The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-03-29
Night and day a

| moments warning. Night ana DAY a
watch was kept all along the coast.
But the best Waterman there was lit
tie Hans Dauneker. He went his rounds
regularly, and his eye never passed over
a square inch Of the embankment with
out ascertaining thoroughly its condi-
ton. m y -0., .,-1-f
One night, about mid-winter, a wild
storm was passing along the coast. 1t
was fearful storm, and had been rag
ing with undated violence for three
days.
"It's bad time" said Dirk Daune-
ker, gloomily. off the dykes can stand
this, we need fear nothing else"
The mother looked at little Hans, but
be said nothing; and sat with his eyes
fixed dreamily on the fire. Presently
he arose and went into the oIter room.
Then he wrapped himself in bis warm
coat, and lit his fathers lantern. He
was leaving the house, when his mother,
who had followed him silently, laid her
hand on his shoulder. ..
" Where are you going, child?' she
asked
"To look at my dyke, mother" he re-
piled.
con such night as this?"
could not sleep, mother, unless |
did 30. l must do my little work for
"home and fatherland."
The mother could not refuse him; so
she laid her hand on his head, and said,
tenderly;
"May heaven bless thee and keep
thee, child"
Then little Hans went out into the
storm. He soon reached what he called
his post and found everything safe and
secure.
Something, he knew not what, urged
him to go beyond his usual walk, and he
kept on toward the north, flashing his
lantern along the side Of the dyke and
examining the earth-wall with anxious
eyes. He was very cold, but he could
not turn back. Something kept urging
him onward-onward.
He had been walking for more than
an hour, when he suddenly paused and
bent down toward the ground with o cry
of alarm. The water was flowing in
through small opening, scarce half an
inch in diameter, but as the child
watched he could see that it was gradu,
ally growing larger.
His first impulse was to return home,
and give the alarm; but he reflected
that the opening in the dyke would
grow larger every moment, and that it
might be too late to check the water
when his father arrived. Something
must he DIME at once, and he must do it.
He put down his lantern, and with
his little hands tried to scrape together
! arth IN. otp ha 1oa1
was so intense, and the ground so hard,
that he made little or no progress; and
the terrible opening in the dyke grew
larger every moment.
Little Hans shuddered and then
paused in perpiexity and distress.
Then, without hesitating logger, he
tore Off his warm coat, and, rolling it
up like wad, presssd it against the
creyice. The water forced it away,
however, and the boy found that in or
der to stop the current he must hold it
there with all his strength.
He had & brave heart, but it sank
when he saw this; for he knew that if
the sea broke through, his parents and
his brothers and sisters would be
drowned, and all the country round
about destroyed.
So the child seated himself on the
ground, and pressed with all his might
against the opening with his thick coat.
Soon he felt that the water ceased to
flow through. Yet it took all his
strength of will and body, all his cour-
age, to sustain him, for he was grow
ing numb with the cold, aud suffering
greatly.
His pain increased every moment, and
then it ceased, and he felt a dreamy,
pleasant languor steal over him. He
seemed to hear strains of sweet music,
and voices crying
blessed child God has blessed
thee, little Hansp'
1t was very sweet, and he wondered
what had become of the cold and storm,
but he never relaxed his grasp on the
opening.
When the morning dawned it found
Dirk Dauneker and his wife searching
YEARLY for their child along the dyke,
for the storm was dying away, and the
sun was coming out again.
"Alasp sobbed the mother, he has
persisted in the storm; and when he left
me, | asked heaven to bless himw
The father paused, and a great cry
escaped his lips.
Look, wifep' he cried. HAS not
Heaven blessed our boy? Seel He has
made him the savior of our country"
Yes, there lay little Hans, his form
stiff and rigid, and his face pinched and
pale, but with his hands pressed tightly
against his coat, which was now frozen
to the dyke. Even in death the child
had not relaxed his grasp upon the coat
and, as he had fallen upon it in dying,
his weight had kept it pressed against
the opening until it froze there.
Heaven had indeed blessed him, for it
had made the child the means of saving
the province from destruction.