Year: 1873

| PVp III iiOhb vi tuc hOOi vi tho
There was hush of voices and a reverent
look upon the part of some Of the men,
and a snicker and digging In the neighbor's 8
ribs upon the part OF others, as q large,
coarse featured woman was helped out of
the.wagon by the driver of the team.


This female was the famous fortune wo-
man. Some of these dwelers on the edge
of the Wilderness were no better than the
classic Greek or noble Roman of ancient
times, for they believed in divination.
| The fortune woman went into the house
where the mother of Willie sat crying
The men crowded the room and windows
and door. Some OF the men looked SOL
emn, some ieered. Out at the door Josh
explained apologetically to the unbeiev-
ers that, "inasmuch as some thinks as how
she can tell, and some thinks as how she
cant, so 1t were thought best for to go and
fetch her, so as that all might satisfactory
themselves, and no fault found, and every
thing done for the little boy"


After brief sednce with the teacup In
| the house, the fortune-woman, urged by
the men, went "out of DOORS" aud walked
along up the hollow with her teacup, ex-
perimenting to find the child. About half
of the men struggled after her. Jim de-
clared to the group who fingered at the
house that he would sell out and leave, If
the entire crowd disgraced the town by fol-
lowing after that "old She devil"
To stranger coming upon the field at
this time, the scene was curious and pic
turesque, and some of 1t unaccountable.
In the background there was a vast de-
scending plain of evergreen forest, sloping
away from the Adirondack highlands to
the dim distance of the st. Lawrence VAL
ley, where could be seen the white, thread
like line of the great river, and still be-
yond the Canada woods melting away to
measureless distance of airy blue. In the
foreground was vulgar old woman wad-
ding along and snatching here and there
teacup full of water from the puddles
formed by the melting snow; and fifty Wig
Orous men in awe struck attitudes were
gazing at her, and when she moved they
followed after her.


odd as this grotesque performance SEEM
ed, it had in it touch of the old heathen-
ish grandeur belonging to the old super
stitions. The same strange light that
through all time has shone from human
faces as souls reach after the great infinite
unknown, shone from the faces of some of
these men. There were fine visages among
them. Burly Josh and hunter with dark,
poetic eyes would have been match for
handsome, pious Eneas of the heroes of
Hellas, who watched the flight of birds
and believed in a fortune woman at Del
phes.


But the simple faith Of these modern
worshippers was not rewarded; after the
Greek pattern the oracle gave ambiguous
responses. The old woman proclaimed,
with her eyes swapping venomously, that
there was "a big black baste a standin
over the swate child" She announced
with a swing of her right arm extending
around half a circle that "the dear, inno-
cent darlin' was somewhere about of that
way from the house." She scolded the
men sharply for their laziness, telling them
they had not looked for the lost child, but
were waiting around the house, "while the
dear innocent baby starved, and the big,
black baste stood over him.


Dan caught at this and declared that the
"old bypocrite" was no fool. She knew
enough TO understand that it was "no way
to find a lost boy to shell out Il whole town.
ship of able bodied men and set them TO
chase an old woman around.a lot"


The fortune woman came back to the
house, held final grand seance with the
teacup divinity, and declared that the
IN obi
the place, and If they would only. look
they would find him, and If they did not
look, within two days the "big black baste
would devour the poor neglected darlin'."
After this the fortune woman was put into
the wagon again, and Josh drove her home.
1t was fully in accordance with the known
perversity of human nature that the faith
of the believers in her infallibilily was not
in the slightest degree shaken.


The company, having been increased by
fresh arrivals to more than one hundred
men, now organized for the search. The
colonel ranged the men in line about twen-
ty feet apart, extending across h, wide
stubble-tield and the pasture. The men
were directed By the colonel to "dress to





each to watch the man at his left and keep
twenty feet from him and observe all the
ground in marching.


The word was given, and the line more
than half mile long, began to move side
ways or platoon fashion, sweeping from the
road by the house across the clearing to the
woods. 1t was a grand charge upon the
great wilderness. The long platoon, under
the instruction of their commander, swept
the woods bordering the clearing, and then
made semi-crcular curves, going deeper
and deeper at each return into the prime
val forest. The limit of their marching
and counter marching in one direction was
a river too broad to be crossed by fallen
trees it was sure that Willie could not
have crossed the river. The termination Of
the march in the other direction was con-
trolled by the judgment of the colonel. 1t
was magnificent tramp through the wild,
wet woods, under the giant trees, every
eye strained and expectant of the lost boy.
Here and there, in advance of the line as 1t
progressed, a partridge, aroused by the
voices Of the men, would start from the
underground, and trip along Tor a few steps
with her sharp, coquettish quit, quit, and
then whirr away TO some adjacent hollow
to be soon again aroused by the alvancing
line.


The afternoon was wearing away. The
woods had been thoroughly explored for
about two miles from the clearing, far be-
yond what 1t seemed possible for an infant
less than four years old to penetrate.


The colonel said he could think OF moth
Ing more to be done. The men returned
in struggling groups to the farm house
tired, sad, hungry and dispirited. There