Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1918-12-11
CHAPTER xIIl-continued.

peated Amanda Parlow. Prince will
hear you and bark"
GOD bless youl So he WILL" cried
Mr.. Stagg. You've got more sense
than any of us Mandy"
And I'll have the chapel bell rung,"
she said.
Huh what's that forT'
THE wind will carry the sound out
across the cove. The boy, Chef, will
recognize the sound of the bell and it
will give HIM an idea of where home
is"
You do beat all - exclaimed Joseph
Stagg, starting to leave the horse.
Find cap of Chefs Mrs. CORN
ley" she commanded. Don't you see
Mr.. Stagg has no hat? He'll catch his
death of cold
"Why, never thought" He turned
to speak directly TO Miss Amanda. but
she had gone back into the room and
was putting on her outer wraps. Mrs.
Gormley, red-eyed and weeping.
brought the cap.
Mr.. Stagg plunged down the steps
and kept on down the hill to the water
where the waterside characters congre-
gated, and Mr.. Stage put his head in
at>the door.
'Some of you fellers come out with
me on the ice and look for little girl
and a boy and dog, said Mr.. Stage.
Like enough, they're lost in this storm.
And the ice is going out"
They all rushed out of the eating
house and down to the nearest dock.
know Carolyn May.
"And let me tell you, she's one rare
little kid" he declared, out of Mr..
Stages hearing. "How she come to be
related to that hard-as-nails Joe Stage
is a puzzler."
The hardware dealer might deserve
this title in ordinary times, but this
was one occasion when he plainly dis
played emotion.
Hannahs Car'lyn, the little child he
had learned to love, was somewhere on
the ice in the driving storm. He
would have rushed blindly out on the
rotten ice. barehanded and alone. had
the others not halted him.
Joseph Stage stood on the dock and
shouted at the top of his voice:
Prince! Prince! Princew
The wind must have carried his
voice long way out across the cove,
hut there was no reply.
Then, suddenly the clear silver tone
Of bell rang out. Its pitch, carried
through the storm startlingly clear
There was a movement out in the
cove. One field of ice crashed against
another Mr. Stage stifled moan
.and was one of the first to climb dom
to the level of the ice.
Have care, joe" somebody
warned him. "This snow on the ice
will mask the holes and assures some
thing scandalous,"
But Joe Stagg was reckless of his
own safety. He started out into the
snow, shouting again:
prince! Prince! Here. boy Here,
boy :"
There was no answering bark.
The changing of the chapel bell was
a comforting sound. Joseph Stage did
not know that, unable to find the sex
ton, Amanda Parlow had forced the
church door and was tugging at the
rough rope herself.
Back and forth she rang the iron
rlapper. and it was no uncertain note
that changed across the storm-driven
cove that afternoon. 1t was not work
10 which Carolyn Mays pretty LADY,
was used Her shoulders soon ached
and the palms of her hands were raw
and bleeding But she continued to
toll the bell without a moments sur
cease-on and on, till her brain swan
and her breath came chokingly f,om
her lungs.
Joe. Joe!' she muttered each time
that she bore down on the bell rope.
and the iron tongue shouted the word
for her, far across the snow-blotted
cove.
Carolyn May WIS not the first of the
trio caught out on the moving ice to be
frightened. Perhaps because she had
such unbounded faith in the good in
tentions of everybody toward her. the
child could not imagine anything real
ly hurting her.
"Oh. isn't this fun" she crOwed.
bending her head before the beating of
the storm. DO hang on, Princey."
But Prince could not hang on so
well. now that they faced the wind. He
slipped off the sled twice, and that de-
layed them. Under his skates. Chef
could feel the ice heave. while the
resonant cracks followed each other
like a file-fire Of musketry.
Goodness me-" gasped Carolyn
May, "the ice seems to be going all to
pieces, Chef. / hope it won: till we
get back to the shore"
I'm hopin' that, too" returned the
boy.
He had quickly realized that they
were in peril. but he would not let
Carolyn May see that he was fright
ened-nO, indeed
The boy unstrapped the skates swift
". He had very good reason for re-
moving them. If the ice was breaking
up into fioes, he might skate right of
into the water. being unable to halt
quickly enough. if on the steel runners.
He now plOdded on, head down. drag
ging the sled and the child with Prince
slipping and scratching along beside
them.
Suddenly he came to open water. II
was 80 broad a channel that he could
NOT hone n lean il and. of course. ne