Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-08-26

before Vhe hre. lie nlled his mouth
with the tasteless stuff and ate If
hungrlly, though it chung to his
teetl
linen he investigated his own nact
Eufflealy' yet with an eXulting SENSE
Vi happiness tie anew now that he
haa hgnIng chance, one that a
svrohS man might grasp and win. He
must hasten ana use every hour ~
o~yugnU. me flour must be hus.
landed carefully.
ne Wen hnew the desperate lenyt;
ct every lille IL an unLrUauan cor
try Where there y ere no 1IaZea ira,
y-n,g lines to follow, in waicn =.
}culn slilA III qu2gmires and De com
gelLad to CHINO rocky lodges and push
through thlch alder sWalnps, aiwavc
keeping In sight Of the river. or. ~
any RE, very near its course. he.
sause II he travelled any distance
rom Il ne would certainly get lost
In places where there were mort
gos, or in others where the men bad
been accustomed TO lineup their ca
noes against the stream. dragging
them with ropes from the shore, he
would be able to make better time
1T he knew that the valleys through
which rivers flow always afford the
worst going, and that he would not
DIRE very often to seek the more
c3cn country afforded by the ridges
and the woods of the higher land.
For the time being the most i'm
portant point was to reduce his load
the least possible weight.
zone pound" he told himself, ais
supposed to handicap a horse eight
yards in one-mile race. What must
it mean to weary man over a hun
dred and fifty miles ?"
His blanket was wet, and he dried
it carefully at the fire. He found he
had a pair of extra moccasins, and
discarded those he was wearing. He
also threw away flannel shirt, some
socks, an old coat, pair of camp
slippers, and two boxes of rifle cart
ridges, as the gun had remained with
t,ashkaugan. He sorted out the
things until he had kept nothing that
was not strictly indispensable.
During his search he found in the
bottom Of his bag a small white sack
which he remembered seeing Ameou
preparing. He had hitherto neg
lected to look into it, but now he
opened it to see whether it also con-
L-r-iLth Oil GIlIll9 Wll1CIl 1lC l-iISilC d1so-
cord. He found little folded piece
Of white paper. For moment his
eyes were dimmed as he saw the
childish writing the girl had devel-
oped under his tuition. Then he
read:
Dere Heart Yellow Hair:
Just bit Writin to carry my
love with you on travel. Hurry
soon home. Maybe little man
Yellow Hair waiting for you
come back.
With love like blk mountains,
AMEOU.
For a moment he sat by the fire
on the beach. It's thin, white smoke
was travelling toward the southwest,
where the woman so dear to him was
waiting, and where, perhaps, a little
man, Yellow Hair" as she had
quantity called him, was lying on the
breast that held such love.
His search of the little sack re-
veaIed his small % pistol and a box
of cartridges. There was also
package of matches done up in lit
tie piece of oil-cloth. Besides these,
he found a pair of the most beautiful
buckskin slippers he had ever seen,
gaily decorated with porcupine quills
and beads. They certainly could net
serve him on his journey, yet he kept
them as if they had been of the
greatest value.
Lorimer's haste had become mad
dening. An overwhelming desire to
be we'll on the desperately long jour
ney ahead of him-grim with dan
ger, fraught with all manner OF
hardship and bitter weariness-over-
came him.
1t took him but a few minutes
more to make up his pack again, u.s.
ing but one bag for everything and
abandoning the other. He swung the
load to his forehead, knowing well
that it's slight weight-some forty
pounds-would often prove an intol-
cradle burden.
He knew enough of the great
woods to fully realize the distressing
toll ahead of him, but he plunged
into the forest like one in pursuit of
some Elusive foe that is bearing
away all that a man may hold pre-
cious.
At nightfall he was exhausted.
After few days his journey became
labor Every step ne Looh gave
him pain, and his only moments OF
rest were when dull apathy took
hold of him and he walked like
man in a dream.
But whenever his mind became
alert he began to count his steps ana
calculate the days and hours and
minutes of his journey-to figure
out the distances travelled and those
remaining.
Whenever he came upon the river
bank, from which he never moved
very far, and saw some Landmark
that he remembered, he was con-
scious of a disappointing realization
that he had again overestimated the
weary miles through alder brakes
and windfall- and quaking marshes.
In some places mile an hour was
an absolutely impossible achieve,
ment. There were so many oosta-
cles to be surmounted, so many turns
and twists to be made around steep
hills ana cliffs, that he often jour
neved for a mile or two when the
course of the river would have been
but a few hundred yards.
once. in despair, seeing the course
of tne sUream III Ions, majestic
curve from. a high hill, he plunged
49, doonar woods. believing he