Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-03-02
DEB.
RY ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.


did wonder very much. What about
I think that she hardly knew herself
She only knew that she wondered-and
wondered.
All the world was a wonder, the
great, soft, shining snow-drft that
<,urled up against the fence opposite
her window; the beautiful whirlpool
that the snow made when the wind was
up; the ice in the streets, and the little
girls that tIipped on 1T, and the little
boys that didn't; the cross grocer who
brought flour and beans into Brick
Alley every morning; the pleasant bak-
er who sonl atimes tossed herup seed
cake through the window; the factory
girls with the little pink bows on their
nets, who strolled by in the evening
after mills were out. and laughed so
that she could hear them quite plainly,
or sang q little and she could hear
that quite plainly too; the skies when
they made faces at her through the
square top Of the alley, gray, silver
and blue faces. or tiame-colored and
gold faces, or black face, or faces
crowned all about with stars the river
too, all that she could see of it, and
that was lust crack away between two
houses, and a crack of slope that bank
ed II in In winter the slope was SHIN
ing white, and in summer shining
green; 9nd as for the crack OF the
river, sometimes chat was white. too,
and sometimes it was green or purple
or gray or blue; and sometimes it toss
ed about and sometimes it was as still
as Deb herself That was all she knew
about the river. And so she wondered.
But most OF all she wondered about
the bells. The town was full of bells
There were bells in the streets, and
bells, she had heard, to the mills, and
Ills, she thought, to the river too;
1T all the bells that she knew about
alonged to the grocer and the baker,
and these she had never done very
much more than wonder at, for they
were two stories down in the yard, and
she was ia her high chair by the WIN
dow.
Now thus, YOU see, was why Deb
wondered. She never got out OF that
high chair by the window, except to
get into her bed And she never had
been anywhere in all her life except into
that chair and into bed. And she was
fifteen years old.
Tho bed and the chnir and the WIN
dow were all that Deb had, except a
mother aud she did MT amount to much
for she was busy and worried and hun.
ried and sick and anxious and poor. $500
very poor, and the room was full of
children who could run out and see the
bells and knew all about the river, and
who never wondered SO, when she had
put Deb ont OF her bed into her chair,
or ont Of .les char into her bed, she
thought no more about her; SO, as
say, she did MT mount to much.
Deb was not ugly to see, except for
the curve in her poor shoulders, and
her little soft, white, withered feet that
hung down useless from her high chair.
In the face, Deb was not ugly to see.
She had soft hair, and her cheeks were
white and clean, and her eyes hal
grown so large and blue with fifteen
years. full of wonder, chat if You were
once TO see them you would never for
get them as long as you lived.
A young lady that | heard of will
never forget them MS long rs she lives,
and you shall hear about her presently,
In the DAYTIME Deb shut her eyes and
tried 10 think what ii would be like TO
run about like the children who did
wonder; to see streets, or crowd, or Il
church Inspire, or a funeral, or people
going to a wedding, and other strange
things OF which the children who did
not wonder talked to each other; and
which, because her eyes were shut, she
saw or seemed to see, and yet always
knew that she never saw them all.
Al night she liked to open her eyes,
and lie with them open a long, late
time, after the children who dad not
wonder we're asleep. She liked to open
her eyes ut night, because then the two
things that she liked best happened.-
the dark and the bells 1t seemed, in
deed, that the darker il was, the more
bells there were always First, there
were the mill-bells, in the early winter
dusk; they rang very hard and very
merrily, to let the factory girls go home
to put the little pink bows upon their
nets Then there were church bells,
they rang very heavily and respectfully
to call them to the weekly prayer-meet-
ings, but they did not call the girls IN
the little pink bows. Sometime there
were fire bells, that shrieked ut Deb
ont OF o yellow sky aud frightened her.
At nine O'Clock when it was darkest,
Deb beard the closest, pieasantest, and
awfulest bell Of ali This was the great