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A Baby Lost In The Woods
by
In the morning the children played about while the mother got breakfast. When the meal was over, Mr. Craig and the hired man went to look for one of the horses that had strayed away. Baby Ben climbed into his mother’s lap, as she sat upon the log, and fell asleep. In order to have things all packed by the time the men returned, the mother laid the little fellow on some long dry grass that grew among the boughs of a fallen tree. When the father returned, it was nine o’clock. He hurried the mother upon her horse among the pots and pans, saying that he wished to overtake a company of travelers that was ahead of him, so as to travel more safely.
“Now fetch me the baby,” said Mrs. Craig.
“No, mother, please let the baby ride with me again,” said little Betsey, just come back from washing her face in the creek.
“All right,” said Mrs. Craig. “Put the baby on with the children. This horse is slow, and I will ride on. You can bring the other horses, and catch up with me soon.”
By the time the second horse was loaded, and George and Betsey were stowed away in their baskets, both the father and Betsey had forgotten about the baby. The mother had got so far ahead that it took the other horses nearly an hour to overtake her’s.
“Where is the baby?” cried the mother when she looked back and saw but two children on the horse behind.
Sure enough, where was the baby? Lying under a tree top in the lonesome woods, where there might be fierce wolves, great panthers, or hungry wildcats.
Mr. Craig was almost frantic when he thought of the baby’s danger. He stripped the things from the middle horse, and sprang on his back, gun in hand. He laid whip to the horse, and was soon galloping back over the rough path. For more than an hour the mother and children waited with the hired man, to learn whether the baby had been killed by some wild animal or not.
At last the sound of Mr. Craig’s horse coming back was heard, and all held their breath. As the father came in sight in a full gallop, he shouted, “Here he is, safe and sound! The little rascal hadn’t waked up.”
Mrs. Craig and Betsey shed tears of joy. George turned his face away, and wiped his eyes with his coat sleeve. He wasn’t going to cry: he was a boy.