A PROSPECTIVE WIDOW. 



269 



returned to find his house in ruins. It was a winter 

 night, and the snow lay deep on the ground. Calling 

 aloud, he heard a faint voice reply, and going in 

 the direction from which it came, found his wife 

 stretched on the bed in the snow. Getting together 

 a few boards left from the conflagration, he made a 

 shelter over her. That night she was safely deliv- 

 ered of a child which survived and is now living. 

 But under the exposure and excitement together, 

 the husband took a violent cold, which, having 

 fastened on his lungs, and being resisted by no medi- 

 cal treatment whatever, terminated in the consump- 

 tion. He, however, reared another hut, and during 

 the summer a young settler came in and purchased a 

 tract near by him. His being the only family within 

 a long distance, this backswoodsman often passed the 

 evening in their society. It was not long before he 

 discovered that his neighbor could not long survive, for 

 the most ignorant in this region know all the symp- 

 toms of pulmonary disease which carries off three- 

 fourths of those who die. Accompanying this conclu- 

 sion came naturally the reflection, what would become 

 of the wife ; and as she was good-looking and indus- 

 trious he thought he could not do better than marry 



