Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Cowboys -- Juvenile fiction; Prairies -- United States -- Juvenile fiction
Jack was soon able to give an account of his adventure in the blizzard,
and expressed great anxiety about the fate of his friend, Champion Joe.
'It's madness to look for him to-night,' said George Wilson, 'but I'll
be out first thing and seek him in the morning.'
It was a great relief to them all when about daybreak the next day they
were roused by a knock at the door, which proved to be the hunter
himself. He had come to ask for help in finding his missing companion,
and you may imagine his joyful surprise to learn that Jack, in spite of
the storm, had safely reached home and his journey was over! The mule
had managed to struggle to the creek, where he and his master had
sheltered among the quaking aspens until morning, the latter being in
an agony of mind all night about Jack.
The buckboard was brought to the Wilsons' house with great difficulty
during the day, and Buckskin and Rufus had to lend their services to
drag it, light as it was, through the terrible snowdrifts. The road
was so bad, Champion Joe had to stay two or three days with Jack's
people; but he did not grudge the delay, as he had become very fond of
his little travelling companion, and he was delighted to see the
happiness of the three who had been parted so long.
Jack's mother had grown much stronger, and there was every hope of her
perfect recovery after a longer residence in their new home.
The evening of the next day after his return home, Jack was sitting
with the others round the stove, and, with his hand clasped tight in
his mother's, gave them an outline of his adventures, through which we
have followed him. They listened breathlessly, and the mother grew
pale at the description of his desertion and subsequent illness. What
risks her child had run!
When he had finished they were all silent for a short time; then his
mother said, 'God has been good to us. Here have we been mourning you
as dead, and all the time He was leading you to us through all these
perils and dangers. Have you forgot the hymns we used to sing at
Longview, Jack?'
'No, Mother; I've sung them many a time. Jeff and Pedro liked to hear
them ever so well. Let's have some to-night.'
'We will, Jack,' said his father. 'It would be quite like the old
days.'
Soon the log-house resounded with their voices as they sang their
favourite hymns. When they had finished up with the last lines of
'And nightly pitch my moving tent
A day's march nearer home.'
Jack exclaimed, 'Somehow I feel as if I've got safe home now!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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