do you understand what tim hunter did? had the mass of timber descending upon him and his sister been unchecked, they would not have lived an instant. had it been shattered into small fragments by the cyclone, the ingenious precaution which a wonderful presence of mind enabled hint to make, would have been of no avail.
take a block of seasoned oak, six inches through, and two feet in height, and interpose it squarely against an approaching body and it is almost as powerful in the way of resistance as so much metal. it would take an ironclad to crush it to pulp, by acting longitudinally or along its line of length. this block stood upright, and received a portion of the rafters, covered by the shingles and held them aloft as easily as you can hold your hat with your outstretched arm. from this point of highest support, the debris sloped away until it rested on the floor, but the open space, in which the brother and sister lay, was as safe as was their situation, before the gale loosened the structure.
tim called to his sister and found that not so much as a hair of her head had been harmed, and it was the same with himself. all was darkness in their confined quarters, but the wrenched framework gave them plenty of air to breathe.
who can picture the feelings of the father, when he saw the collapse of the roof of the barn and knew that his two children were beneath? he rushed thither like a madman, only to be cheered to the highest thankfulness the next moment at hearing their muffled assurances that both were all right. a brief vigorous application of his axe and the two were helped out into the open air, neither the worse for their dreadful experience.
the parent could hardly believe what had been done by his boy, when maggie told him, until an examination for himself showed that it was true. he declared that neither he nor anyone would have thought of the means and applied it with such lightning quickness. it certainly was an extraordinary exhibition of presence of mind and deserved all the praise given to it. the brereton intelligencer devoted half a column to a description of the exploit and prophesied that that "young man" would be heard from again. for weeks and months there was nothing at the disposal of mr. hunter which was too good for his boy and it is probable that the indulgence of that period had something to do with making tim dissatisfied with the prospect of spending all his life as a "hewer of stone."
gradually as the effects of the remarkable rescue wore off, the impatience of the parent grew until we have seen him on the point of calling to account the boy who had really been the means of saving two lives, for his own was as much imperilled as the sister's. once more she appealed to that last recourse, and once more it did not fail her. when he recalled that dreadful scene, he could not help feeling an admiring gratitude for his boy. although silent and reserved some time later, when the three gathered round the table for their evening meal, nothing unpleasant was said by the parent, though the sharp-witted tim felt a strong suspicion of the cause of his father's reserve.
later in the evening, the latter sat down by the table in the sitting room and took up his copy of the brereton intelligencer, which had arrived that afternoon. he always spent his thursday evenings in this manner, unless something unusual interfered, the local news and selected miscellany affording enough intellectual food to last him until retiring time.
while he was thus occupied, tim and maggie played checkers, there being little difference in their respective skill. they were quiet, and when necessary to speak, did so in low tones, so as not to disturb the parent.
an hour had passed, when he suddenly turned, with his spectacles on his nose, and looked at the children. the slight resentment he still felt toward tim caused him to address himself directly to his sister:
"maggie, do you know who has been writing these articles in the paper for the last few weeks?"
she held a king suspended as she was on the point of jumping a couple of tim's and asked in turn:
"what articles?"
"they are signed 'mit' and each paper for the last two or three months has had one of them."
"no, sir; i do not know who wrote them."
"well, whoever he is he's a mighty smart fellow."
"maybe it's a 'she,'" suggested maggie, as she proceeded to sweep off the board the two kings of tim that had got in the path of her single one.
"fudge! no woman can write such good sense as that. besides, some of them have been on the tariff, the duties of voters, the monroe doctrine and politics: what does any woman know about such themes as those?"
"don't some women write about them?"
