The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-04-14

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 to the ground with cry of alarm.
The water was flowing in through a
small opening, scarce half an inch in
diameter, but as the child watched he
could see that it was gradually 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 be
done at once, and he must do it.
He put down his lantern, and with his
little hands tried to scrape together earth
enough to stop the leak. The cold 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 inperplexity and distress. Then,
without hesitating longer, he tore off his
warm coat, and, rolling it up like wad,
pressed it against the crevice. The wa
ter forced it away, however, and the boy
found that in order 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 it
would compel him to remain at his post
all night, unless assistance came to him,
and he feared that he would freeze to
death in the storm.
He hoped, however, that his mother
would miss him and search for him. Yet
he knew that if aid did not come soon
his strength would not be equal to the
task of sustaining his life through the
night. Still, he was determined to make
the effort, for he knew that if the sea
broke through his parents and his broth
ers 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
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 and suffering
greatly.
His pain increased every moment, and
then it ceased, and he felt dreamy,
pleasant languor steal over him. He
seemed to hear strain 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.
"Alas!" sobbed the mother, "he has
perished in the storm, and when he left
me, asked heaven to bless himl"
The father paused, and great cry
escaped his lips.
Look, wife" he cried; "has not
heaven blessed our boy? See! 1t 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 pressed against the open.
ing until it froze there.
Heaven had indeed blessed him, for il
had made the child the means of saving
the province from destruction.