Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-01-27
oRRISGToN,s SNOW SHOES.

Orrington Is the long name OF 4 short
but very sturdy nine-year-old boy who
lives in Maine. His father makes snow
shoes, and last year orrinSton helped
him. On Christmas morning he found
fui pair Just right for sturdy nine
ycar-oid boy. What jolly time no
had for day or two tripping himself
and falling in the S sno" Ho a. N ,ha sn .e
shoes SO we'll that he could cut across
lots to school, which made the trips
much shorter. One day In March ne
o'clock, and found note for himself
stuck on the knob OF the sugar bowl
The note was from his mother and said:
Dear boy. Uncle Joe has just come
10 take mo over to his house to SEQ
Cousin Annie, who is there for hour
on the way to Washington. There arc
Keep a good fire and make. things
cheerful for dady. I shall be home by
half past 7. Lovingly. Mother" Fa-
Trees ns or snow shoes IN 'ms oTs
ton washed six biz. potatoes and put
them in the oven to bake. He put fresh
wood on the fire and then he went to
hear his fathers ax-stroke. That seem
fully. Not sound. What il dady had
less! But no. Of course he had not.
Probably he had stopped work sooner
than he had planned, for 1t looked like
snow, and the dark was coming fast.
But he knew that his daddy was man
that did what he had made up his mind
to do. and that morning when he had
started out with his dinner pail no
minutes of and he home by 6. But
what IL he really was lying there hurt
in the darkening woods. Tho wind was
the elms in front OF the house. Or
rinston thought OF the bobcat that all
of the boys and most OF the men had
heard in those woods from time to time
all winter. They had seen his tracks
too. Scary fellow. those bobcats, with
their long claws and glazing. Oh, OF
courae, his father had finished his work
and was coming home that minute by
the way of the road, so az to get tho
mail at the corner box. and, yet, IL he
was not? What If OrrinEton slipped
strapped them carefully but quickly.
and dashed down the lane. 1t would
have been slow going across the rough
pasture If he had not those snow shoes,
but with their help he fairly few along.
Tho woods werc dark and the wind
howled through the twisting branches.
He plunged into the gloom. Tripping
over roots and branches. he reached the
place at last where his father meant to
work. Father" he called. No answer.
wind shrieked! Father" and then &c.
near that it made him jump. he heard
low moan. He climbed back over a.
fallen trcc. There almost hidden by the
plumes of the old pine that had crash
cd down in the gale and pinned him
TO the ground, lay his father. Jus,
then the moon sailed out from behind
cloud. and OrrinEton saw that the
snow round his fathers head was
stained red. Ee knott down and said
IT'S all right now, daddy, Tin going
for help"
Thon he was off. Across the fields
he flew, and made such good time that
in little more than twenty minutes he
was back with four stout neishbors
They quickly got daddy home, and in
a. few. minutes the doctor. for whom
they had sent, arrived. Ely the time
Uncle Joe had brought mother home
there was nothing to worry about Fa-
thor was lying on the couch by the
+; fire; smiling at orrinston, who
shoes. y tell you. mother" said Or
rtngton, If II hadn't been for these
snow shoes that daddy gave mo he
would have been pretty cold before
got help for him" Il guess" said dad
dy, that the snow shoes wouldn't have
amounted to much II they hadn't been
on tho right kind Of boy"
JENNINGS L. HUNT.