Chapter 10

There has been a great loss of potatoes in cellars and pits, as most people had worked themselves into the belief that we were to have a mild winter, and had not prepared their cellars to resist cold at the rate of 30 degrees below zero. The result is that thousands of bushels of potatoes are frozen and ruined, and although the largest crop of potatoes was raised last year that ever was raised in the United States, yet potatoes will be high priced before planting time.

H. A. TERRY. CRESCENT CITY, IA., Jan. 19.

Seed Corn Famine.

Probably nineteen farmers in twenty must buy seed corn for next spring's planting, on account of the failure of the '83 crop to ripen. We must look sharp to the seeds we buy, that they are better than our own, as many unreliable parties will offer inferior stocks, to take advantage of the demand. We suggest that every corn grower should send to Hiram Sibley & Co., the reliable seedsmen at Rochester, N. Y., and Chicago, Ill., for their catalogue and seed-corn circulars. This house makes a specialty of seed-corn and we believe that they will do what they say they will.

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MAPS.

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Size, 4 × 2-1/2 feet, mounted on rollers to hang on the wall. This is an

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Agents wanted, to whom liberal inducements will be given. Address

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By arrangements with the publishers of this Map we are enabled to make the following liberal offer: To each person who will remit us $2.25 we will send copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER One Year and THIS MAP POSTPAID. Address

PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO., CHICAGO, ILL.

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MISCELLANEOUS.

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OUR YOUNG FOLKS

Jule Fisher's Rescue.

It had been an unusually severe winter, even for Northern Aroostook. Snow-fall had succeeded snow-fall, with no interval that could really be called "thaw," till the "loggers" had finished their work; and as they come plodding home on snow shoes, they all agreed that the snow lay from ten to twelve feet deep on a level in the woods.

No wonder, then, that the warm March sun came to shine upon it day after day, and the copious spring showers fell, there should have been a very unusual "flood," or freshet. Every one predicted that when the ice should break in the river, there would be a grand spectacle, and danger, too, as well; and all waited with some anxiety for the "break" to come.

One morning, we at the village were awakened by a deep, roaring, booming, crashing noise, and sprang from our beds, crying:

"The ice has broken up! The ice is running out!"

In hardly more time than it takes to tell it, we were dressed and at the back windows, which looked down upon the river!

It was indeed a grand sight!

Huge cakes of ice of every shape and size were driving, tumbling, crashing past, as if in a mad race with each other. The river, filled to overflowing, seemed in angry haste to hurl its icy burden down the falls below.

But after a few days the river ran clear, save for the occasional breaking of some "jam" above. Along the margin of the broad stream, however, there were here and there slight indentures, or notches, in the banks, where the ice had escaped the mad rush of waters and still clung in considerable patches.

It was upon one of these still undisturbed patches that "Jule" Fisher, a rough boy of fourteen, with several of his equally rough comrades, was playing on the lovely morning upon which my story opens.

These lads were not the sons of the steady, intelligent, church-going inhabitants of this quiet Northern hamlet, but were from the families of "lumbermen," "river-drivers" and "shingle-shavers." For some time they had been having boisterous sport, venturing out upon the extreme edges of the ice and with long poles pushing about the stray cakes which occasionally came within their reach.

At length they grew tired of this, and began to jump upon ticklish points of ice; and as these began to crack and show signs of breaking away, the boys would run, with wild whoops, back to shore, the very danger seeming to add to their enjoyment. Then, with poles and "prys," they would work upon the cracking mass until it floated clear and went whirling down the rapid current.

"Ahoy, boys!" called Jule, who was seemingly their leader. "Up yender's a big cake that only wants a shove! Come on! Let's set 'er a-going!"

No sooner said than done. Away went the noisy fellows to the projecting point of ice. A few smart jumps sent it creaking and groaning, as though still unwilling to quit its snug winter bed. One more jump, and the boys all ran with a shout beyond the place where the ice was cracking off--all save Jule.

It had not broken clear, and he was determined to set it going, when he would spring on the firm ice beyond, as he had done once or twice before.

But this time he was over-bold and not sufficiently watchful. A large cake of ice had come floating down the river unnoticed either by him or his friends, and striking the edge of the nearly loosened mass, shoved it out into the swift, black water.

Poor Jule! He ran quickly to the freshly-broken edge--but, alas! too late for the intended spring. The swiftly-rushing current had borne him many yards from the shore and from his companions.

There he stood--for an instant in dumb amaze--balancing himself upon his rocking raft with the pole he had been using. To attempt to swim ashore would have been useless. He was a clumsy swimmer at best; and the cold, rushing waters and floating ice cakes made swimming almost impossible.

He could not get off. To stay seemed sure death. Dumb with fright, for a moment he stood in speechless terror. Then there rang across the wild, black river and through the quiet streets of the village, such a yell of abject fear as only a lusty lad of that age can give. It was a cry that chilled the heart of every one who heard it.

A "four-days' meeting" was in session. The village church-goers were just issuing from their houses in answer to the church bell, when that pitiful cry and the shouts of "Help! Help! A boy in the stream!" reached them, and drew them all quickly to the river bank.

In a few minutes the shore was lined with excited men and women. Yet all stood helplessly staring, while poor Jule on his ice-raft was floating steadily down toward the falls.

Never shall I forget how he looked as he stood there in the middle of his floating white throne! There was something almost heroic in his calm helplessness. For after the first wild cry, he had not once opened his lips.

Downward he floated, drawn swiftly and surely on by the deep, mighty rush of waters setting into the throat of the cataract. The heavy roar from far below sounded like the luckless lad's knell. He stood but a single chance--and that was hardly a chance--of his ice-raft lodging against a tilted-up "jam" of cakes and logs which had piled against a jagged ledge that rose in mid-stream, just above the brink of the precipice.

This "jam" had hung there, wavering in the flood, for thirty-six hours. Every moment it seemed about to go off--yet still it clung, in tremor, as it seemed, at the fatal plunge which would dash it to pieces in the thundering maelstrom below.

Good fortune--Providence, perhaps--so guided Jule's ice-raft that it struck and lodged against the "jam," just as the horrified watchers on shore expected to lose sight of the lad forever in the falls. "If it will only hang there!" muttered scores, scarcely daring as yet to speak a loud word.

They could see the cake, with Jule on it, heaving up and down with the mighty rhythmic motion of the surging torrent; and all ran along down the banks, to come nearer. The boy stood in the very jaws of death. Beneath, the cataract roared and hurled up white gusts of spray.

Just at this moment, a short, thick-set man, with a round, good-natured face, joined the crowd. For a moment he stood looking out at the lad, then slapping another young man on the shoulder, said, hurriedly, "Isn't there an old bateau stowed away in your shed, Lanse?"

"Yes," was the reply.

"Quick, then!" exclaimed the first speaker. "There isn't a moment to lose."

"But, Mac," answered Lanse, as he hurried after him. "I'm afraid she's no good; she's old and she's been stowed away all winter. Ten to one the old thing leaks like a riddlin' sieve.

"But we mustn't lose a chance!" exclaimed Mac. "That jam will go out within half an hour, if it doesn't within ten minutes!"

By this time the two had reached the shed. They quickly drew the bateau from its wintering place, and taking the long, light boat upon their shoulders, ran rapidly through the village and down to the river.

Meantime, two or three other men had run to fetch "dog warps" and "towing-lines," a large number of which are always kept in these backwoods lumbering hamlets, for use on the rivers and lakes, when logs are rafted out in the spring.

Acting under Mac's prompt orders, a six-hundred foot warp was at once made fast to a ring in the stern of a bateau, and another line laid ready to bend to the first.

Jumping into the bateau, paddle in hand, and a boat-hook laid ready for instant use, the bold young fellow now ordered the men to shove off the skiff into the river and then pay out the line, as he should direct--thus lowering him, yard by yard, down toward the "jam" where Jule stood.

Rod by rod, they let him down toward the roaring abyss of furious waters, till the bateau--guided by the paddle, and held back now by the main strength of twenty men--touched the ice-cake.

But even as it touched, the cake began to slide off the jam; and Jule was thrown on his hands and knees.

Quick as thought, however, his courageous rescuer struck his boat-hook into the ice and held fast while Jule, stiff with fright, tumbled in at the bow of the bateau.

He was hardly in the boat when the whole mass of ice and logs went over the falls.

A shout arose, and when a few minutes later the bateau was drawn safely back up the stream, and Mac stepped ashore with a rather bashful smile on his round, fresh face, every one joined in long and prolonged cheers.

As for Jule, he had to be helped out of the boat and led home; for he was, as they said, "limp as a rag;" and it was noticed that after this perilous adventure he was a much more sober and thoughtful boy.

Pray do not imagine, reader, that I have been telling you a "made-up" story, for what I have related is true, the writer herself being an eye-witness to the incident while a teacher in a backwoods school-district on the banks of the Aroostook.

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LIVE STOCK, Etc.

PUBLIC SALE OF Short-Horn Cattle AT _Somers, Kenosha Co., Wis._ ON Wednesday, March 19, 1884.

I will sell at public sale, at my farm near Somers, Wis., at above time and place, my entire herd of Thoroughbred Short-horn cattle, numbering forty head. Among them are many of the choicest families. Included in the sale will be the grand young bull Orpheus 13th, bred at Bow Park, a beautiful red, and one of the finest bulls in the West. The cows are all Breeders, and will have calves by their sides, or be safe in calf. I offer this grand herd of cattle with reluctance, solely on account of my advanced age and failing health. Catalogues ready about Feb. 15. Lunch at 12. Sale to begin at 1. Free conveyances will meet the trains on morning of sale at Somers, on C. M. & St. Paul, and at Kenosha for C. & N. W. R. R.

WM. YULE, Somers, Kenosha Co., Wis.

J. W. JUDY, Auctioneer.

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10 JERSEY BULLS FOR SALE,

All of fine quality, solid color and bk. points. Ages, from six to eighteen months. Sons of Mahkeenae, 3290; brother of Eurotus, 2454, who made 778 lbs. butter in a year, and out of cows of the best butter blood, some having records of fourteen and fifteen lbs. per week. No fancy prices.

A. H. COOLEY, Little Britain, Orange Co., N. Y.

N. B.--If I make sales as formerly will send a car with man in charge to Cleveland, getting lowest rates.

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SCOTCH COLLIE

SHEPHERD PUPS,

--FROM--

IMPORTED AND TRAINED STOCK

--ALSO--

NEWFOUNDLAND PUPS AND RAT TERRIER PUPS.

Concise and practical printed instruction in Training young Shepherd Dogs, is given to buyers of Shepherd Puppies; or will be sent on receipt of 25 cents in postage stamps.

For Printed Circular, giving full particulars about Shepherd Dogs, enclose a 3-cent stamp, and address

N.H. PAAREN, P.O. Box 326, CHICAGO. ILL.

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_SEEDS_

Our new catalogue, best published, FREE _to all_. 1,500 _varieties_, 300 _illustrations_. You ought to have it. BENSON, MAULE & CO., Philadelphia, Pa.

BREEDERS DIRECTORY.

The following list embraces the names of responsible and reliable Breeders in their line, and parties wishing to purchase or obtain information can feel assured that they will be honorably dealt with:

SWINE.

Chester Whites.

W. A. Gilbert Wauwatosa Wis.

SCHEIDT & DAVIS, DYER, LAKE CO., IND., breeders of Victoria swine. Originators of this famous breed. Stock for Sale. Write for circular A.

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RAILROADS.

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By the central position of its line, connects the East and the West by the shortest route, and carries passengers, without change of cars, between Chicago and Kansas City, Council Bluffs, Leavenworth, Atchison, Minneapolis and St. Paul. It connects in Union Depots with all the principal lines of road between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Its equipment is unrivaled and magnificent, being composed of Most Comfortable and Beautiful Day Coaches, Magnificent Horton Reclining Chair Cars, Pullman's Prettiest Palace Sleeping Cars, and the Best Line of Dining Cars in the World. Three Trains between Chicago and Missouri River Points. Two Trains between Chicago and Minneapolis and St. Paul, via the Famous

"ALBERT LEA ROUTE."

A New and Direct Line, via Seneca and Kankakee, has recently been opened between Richmond Norfolk, Newport News, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Augusta, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati Indianapolis and Lafayette, and Omaha, Minneapolis and St. Paul and intermediate points.

All Through Passengers Travel on Fast Express Trains.

Tickets for sale at all principal Ticket Offices in the United States and Canada.

Baggage checked through and rates of fare always as low as competitors that offer less advantages.

For detailed information, get the Maps and Folders of the

GREAT ROCK ISLAND ROUTE,

At your nearest Ticket Office, or address

R.R. CABLE, Vice-Pres. & Gen'l M'g'r,

E. ST. JOHN, Gen'l Tkt. & Pass. Agt.

CHICAGO.

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MISCELLANEOUS.

Don't be Humbugged With Poor, Cheap Coulters.

All farmers have had trouble with their Coulters. In a few days they get to wabbling, are condemned and thrown aside. In our

"BOSS" Coulter

we furnish a tool which can scarcely be worn out; and when worn, the wearable parts, a prepared wood journal, and movable thimble in the hub (held in place by a key) can be easily and cheaply renewed. WE GUARANTEE OUR "BOSS" to plow more acres than any other three Coulters now used.

OUR "O. K." CLAMP

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Manufactured by the BOSS COULTER CO., Bunker Hill, Ills.

* * * * *

My Vegetable and Flower Seed Catalogue for 1884, the result of thirty years experience as a Seed Grower, will be sent free to all who apply. All my Seed is warranted to be fresh and true to name, so far that should it prove otherwise, I agree to refill orders gratis. My collection of vegetable Seed, one of the most extensive to be found in any American Catalogue, is a large part of it of my own growing. As the original introducer of Eclipse Beet, Burbank Potatoes, Marblehead Early Corn, the Hubbard Squash, and scores of other new Vegetables, I invite the patronage of the public. In the gardens and on the farms of those who plant my seed will be found my best advertisement.

JAMES J. H. GREGORY, Seed Grower, Marblehead, Mass.

* * * * *

Send for Catalogue and Prices.

ATLAS ENGINE WORKS

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., U.S.A.

MANUFACTURERS OF

STEAM ENGINES AND BOILERS.

CARRY ENGINES and BOILERS IN STOCK for IMMEDIATE DELIVERY

* * * * *

SIBLEY'S TESTED SEEDS,

For all Climates, For all Soils, All Plants.

EVERY SACK TESTED FOR VITALITY. ALL TESTED IN GARDENS FOR PURITY AND VALUE.

CATALOGUE AND PRICE LIST OF ALL TESTED VARIETIES, FREE.

Mail order promptly filled, making a Seed Store at home. Send for Catalogue.

HIRAM SIBLEY & CO., Rochester, N Y. and Chicago, Ill.

* * * * *

LITERATURE.

BETWEEN THE TWO LIGHTS.

No use talking, missy--no use talking 'Bout de daylight and dat kind ob ting 'Tween the two lights--sunset and sunrising-- Dis ole nigger happier dan a king. Dis ole nigger don got all he want to, All he want, and more 'an he can say; Gib him night, de darker and de better, White folks more 'an welcome to de day.

In de day him ole and pore and wretched, Got to tote de load and swing de hoe, Got to do jest what de white folks tole him, Got to trabel when dey tole him go. Don't own nothing but an empty cabin; Got no wife, no chillen at him knee; Got no nothing but a little pallet, And a pot to bile him hominy.

In de day him gits no 'spectful notice, Him is only "dat ole nigger Brown;" In de night him tells you, little missy, Things git mightily turned upside down. Den somehow him's young and rich and happy, Den him own more acres dan him see: Den him got a powerful lot ob hosses, Den de white folks stop an speak to he.

Den him hab a big house like ole massa's, Dan Melinda is him lubly wife; Den de little chillen call him pappy, Den him see de bery best ob life. Den sometimes him talking in de meeting. An' him feel de biggest in de town, For at night him neber "dat ole nigger," Him the Reberend Mister Isaac Brown.

"Dreaming," is him? Dreaming, do you call it? Then him s'pose it's living in de day. Well, him likes de night-time and de dreaming, For him griefs wid sunshine go away. No use talking, missy, no use talking 'Bout de sunshine and dat kind ob ting; 'Tween de two lights--sunset and sunrising-- Dis ole nigger happier dan a king.

THE TWO OVERCOATS.

When Amos Derby came out of Levi Rosenbaum's pawnshop, the richer by five dollars, but leaving his overcoat in the hands of the Jew, he made his way directly to Sillbrook's saloon, where, he felt sure, he should meet half a dozen at least of his boon companions.

He was not mistaken. The bar-room was crowded, and a general shout of welcome greeted him as he entered, for Amos was a generous fellow, and was always willing to treat.

The five dollar bill was quickly broken by the jovial bar-keeper, and two hours later when Amos waked rather unsteadily out of the saloon, he had not a cent in his pocket. But this did not trouble him in the least. He had spent too much money in Sillbrook's during the last two years to think anything of squandering in one evening such a paltry sum as five dollars.

As he left the saloon by the main entrance, he saw a man emerge from a side door of the building, and cross the street with rapid strides; a tall man, well dressed, and bearing about him a look of prosperity. He wore a very handsome overcoat with sealskin cuffs and collar, a sealskin cap, and well fitting gloves. Drunk as Amos was he recognized him at once; it was Sillbrook himself.

"Been in the back room countin' up his gains, most likely," he muttered thickly. "He's above standin' behind the bar nowadays."

Amos could well remember when Sillbrook had been only a mill-hand like himself, earning twelve dollars a week. But he had been a prudent, saving man always, and had early made up his mind to be rich, no matter at what cost of conscience and principle. With this end in view he had purchased a saloon, and cordially invited his former fellow workers at the mill to patronize him. This they were very willing to do, for Sillbrook knew how to make his saloon attractive; and he soon had as much custom as he could well attend to. At length he hired a bar-keeper, and after a couple of years was never seen behind the bar himself. He had grown rich very rapidly, and now owned one of the finest houses in the town, and was able to gratify every taste and whim, while those who had helped him to his wealth by drinking his liquors were as poor as ever--many of them poorer.

Amos Derby had been one of Sillbrook's best customers ever since the saloon had been opened, and as a natural consequence had had little to spend in comforts for his wife and children. He still lived in the small cottage he had bought on first moving to the town, and had seen it grow more and more dilapidated every year without making any attempt to repair it.