Year: 1871

| From the Springfield Republican.


Johnny lived in one of the little
cities of the far West, with crowd
of brothers and sisters, only one of
whom was younger than himself,
and he was five years and a half
old. One Sunday last August, his
father, being at liberty from his
work, got a team to carry his moth
er and the baby to ride, and Johnny
went too. They rode out in the
| country a few miles to the house of
a friend, who treated them to water
melons. Johnny gnawed out the
| sweet juicy inside of his slice, and
looking at the rind, thought what a
| nice little boat it would make. "I'm
going down to the spring to sail my
boat" he said, and off he ran, bare
headed as he was.


The spring was some distance
from the house, but there was 4
good path all the way, and Johnny
had been down to it once when he
was there before. But there were
other paths branching off, and some
how Johnny struck into one ofthese
and kept running on, expecting ev-
cry moment to come to the spring.
But the path dwindled away and
finally disappeared entirely, and
Johnny, in wandering on and trying
to find it again, got completely be-
wildercd, for the house was out of
sight, and what was he to do?


Any one who has never seen the
Western prairies can hardly mag
inc the tircsomc lengths in which
they stretch out, with the most tedi-
Gus samencss. This was not levc!
prairie, but rolling-a swell, then a
ravinc, another swell, and another
ravine, and so on, all looking much
alike. Among these johnny wan
dered till he was tired, trying to
find the house and calling for father
and mother.


When a long time passed and he
did not come back to the house, his
parents grew uneasy, and fearing
he had fallen into the spring, his
ather went down to look for him,
but found neither Johnny nor his
boat. They went out to hunt for
him, and called in every direction,
but he was by this time too far away
to hear them.


Poor little fellow. The sun beat
down so hot on his head, and the
coarse prairie grass hurt his bare
feet, hut still he wandered on, all
sweaty, and dusty, and tcar-stained,
until the sun set and darkness came
on-for in those prairie countries
the two events are very near togeth-
er. He was very hungry and tired,
but there was neither supper nor
bed for him; so he lay down among
some bushes in a dry ravine, and ate
the watermelon rind which he had
carried in his hand all the while,
and he was so hungry that the rind
tasted better even than the inside
did in the afternoon. lie sat up ard
stared about in the darkness and
felt afraid. "Father! mother!" he
called as loud as he could in his ter
ror; but there was no one to answer,
and, the big tears rolling down his
cheeks, he lay down again and cried
till he fell asleep. But he did not
sleep very well for the night dews
went through his thin cotton clothes,
and made him so chilly that time
and again through the long night
he woke up shivering, and seeing
the stars shining over his head, re-
membered where he was, and lay
trembling as much with fear as with
cold.


When his parents could not find
him, his father rode quickly back to
town and spread the alarm. The
men and boys started out with dogs
and guns and torches and horns;
and all that night, and Monday and
Monday night, and part of Tuesday
they kept up the search.


And how do you suppose Johnny
Jared all this while? lie was glad
when daylight came Monday morn
ing, for then he was not afraid, and
he thought he might find his way
home before nj ght, for he was hun
CRY enough, and kept sharp look
out for something to eat. All he
could find was an occasional bunch
Of the little sour wild grapes, and
sometimes on wild gooseberry
bush he would find ripe goosebeL-
ry, half dried up. AS the sun grew
hot he became sweaty, which made
him very thirsty, but he could sell
dom find any water, for it had been
such dry season. When he did
find any, he had nothing to drink
from, so he would lie down flat, and,
putting his mouth to the water.
drink rs well as he could.


just before night on Monday, he
saw boy on horseb ok away in
the distance. Johnny forgot how
tired he was and ran toward him
with all his mi ght, calling rs loud
as he could, "Wait for me! wait for
mel" But the boy was too far away,
and neither saw nor heard him, bu,
kept riding on. Johnny ran the
faster, and called the louder, till he
stumbled and fell headlong and
when he got up again, the boy was
out of sight. Then all Johnny's
stirred" came back to him, and lying
down in the grass, he cried till he
went to sleep, for he thought he
must wander about till he starved