Page:The Country Boy.djvu/145

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THE COUNTRY BOY
137

help me, then this man that we yelled to in the storm, came unsolicited and came every day and stood to the windward side of the house and asked after my needs. But,” said father again, “I would have done that for him, although smallpox in those days was looked upon as death itself. But I wouldn’t go with Jake to-night if he gave me all of his money. Common sense wouldn’t permit me to go into those mountains to-night. It’s only a few hours till morning, then I’d go, but not to-night, no siree! I owe too much to my own family.”

We really hated to go to bed, it was such a pleasure to have such a strong character so forcibly impressed upon our minds. Morning came, the poor landscape looked bewildered; it had been through an awful night. The trees were resting, they hadn’t had much sleep and they looked tired and worn out. The streams were out of their banks, and we heard of some bridges that were gone, down on the prairie.

We were afraid we would hear that Jake’s body had been found. We went over to see his wife to see if his horse had come home, and