Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-07-10
Found Floating on the Water.

Found Floating on the Water.
The first thing I distinctly remember
was being held in my nurses arms to look
upon the ocean. could not have been
more than 4 years old, and the impression
then made on my mind has never been ef-
faced.
Of the scenes which Immediately sue
ceeded have no recollection. All is a
blank until the period when many persons,
men, women, and children, came to see
me, taking my hands in their own and
gazing earnestly into my eyes as they re-
peated mournfully:
elbow strange! Floating on the water.'
can recall the curious way in which
they scrutinized me as they crowded
around, the eager questioning of each
other, the long recital that did not un-
derstand, and which always ended with,
"Found floating on the water
Surrounded by comforts, by luxurics
even, my wishes granted for the asking,
kindness and love were so showered up.
on me during my first remembered years,
| that neither thought nor cared who 1
was or how came to lie an object Of such
afectlonate devotion.
was sheltered as much as possible
from every annoyance and from all vul-
gar observations by my beloved mother;
| and yet often overheard her, relating in
low tones long story, which somehow
seemed to have reference to me, although
evidently not intended for me to hear.
| Methinks / tits moment feel her kind
! hand as she smoothed my long curls, and
her kinder voice utter those words, which,
from being so often repeated, became
stereotyped on my memory.
"When all was over, this dear child
was found floating on the water.
| AS became more advanced In years
these words we're less frequently heard
It was becoming an old story. The
present, with its tangible realities, was
crowding out the, to me, uncertain past
Faces and forms which hitherto had in
distinctly haunted 1uy imag ination gradu-
ally faded. In my solitary musings they
would sometimes stand out from the
gathering oblivion like spectres; and like
spectres instantly vanish if duty or pleas
ure recalled me to myself. I had heard
of another Christine-my angel sister
My playthings had been hers. Dreams
of her in her far-off home would come to
me, as reposed on her little cot, and
Ponto kept guard over my slumbers. All
these appeared to me like the details OF
pleasant story, some portions of which
| were fresher and more recent than the
rest because they had happened lately.
Ny mind matured with my years: and
! although those mystical words, found
floating on the water" were not now
heard, they were never forgotten. They
had been to often repeated in my hearing
topass entirely out of my mind. Occasion
ally too, the suspicion would arise that
had not always lived in A; that at
some time other and different scenes sur
rounded NC.
One evening, having heard these strange
words again, resolving to penetrate their
meaning, I went to my little bed wide
awake, and waited the accustomed visit
My mother soon came. Ihcard her voice
and the words alone of the hymn fell on
my ear. My mind was elsewhere. This
night "Thc Happy Land'' had no charms
for me. I was "of the earth, earthly" l
soon interrupted her with the inquiry:
! "Mother, when shall I have birthday?''
"When you arc a little Older" she
replied.
"When shall I be 81"
| Mot for great while;" and the hymn
Immediately went on again. But was
! not to be put off thus.
"Did ever float on the water?'' asked
For moment she was silent. could
contain myself no longer. Bursting into
tears, I opened to her my heart. The cir
cumstances which had taken place when
| was the object OF so much interest, my
impressions, recollections and suspicious,
confused as they were, were all narrated.
My mother saw at once that my mind
was awake and must be satisfis d-that
| the time had come for are velation TAX
ing my hand, she said:
'Shall tell nay dear Christine story?
A true story?'
eyes MOTHER" I replied; ''tell a story
about me-about me when was baby.''
Wrapping around me her large shawl
i and taking me in her arms, she seated
herself in an easy chair by the side of my
bed. Of that time or of that place have
never lost sight. Methinks see her now,
so gentle, so quiet, just as she sat in that
still room.
There, in the silence of early night, nv
dear mother related to me in simple and
plain language, the calamity which at
one fatal blow, had probably deprived
me of both parents, and made me an or
! phan. Not syllable did I lose then,
not one has since been forgotten. During
that, short period, and even while the
words we've being drunk in, passed from
babyhood to thoughtful, actual maturity.
In the spring Of 18-a noble steamer
left the quay, Southampton, freighted
with human life, with bright hopes and
cloudless anticipatlons of coming pleas
ure.. On the eve of that happy day the
bright sun went down amid mirtii and
music and Joy. On the morrow that
same sun rose in mis- glory to behold sor-
row and silence and death. In the calm
midnight that shipload of sound sleepers
were suddenly aroused from their dreams
ofhappiness by the awful cry of sFire!'
r At daylight passing vessel came with
swift wings to the rescue-alas too late.
All had persisted with the exception Of a
single sailor, who miraculously chung to
the burning timber-all save one little
child. When all was over, the sailor and
this child were found floating on the wa
ter. needed not my mothers assurance
to convince me who that child was
She then told me Of herself. Just be-
fore this calamity occurred God had taken
away her husband and her child-a dear
daughter named Christine. Hearing of
the little child whom both FIRE and waves
had spared, she fastened at once to adopt
me. Heaven seemed to have directed her,
for5on the gold clasp Of my sleeve-tie was
found single name-the name of her own
dear child, Christine. .=ss
Adispatch from Paris says Prince Jer-
ONE Napoleon will publish manifesto after
the funeral Of the prince imperial, urging oil
Bonapartists to submit to the republic, and
that he has already assured President Greyy
he will not become pretender to the Imper-
ial throne: