The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-01-02

Dear Bessie, SAID the boy, let me
go for the doctor.
With unexpected warmth she turned
upon him, saying, "No forbid you to
go. If you do, shall be displeased. /
only want rest and quiet I'm tired.
I've headache.
He dared not ask her what was the
matter. He quietly put away his school
books and prepared to spend the day at
home made the tea, and made Bessie
drink cup and lie down on the parlor
sofa afterward, covered up with shawls,
while he was housemaid, chambermaid,
cook, nurse, and everything else that
day. At nine o'clock he put her to bed,
and he could not help it if she lay with
wide.open eyes until the sun shone over
the snow-covered village. TWAS the
day before the new year. She was as
quiet and patient as little sick child all
day. She drank the tea and broth Jim
made for her quite obediently, and sat
with her hands Gstlessly in her lap
watching him go i'll and out.
1t began to snow again toward even
ing, and Bessie shivered, and said she
felt it all through the marrow of her
bones. Jim piled on the coal and made
warm fire.
/" Put on some wood, Jim, to make a
blaze"
"There's no more, Bess /; it's all
out"
/" You needn't tell me So" said his
sister, fiercely, and burst into a fit of
weeping, while the boy stood frightened,
and wondering what he had done.
She pushed him away when he would
have comforted her, but called him to
her again when he would have gone
away, and kissed him with intense affec-
ton, saying that he was all she had in
the world, and it was shame to speak
so to him. Would he forgive her? God
bless him ! God bless him
At eight o'clock the fire began to burn
low. Jim put on the last scuttleful of
coal.
"We've been so lavish of coal these
last days." he said, -" chat find we're
out of that, too. Won't you come to
bed, Bess? I'll be up early in the
morning, and get both wood and coal,
and have a nice bright fire for you be-
fore you're up. 1t will be New Years
morning, Bess. Do come to bed before
the fires out.
But she shook her head and said
eco yourself, Jim. I'll come present.
ly. I'd rather be alone. Go, dear"
He went out of the room, at least, but
not to bed !; out into the falling snow,
hoping to find the shop still open where
he could get little more coal for the
night at least, and scolding himself that
IN fa or oh fcta hn no
his store to come to this incon-
venient end.
He came in at nine o'clock with a
scuttLe of coal in his hand. Bessie was
sitting with her face in her hands, but
started and looked up as he ENTERED the
door.
"Why, Jim, 4 thought you were in
bed"
"No, 1 went out to get some coal; the
shop was closed, but it will be open for
an hour very early in the morning. l
got this of our neighbor."
"Who 2"
"AIiss Porter. And she told me that
Mrs. Bangs had been there in a great
state of mind about the trains being de-
layed blythe snow. She's expecting Silas
by it,
But Bessie was not listening, nor did
she know when Jim poured his scuttle
of coal on the fire and left the room.
She heard the village clock striking
the hours, and remembered bitterly
how she had heard it before late at
night, when she sat there not alone.
She remembered that the next day be-
gan the new year, and wondered what
she could do with new year. New or
old was all the same to her now. She
how young she was, and
drearily remembered how many long
years must lie before her, desolate and
barren. Was she really young? She
felt 80 very old now Why would the
clock keep striking SO! Every stroke
seemed death-knell. So she must
live, and pretend to be like other people,
and take care of the house, and mend
Jim's stockings. What pile of them
lay unmended i'll her room She would
mend them tomorrow. Poor Jim !
Oh, how the wind whistled and the win
dows ratified She didn't know that
she was very cold. Cold to the hearts
core.
1t seemed lump of ice she carried
there in her breast, not heart. Per-
haps she shouldn't care much. Moth
ing would make any matter to her
now.
She wondered if dead people didn't
feel just as she felt now, and saw all
that went on about them, and heard the
clocks strike so, and saw the CHASTITY
early light come in at the windows, and
creep over the floor to their feet so,
with no warmth in it if they heard peo-
pie knock at the door so, and push it
open without waiting, and heard the
heavy trampof feet in the hall so, of the
people who came to carry them out to
bury them under the cold earth where
the snow lay.
Suddenly she cried out with a wild
cry, for the parlor door had been thrown
open, and the tramp of feet in the hall
we're but the feet of one man. A tall
man, half covered with snow, who stood
IN the doorway, with the dawn shining
On his face.
She looked in his eyes and knew the
ruth.
In moment he held her in his strong
arms, and kissed her pale cheeks, her
eyes, her lips. and said:
A happy New Year to my little
girl ~
And it was happy New Year.