Show t from prom Cli chi chamber ambers journal AN ICE ADVENTURE it is now several years since that I 1 was wag re turning from the survey of the northwestern district of lake superior superiors my portion of the duty being finished winter with its winds avd and deep snows had already set in and end bonstead nOn stead instead of the usual lake voyage my journey to the land of civilization had to be performed in a sleigh each day I 1 took my wyt over roads roada whose ruts the snow had filid filled while my horses bells rang gaily out thi through rough the snow clad forest whose pendant it cles cies flashed in the sun rays like a fruitage and when night came I 1 never failed af of a welcome beneath the bark root of the nearest settler where my news albeit five months old was wan more prized than my dollar dollars and my french canadian servant with his broken english jests and his sweet old provencal venc ai songs was more regarded than bly iny self seif we had passed lake superior and were threading the forest bordering lake huron when ubea one evening we came to a better cultivated farm than usual and slopped at the door of a large farmhouse farmhouses farm house housep w where b ere the scraping of fiddles riddles and echoing of feet announced one of those blithesome frolics with which the settlers at intervals lighten the monotony of backwoods ack woods life on such occasions occasional every guest is welcome and we were rapturously received though the house bouse was crowded to suffocation but it soon appeared that this was an extraordinary festival being for the bridal of our oar hosts daughter whom all these friends who came caie iron from many miles round were to accompany to see the knot tied on the morrow borrow what a joyous scene it wasl wab was how they jested and laughed till the masic was almost drowned and despite the crusk crush danced Iner merrily rily unil the spruce and juniper wreaths trembled on the walls and the forest of can dies flickered above our heads beads now footing fooling old forgotten dances with the rosy bridesmaids bride maids in their yet redder ribbons now clustering in triumph round the soft eyed bride brid the fair fairest est flower I 1 ever saw in that wild region 1 the bun SUB rose on our unwearied revels reveis usher inc ing in the wedding day A hearty breakfast was dispatched and then one and all for I 1 deferred my journey in honor of the occasion I 1 prepared to escort the bride on her way y 71 through brough many of the backwoods settlements clergymen have never pass passe edland dand troths trotha are lawfully plighted before the nearest magis trat but on the present occasion it chanced that a clergyman was visiting his brother at a farm some twenty miles distant and anti the win lin marriage arriage was hurried that the bride might IV haye have the advantage of a parsons parson li wedding sm ZIA two horse sleigh being the best beat appointed vehicle in company I 1 placed it at the brides disposal and we were soon pee speeding berding per ding through h 19 the foreit forest followed by a bevy ot of sleighs and d rains trains filled with a laughing crowd and while white the sleigh eleigh bells beila rang out the merriest merri eit yo boals pai ris kis als the young settlers played wild choruses upon their iorns lorns until the old woods echoed with their minstrelsy about midday mid day we reached our destination but we had to await the conclusion of arother another ceremony it was a wedding and the strange est I 1 ever saw for the bride was portly the bridegroom ride groom tf fizzled grizzled and they made the re wi with a deci decision ion lon which showed they had lad quite bite made up their minds white while occupy IN ig t the e bride maids maidel station in the rear was aji an openmouthed open mouthed cluster of wondering jure himles emles the ofra offspring pring of the bride and bride I 1 groom who had long been legally as they geere were now religiously married A the young peoples turn was next and anddess deat agite ite the st struggles aggles of the little ones aid the boisterous boi olst boisterous serous erous laughter of their elders they were all ail duly christened and then led away by leir their newly wedded parents amid a hurricane hurn cano jil of f congratulations and cheers which lasted until antil they bad driven on in the two trains awaiting them a then came the weddin wedding of our own fair ande and she seemed ah acost i oost scared to find how solemn were the words which bound her sto j 6 share bare the burdens as well as joys of her bridegroom but bub she bhe had always meant todo to do lind taking heart of grace she sue smiled ha hap P he handed battled her into my sleigh for the ritu journey again we ire swept through the H butti bli ali with laugh and jest and in the intervals antoine sante sang jubilant bridal pan nand dand trolled strolled old ballads of love and juart marriage iloe lige enough to have turned Hymen ward a wb ole oie community but after a time there w re bone hone but the newly wedded and myself tt JT 16 0 listen for tor my highbred high bred horses horbes tresh fresh as ib rhan rhen e we ire star nj abad had far out sped the heavy steeds of the other travelers and were run A jiing aing them out of sight and hearing let us go by the lake bhore shore cried the bridegroom 11 hen see the tumble inowe in lwe we will be home yet betre bet betre re they are the e idea was highly approved by by the new tale rale made tade wife adi ani as I 1 was somewhat weary ue tile monotony of the woodis w boils I 1 r adaily 11 aeed geed ili ile iii ee ried ed between us and the shore was a guilt filled with frozen snow which brought us to the broad belt of ice bordering the ibe land beyond was the lake which beyond aa so far as we A e coul could bee see stretched a vast expanse anise arise of blue refreshing to the eye wearied by Y tie universal whiteness and troubled by a recent gale it heaved and rolled in hea heavy v y swells whose very action was cheer ng ing amid the deadly stillness meanwhile we bowled raer merrily rily on om over the wavy ices ice which flashed and sparkled in a thousand blinding and korge jorge gorgeous ous rays beneath our horses feet while od on oar our left the land rose into lofty bromon tories crowned crowded with battlements of isnow hanow or swept back into deep baja bays bordered nith with pine forest fores tp or with vast expanses of drea dreary 11 where the loon made her nest among the moss and the th water snake lurked beneath the rushes at length a dep reverberation announced announce i the tumble a succession of foaming cascades by abich the wate wates a tf f a lofty river niver found their way into the lakeland lake and whose picturesque beauty was enhanced by the long lines of glittering icicles which fringed th the berhang 1 i g rocks and the glacier like cone of ice the spray had raised before it this duly admired we pressed on for the short day was waa dr drawing abitt to a close and just jut as the sun sank behind the pine crest of a distant headland we came t to 0 a wide estuary whose further point it formed beyond was lle ile the lie farm and I 1 we urged the horses to a swifter pace for I 1 with the suns departure came ti great access of cold the estuary some eight mils wide stretched dee deep into the land and to save time we drove straight raight acoss the rast vast sheet of ice which bridged it night fell as we proceeded but though the moon had bad not yet risen the misty reflection of the snow lighted ua us on our way and ahead was the pro bonto y ab showing owin g darkly against the starlit sky 1 I we e I 1 had bad about b t reached the centre of the bay when 1 a end sud sudden ien fen report like a discharge of artill artillery erys eryl filled the air and rolling back over the ice I 1 was repeated by the thousand I echoes of the wilds it was the unmistakable sound of cracking ice and without a word I 1 put the horses to their speed the next moment a yet louder and sharper concussion broke on th the e silence quickly followed bya by a third which sounded as if it rent the ice asunder at ence once the truth flashed upon ui us As often happens the heavy swell of that great inland sea was breaking up the solid ice ana ano an so nr feir from land among the shattering fragments fraz frag ments menta we were in a position of the utmost peril in which our only resource was flight and again I 1 urged OB on our bounding steeds meantime my companions peered eagerly into the dimness seeking to discover whre the danger lay but the silvery haze baillen them and we could only speed on an blindly at length our horses stopped and looking before them we perceived a dark belt of having h water the crack was across our rath and the chasm was too broad for eur our ur horses to leap all left us therefore was to turn landward and hurry on if haply harly we might outstrip the danger banwer but with each step the gap beside us widened id ened until it almost resembled a river then it turned again and to our co coi ster nation we discovered that the ice had bad I 1 parted 0 on either side bide of 0 ua us cut cottine tine w as off troia land and leaving us ift floating on a large urge island I 1 of ice which the swift current of the river niver web wes already alread y dairin drilias rapi rapidly dy I 1 out upon the lake what a sudden budden adimay came over us its as we gazed at the increasing chasm no effort of oura ours could bridge the bridegroom was wa eager to swim the space and bear tidings to the fam arm but it would only have been a useless sacrifice of life for long ere he had gone half the distance be he would gave have died in his frozen clothes there was but one chance left that we might yet bit on some project in point of the lake shore but as our raft floated steadily further and further farther out from land that last hope vanished and before lonz long we w who had latey lately been so on joyous stood adly sadly watching be the white outline of the hila bils ade tade fade into the night as they whose last sight of land it was wits and with the sorrowful knowledge that the only doubt remaining on our doom was whether we should perish miser amy ably upon our frozen resting retting place or be swept off into the ice cold waters of the lakel it was a terrible prospect and the remembrance that we had bad in a manner brought the evil upon our own beads increased its bitter n tf tenfold ld had we but apprised any one of 0 our route when we diverged from the usual track we should undoubtedly have been sought for in canoes and most probably abr rescued while as it was the blind path by which we turned off to the shore would put them there all at fault the bridegroom ls self reproaches were keenest of any fer far lie he felt himself the destroyer of the bride so lately committed to h a care while the poor gil gli girl pirl rl wept in utter abandonment of spirit not only for fon the blighting of her bright hopes antl anil for the young youngs life she must so shortly render up tip but for the sudden parting from the beloved ones she should never see again meanwhile the moon rose in the deep blue sky making beautiful flooding our ice raft with its silvery light qu uv vering eting in broken rays on the broad lake which now rolled in waves around asp us and shining like a cloty on the distant hills bills giving us one more gance at earth but was intense from the frozen north swept over ever the lake in fitful gusts and seemed to lat purce puree ace us like icy sr arrows ae a and though boughs wrapped d in the heavy sleigh Z furg furs we I 1 crouched bed Led within its n ayrow limits we could scarce endure the rigor of the night ht and worse than all our fair companion had to share these hardships with no protection save the most sheltered corner ot of the sleigh aleigh and the warmest wrapper yet she never murmured but with the gentle heroism dofher sex laid her head bead silently and now ter lessly on ler LIT husbands and I 1 thought she prayed day at last broke on this night ot of misery and desolation the ile imperceptible current ot of the lake had swept us out of sight eight of land and the huge mass of ice ic lay steady as an rh asand among the bur sur rounding waves wavea we told ourselves we had bad no hope of rescue yet long and anxiously vi v e watched the circling horizon barizon tor for voine soine sign of clothing aid add and it was wag with a deeper despon lepon dency ency we di discovered I 1 sc that as tar far a as the eye could reach there was nothing but lake and sky save on one spot some five miles distant where floated a fragment of our rait raft which cracked from the commencement had parted during the night be bearing aring i aay away with it both our horses and as the lay day wore w orb ore on another I 1 hardship was added which redoubled all the rest that of hunger since the preceding mornin morning t we had bad eaten nothing and our long exposure exposi re to the cold began to make the want severely felt while though many many birds flew lew over the lake not one came within reach of our rifles rides to soften this new calamity I 1 two days passed and no words can tell the intensity of our sufferings as we floatation floated floate ilon tion on that frozen prison which the winds and waves appeared ppe ared powerless to destro destroy each hour served but to augment our misery and when I 1 t the be third lay day broke upon us cold and exhaustion I 1 t wre were fast doing their work and we lay helplessly in the corners of the sleigh as it seemed about to die but the young bride still bore up whether it was the unbroken vigor of her youth sustained her or that marvelous endurance of her sex which has BO so often carried them thern through wreck and tempest I 1 know not but she was still comparatively and while she drew our ouri coverings coverings more closely bouvil roul d us she earnestly earnt ly en entreated us still to hope and trust I 1 began to think with horror that a time would shortly come when the unhappy girl would be b e left alone upon the ice thus another night closed on our sore extremity tre mity and we did not think to live it out As the hours passed a furious storm arose upon the lake lashing its waters into foaming billows which dashed against our raft as if they sought to shatter it to pieces clouds i black as ink rolled over the sky and appe ired j to nil fill the air and to crown all the faintness of our hunger was succeeded by raging pains almost beyond endurance and yet which seemed hourly to increase never have I 1 suffered as I 1 did that night it was well nigh maddening and many times as we sat cowering within the sleigh listening to the rushing of the waves did we almost pay that they would overwhelm our raft at once and end our misery at length this desire seemed granted there was a sudden crash and a violent concussion aa as though wt we had bad 11 truck struck upon a rock and the billows beat and anil roared more wildly than ever but in the darkness we could distinguish nothing and pressing down our hunger we sat with clasped hands and bowed heads awaiting our doom white we still waited the dawn crept over twe the sky bwy and owr our indomitable bride springing up uttered a cry of joy hen then threw herself weeping in her husbands hus hua banda arms B bore fore MB us rising in bills and valleys lay the snow clad dad land and against it its icy border our raft was tightly in we it not gale he had hid d blown flom the south and by tle tie the mercy of providence Providen cep cej it had driven ua us back to the northern shore chore of the lake and thus saved our lives not far off the ascending smoke announced a dwelling but we had hail no strength to reach it so we fired our rifles a signal which quick ly brought the inhabitants to the hore thore th they proved to have been mern wern members bers berb of the late wea wed ding frolic and nothing |