JrHspHi
■ BY BERTHA £ BUOH
jr.-. p nrson j la th appointed
I i day of Thanksgiving for
B | this' village that the cruel
tide of Indian invasion is
£§? ,urnt> d back and our lives
aro s P arf,, h" said Mistress
gftil Lovejoy Goodwin, bustling
WL Ml ' n *° the warm kitchen
jpTB where her sister-in-law
» R Mistress Prudence Good
's' jg win sat knitting by the
fireplace and her listless
•daughter, young Mistress Patience
Halcomb, bent languidly over the spin
ning-wheel.
Mistress Prudence made a sign for
•Hence, but it was too late. The
:faco of the pale young widow grew
whiter, and without a word she rose
•and glided away.
Mistress Lovejoy looked at her sls
'ter-in-law inquiringly.
"Hath she not yet become recon
■clled to the decree of God?" she asked.
Mistress Prudence shook her head.
"Nay," she said. "She saith ever that
it is not by the decree of God she suf
fers, but by her own wilfulness. If
, I jf\ v
—Lr-' §
TXo 1m
I L&i wl
: ">!
TV m \\
BO
Bent Languidly Over the Spinning
Wheel.
;ahe had not come away from her hus
band against his desires —so she saith
ever—she would at least have died
with him."
"That is wicked repining,' said the
aunt sententiously. "She ought to be
dealt with by the meeting. She
should be thankful that her life was
spared when her neighbors were
taken. Doubtless it was a leading of
the Spirit that caused her to come
here e'er the savages fell upon Wy
oming. She, above all others, surely
has reason to be thankful. You
should deal with her, sister, and check
this untoward spirit," said Mistress
Lovejoy sternly. Mistress Prudence
•sighed.
"I know not rightly how to do it
when she is in such sorrow," she said.
"She hath ever been a willful and un
reasonable child, but a very loving
•one."
"You have ever spoiled her, and her
husband did (he same. Perhaps this
5s a punishment to you both," said
JMistress Lovejoy.
Mistress Patience, a bride of a year,
"had left her home in Wyoming valley
for a visit with her mother in an
older settlement. She had begged and
pleaded to make this visit with a will
ful demand that would uot be denied.
3t was an unusual occurrence. The
journey through the wilderness was
too long and toilsome to think of vis
its. Most of the mothers who said
farewell to daughters going to pio
aoer homes could hardly expect to see
them again. But Mistress Patience—
•who was anything but patient in spite
•of her name—would not submit to this
state of things. She begged and
pleaded togo until her husband—to
•whom her lightest wish was law —gave
his consent. He was the more ready
to do this as there were ugly rumors
•of alliance between the British tory
forces and the Indians and the settle
ment of Wyoming, standing on a dis
puted traet, and not so well protected
as other regions was peculiarly liable
to attack. But Mistress Patience did
not know this or she would not have
gone. She was very much in love
with this grave, middle-aged husband,
■who treated his young wife like a pet
ted child. Many of the settlers had
shaken their heads over Mistress Pa
tience's going. "He ought not to let
her do it," they had said.
"I will only stay a little while. I
will come back soon," she had said
at the parting, regretful at the last
minute for her action. But the sav
age Indians had come down upon the
village of Wyoming and swept it off
from the face of the earth. The houses
were burnt, the people massacred or
carried away captive. Every day
brought h fresh story of horror, espe
cially dreadful had been the tale of
John Halcomb and 15 companions who
had been carried off and sacrificed in
a sort of religious ceremony.
"She must be roused. She must see
people. I would make her goto tha
Thanksgiving service," said Mistress
Lovejoy. She was a notable manager,
and her r.ister-in-law, with all the vil
lage, vfirp wont to submit to her
away; and Patience went to the serv
ice.
"There can never more be a day
of thanksgiving for me," she thought
drearily, as she sat. in her \viilow'»
weeds in the square wooden pew.
Th§ long, long prayer was finished
Patience liked the prayer, for in it she
could hide her face, li was never too
long for her, although a modern
church-goer would be aghast at having
to listen to even a sermon of such
a length. The psalms of rejoicing had
been sung. These had been harder
to bear. The preacher had settled into
his discourse. lie had turned his hour
glass, and was already at "thirdly."
"God in his providence has ex
ceedingly blessed us in delivering
us from danger—he was saying. Pa
tience shuddered. What good was it
to her to be delivered since John had
perished under the Indian tomahawk!
A figure appeared in the doorway.
Such a figure! Gaunt, tattered, wild
eyed. unkempt, barefooted, bleeding—
a mere skeleton covered with ragged
shreds of garments. It stood in the
doorway quivering and motioning
strangely.
"Patience! Patience!" it cried.
" 'Tis some crazy exhorter such as
used to come and harrangue the con
gregations in my grandfather's time,"
said Judge Fletcher, whose ancestor
had been a judge in the days of the
persecution of Anabaptists and
Quakers. The tithing-man stalked
down the aisle to put out the intruder.
Some of the men half rose, but sat
down again when they saw that the
matter was being attended to. It was
a dreadful thing in those days to dis
turb a meeting. But John Halcomb's
widow, unmindful of disturbance, start
ed up at the cry and fairly ran down
the aisle.
"it is John! It is John!' sha
cried.
Never had a religious service in
Hetnleliem ilill been broken up like
this one. The minister stopped in
the very middle of his most important
sentence. The dreaded tithing-man
himself, who bore upon his soul the
awiul responsibility of every man and
woman, boy and girl in the meeting
house, forgot it all and cried out like
a frightened boy: "It is a ghost!"
But it was not a ghost. It was
John Halcomb himself, safe.
The story of the Indian attack on
the village of Wyoming in 177S is a
story of marvelous escapes as well as
of torture and massacre. N'o adven
ture in it seems more marvelous than
that of John Halcomb which is >Mae of
the well attested stories of his
tory.
With 15 other captives, John Hal
comb had been ranged around a large
flat stone while a woman fury called
"Queen Esther," who seemed at the
head of this ceremony of sacrifice of
prisoners, crushed the heads of one
after the other with a great stone
death maul. Two of the captives sud
denly leaped to their feet and dashed
into the forest. The Indians pursued
them but did not shoot, probably be
cause their plan was to bring them
if - . H
l/JL i If
< \
—-—-
1 •. -."• ' . I
' . ; |
A Figure Appeared at the Doorway.
back alive and torture them to death.
One of the two —and it.was John Hal
comb —tripped on a vine and rolled
down the steep river bank. Then he
gave himself up for lost. But the
fall, instead of bringing him to death,
saved his life. He lodged under the
heavy branches of a fallen tree and
the pursuers, sure that he was ahead,
dashed past it without discovering
him. He lay concealed in this lucky
hiding place until darkness came.
Then wounded, lame, and almost fam
ished, he started out on the journey of
days through the trackless forest in
fested with hostile Indians that lay
between him and Patience. A man
less brave of heart would have given
up a score of times, but there was no
give up to John Halcomb. He might
be so weakened that he could only
crawl, but he crawled on. Tottering,
stumbling, crawling, dragging him
j self along his painful way by inches
j and in danger of his life all the way,
I he covered the toilsome miles and
came to make for his wife Patience
a real Day of Thanksgiving.
: iCopyright 1!K)7, by Wright A. Patterson.)
Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving makes our prayers
bold and strong and sweet, feeds
and enkindles them as wilh coals of
i fire. —Luther.
OUR NATIONAL P.! RD3.
"May one give us peaae lb <&11 OUI
States,
i The c-Hior a piece for all ou= mlaW 3
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1907.
IM
G
\ v \ \ ! / / ' / /
N v \ By STANLEY WATERLOO.
»>-^\V
~Behold-t h c r;o wnin g\o year!
The harvesting - is'Miere,— .
A ,mighty and-abundant"yield.
_N-c>r war' nor/ pestilence\has. come; > /; ,-tf
/ 11' V 1 . \ V s - is 1 ft. \-Zr
'Peace still abides throughout the) land;-y
STidtilii'we' O I^ord,-be-creaturcs dum
they' who jefpt "understand
r / \llV\\)Jllgr
1 he bins with
pasturesCijold x tKcir, floclcs, and-.herSs;
They've borne/ their fruit, have^ plain,
r- - ' yA U\ L- J A
C_ione but the .summer/zand the birds: ,;*,// ,
The fire's alight!,inV^e^K
The sun - the
T •'? \ V lt \ \-V ,\I r> •^ V/"® < .V\ .
- w-Life's fabric warp and woof
MM WW
Of what hfe;.
Unbar^d^^fc/licacl^nwln pped Vhe-back,-^
U nkno,\vn y ,the/
B1 essed among 'earth's creaturcs,';\vc7-- -:• r^'^i
r \ Y\-'i ■
In pleasant yp I ace our lines are-cast
Should^e,^ not/know 'it all from
/AncfAvorshipl Thee unto tlie jastr/J^."
/(Mm fk-'i- V&
1 Lord, when fortune-fat, ~ -
and gear have rrlade us coarse.
In \hol/tfd 1 ne'ss, O, teach /us thatj
remember source.
Sturdy in/ trust, welcome-today,^
Nor come ,-w'ith ralterine and tears,
But in proud gratitude, and pray y
The bounty of the future years!
(Ct bj Wright Patterson.)
The Secret o!j
Thanksgiving
By MARGARET AYER
[-"""] SOLITARY and impatient
»-w traveler paced the plat
form of a deserted sta
tion.
t ™S3^" a It was tho evening of
Thanksgiving day, and
through some mischance
he had missed the early
1 rain that was to take him
to town and to Thauks
fnjjkwß giving dinner.
ftrihSMß The spirit of the day
was not with him, for he had two
long hours to wait, and it was bitter
sold, and for some unaccountable rea
son the station was locked.
A flagman came to wat ch for a pass
ing express train. Seeing the travel
er's plight, the flagman invited him
to come into his shack and warm
himself.
The flagman's home was a tiny
place, fitted out with the barest nec
essities, but, in varied contrast to the
surroundings, along one side of the
wall was a rough pine bookshelf con
taining well thumbed volumes of all
that the world holds greatest in liter
ature, philosophy and science.
After a short conversation the trav
eler marvelled to find that the flag
man possessed a fund of knowledge
on most subjects, and of the classics
in particular, which would have put
many a college professor to blush.
"Why don't you leave this solitary
life ot hardship and come to the town,
where with your learning you will
soon be one of the great lights?"
asked the traveler, wondering at the
flagman's lack of ambition. "Have
you no desire to better yourself?"
'"No," replied the other, "I am con
tent with my lot. I have outdoor
work, indoor quiet with the compan
ionship of my books; I make enough
to live on and I want nothing more.
1 should be out of place among your
city folk. My friends are here in the
village. What more should I want?"
For hours the traveler argued with
the flagman, and his home-bound train
passed unheeded. He was Interested
in trying to save this great intellect
for the world, as he termed it, and
trying to awaken some spark of am
bition in tho man, but the flagman re
fused to be disconcerted.
"Are you satisfied with your posi
tion in life—are you contented?" he
asked the traveler.
"01 course not," answered the trav
eler. "I should consider myself lack
ing in spirit if I were satisfied and
lid not want to rise higher in life. I
shall never be contented until I reach
.lie top of tho tree."
Ti on," sairl the flagman, "you are
net .-eilly thankful for the blessings
that you possess, but merely loolt up-
on them as stepping-stones to other
things. I am grateful for what little
1 have and am content to enjoy jjach
day as it comes. You go out into the
world, conquer it, and find your hap
piness in the anticipation of your suc
cess. Leave me to give thanks for
what I am enjoying now, while you
go and fight for what you want and
hope to enjoy later."
So each man went his way.
The traveler in this incident is typi
cal of the spirit of push and advance
ment which is almost universal in this
land of ours today.
A fine spirit it is, too, for it means
a chance for development for the race,
but it also includes the spirit of dis
content.
There is about us a perfect con
tagion of dissatisfaction which is nec
essary to progress, but some of us
are running a fair risk of being
swamped in the discontent and losing
the high aims that prompted it, all
because our aims and demands can
not be gratified at once.
There are few of us who, like the
flagman, are content with our place
in life. Most of us are striving for
more blessings of one kind or another,
spiritual, mental and worldly.
Would that Thanksgiving were held
every day to remind us of the daily
blessings of wiiich evqry one who
lives enjoys at least a few!
AT THE THANKSGIVING DINNER.
Mrs. Duck —You say it has been
nearly a year since your husband dis
appeared?
Mrs. Turk —Yes, the last we heard
of him was that he was seen at the
white house.
Thanksgiving Date.
The last Thursday in the month of
November, as a rule, is the day set
apart by the president, and the govern
ors of most states, in their supple
menial proclamations, abide by his de
cisions. In some states, however, the
governors see fit to observe it at other
dates.
In a Boarding House.
Mrs. Haslily—Mr. Starboard, will
you dismember the turkey?
Starboard —Ask Skinner, ma'am;
he's been taking a course in wooi
carving.
U : WE have the best stocked
general store In the coun.ty
and if yon are looking, fbr re
liable goods at reasonable
prices, we are ready to serve
'* yon with the best to be found.
Onr repntation for trust
worthy goods and fhir dealing
is too well known to sell any
II Onr stock of Queenswaxe and
China ware is selected with
great care and we have some g
H of the most handsome dishes 8
ever shown in this section,
both in imported and domestic
makes. We invite yon to visit
us and look our goods over, B
| Balcom & Lloyd. |
1— !—i ! II—L 11-'-! li.Ml.Ljm Jl—JUJ—ULi'lj- BIJJULJJLU ILUWBBB
|J LOOK ELSEWHERE BUT DON'T FORGET
|| THESE PRICES AND FACTS AT
p LaBAR'S i
U '■ 5?
m
P4 We carry in stock * i M
fc jj the largest line of Car- . nM - p.j
bgi pets, Linoleums and fi/_ l^^lfnwrnTfflla
£2 Mattings of all kinds »■
f3 ever brought to this 112
gpj town. Also a big line
§A very large line ot -FOR THE 1 M
Lace Curtains that can- A *?««««•■ J
not be matched any-
where for the price. UNVKIRSiI UWBIBQ 112.
fra -Art Squares and of line books !n a chrfce IJJsjapy jj^
Rugs of all sizes and select the Idealpattef-njojM^Es-
W kind, from the cheap- Wernicke "EJjtstlc"
M est to the best Furnished with bevel raSich gftj
plate or leaded glass doors.
||| Dining Chairs, «>" •»«»» g^g
Rockers and GEO. J. LajSAB, j£|
fcj# High Chairs. Sola Agent for Camerou Oountj. Igjil
A large and elegant 1 ■■
Eg line of Tufted and
Drop-head Couches. Beauties and at bargain prices.
|3O Bedroom Suit*, COC S4O fVdeboard, quar- If
solid oak at 3>/j tered cak 3011 if
t-® |2B Bedroom Suits, tfU $32 Sideboard, quar- fflßjf'
$ solid oak at 4>ZI tered oak jfcgC %%
|26 Bod room Suits, Ofl |22 Sldeboarjd, qnar- ««c N
| solid oak at .j)/U Cored oak *» N
H A large line of Dressers from Chiffoniers of all kittda and M
N |8 up. | all prices. fcij?
——■— h
The finest line of Sewing Machinps on (f#
the "DOMESTIC." and ''ELDRiß'Gfc.' MoSSf- K
heads and warranted. 5a
A fine line of Dishes, common grade and ©hina, in
*2 6ets Py l^e piece. KS
&jl As I keep a full line of everything that Qpee t® fe|B
Sm| make up a gpod Furniture store, it is useless to ctiwrn
|'| erate th'em all. Jjj'jg
£'| Blease call and see for.yourself that lam K 3
r o you the truth, and if you don't tu.y, there is no
done, as it is no trouble to show godds. |./jj
g GEO. J .LaBAl. I
g* Z3 H? !F&!EE\ TTSf est„ il
kjfojlw. WUCttO Mk m AlkAJk Hfctiitu" A>ahil t ■am.A, vm«.j
3