lest they lose others of the ten
dog team before reaching Fifty Mile,
their destination.
On the night preceding the beginning
of this story Johnny had been awakened
by his fathers rawlings. The poor man
had been taken with his last sickness,
pneumonia, and before Johnny's watch
told the hour of on the following morn
ing his father had passed away.
And then it was, torn by grief and
filled with awe of the loneliness and the
Johnny realized his dilemma. On the
great, white, cold waste of the Klondike
country, with barely enough provisions
and dogs to last him till he could reach
Fifty Mile-should there be no unusual
delay!
But there had been the problem of the
burial of his dearly beloved father. His
heart seemed to break at the thought of
leaving ali that remained of his fond
parent out there in the snow. But there
was no alternative. So, wrapping the
precious body in fur robe, he laid it to
xest in trough dug in the snow. The
dogs, realizing that something terrible
had happened, set up bowling, and were
hard tC manage when at last Johnny
could tear himself away from the new
made grave.
Children who have never experienced
being alone in far-away land, having
lost one very dear to them, can not i'm
agine Johnny's grief. Tears froze on
his cheeks as he went forward-facing
the south. He was good traveller and
had made several trips with his father
and uncle into the very heart of the gold
regions of the Yukon. But he had yet
to know what real hardship meant. One
might go without food fer days, using
snow for water, and suffer all sorts OF
agony from the cold, but these meant
nothing when compared with being de-
prived of your loving companions, es-
peclaly when one of those comrades was
father.
The first day of being alone was the
hardest one of Johnny's life. Each
minute seemed an hour. The constant
barking and bowling of the dogs in their
misery touched his heart like a death
knell. When time for camping and eat
ing came, his stomach refused food. How
could he eat on the day of his terrible
loss? He fed and tied the dogs for the
night and rolled himself in a fur robe
and lay down in a trough Of snow, such
as the travellers dig for warmth against
the Winds
And then came another day of tramp
ing over the snow. Toward night an
other dog fell IN the traces and refused
to rise. He was cut out of the ropes
and LETT 10 die on the snow alone. There
was nothing else to do. Once or twice
Johnny thought to climb on top of the
sledge load and lie among the things, but
he would recall that the dogs were weak
er and fewer in number than when they
had set out several days ago. and that
even then his father had said: "None
must ride unless he falls ILL.,"
The third day was the same as the first
and the second. Johnny and the dogs
alone with the snow by day and the stars
by night. Oh, would they never reach
Fifty Mile. But on the night of the
third day Johnny discovered a dark
streak on the distant snow L was an
other dog team and sledge. But when
he strained his eyes he could see no
driver, for none walked beside the dogs
with whip to goad them on and on
Johnny urged his own dogs on toward
the other team and soon came up with
1t. Both teams were travelling south
ward and therefore came abreast. John
ny called out and the dogs stopped used
to the command. Then Johnny began
rn VII ,I,o
found, muffied beyond belief, a man.
When aroused the man only peeped out
and said in gutteral voice: "Leave me
lone, I'm all in"
Johnny realized that the man was on
the point of freezing and hastily united
the dogs, glad of the chance to stop their
long days travel. therefore obeying a
strange voice. When the strangers
dogs and Johnny's had been tied for the
night, Johnny turned his attention to the
man on top of the load. He was not
feverish. He seemed just worn out
worn to the bone and no longer able to
weather the hard march southwark.
Johnny found a very small supply of
food on the strangers sledge, not enough
to last man and dog to Fifty Mile, which
would not yet be reached for two days..
But on Johnny's own sledge there was
food enough for Two men and eight dogs.
His father had set out with plenty of
provisions for the three men and ten
dogs, but the trip was occupying three
days more than they had counted on.
And While two of the men were no long
er to be fed, and three of the dogs had
dropped out of life, there remained lust
about sufficient for Johnny, the stranger
and Johnny's own dogs. But on the
strangers sledge was food enough for
his own dogs-used sparingly but once a
day. And Johnny knew that the dogs
could go on that.
1t was with great difficulty that john
ny prevailed upon the stranger to eat
something. As they were not near to
stream where stray brush and timber
could be found for fire, they had to do
without coffee that evening. Johnny
had taken the precaution to put hand
full of wood on his sedge that morning
on breaking camp, for while he could
not carry enough to make sufficient
fire to boil coffee, he had quite enough to
melt snow for drinking. A tin can half
full of melted snow and half spoonful
of powdered red pepper warmed ones
lnsldes quite as much as Coffee" as
Johnny's Uncle Jim had often remarked
on such occasions. And now Johnny
realized that he must take the place of
hIr fn+ -.