The Princeton union., 1880-10-28

now she's wunned off, so we must muse
our own selves, Is'pose. Let's do fwissen
in is bid baf tub, Bess, till mamma
comes, and here's awhole spool of fwead
we can have .gweat long lines" contin-
ued he, running to the window. sNowah
always gwives us such wee short lines.''
But these are too long, suggested
Bess.
ssOh, no, wey ain I, only e baff tubs
too short. I wish we had gweat long
wiver to fwis in; but, oh Bess," he
cried, jumping up and down gleefully,
NoWah' s. don an leff' the cwistern open.
We can go an fwis in at, Zen our lines
won't be too long, and away bounded
both children. And all was quiet the
next halt, when suddenly the neighbor-
hood was aroused by one prolonged
agonized shrek, and hurrying in the di-
rection of the sound the neighbors found
Norah in a dead faint just beside the
open cistern, and little Bess rubbing her
eyes in awestruck wonder wakening from
nap she had been taking on the shaded
grass just short distance beyond. And
peering into the great open-mouthed
clstern nothing was to be seen there save
little white sailor hat floating slowly
and silently Oh the unrippled surface.
And when a few moments later the front
door of the handsome house opened and
Minnie Leslie came bounding upstairs,
calling gleefully for her pets, she was
| met by pale, awestruck faces which
seemed filled with dread and fear as she
approached.
"Why. friends" she cried, then sud-
denly consciousness Of some dire evil
seemed to take possession Of her, and
growing deadly pale she piteously asked,
Ny babies, are they sick ?" AS she
laid her hand on the door Of her room,
but before she could turn the knob,
kindly hand was laid on hers to draw her
away, but she emphatically threw it off
and pushed on into the room. Occu
pied only by the silent figure
Of little Fred, stretched on his
tiny white bed, and from whose
limp, still body still trickled the little
rivulets of water, the long yellow curls
now straight and reaching below the
little, plump waist-the white dress,
broad sash and tiny blue slippers, the
busy little hands all so cold, wet and
still, met the gaze Of the mother whose
agonized shrieks again and again rang
through. the great, still house as she
bounded across the room and caught tha
little one in her arms, begging, plead
ing, oh, so piteously for just one word
to wake up and say "Mamma just
once more,
"Oh, my darling my darling! won't
you never put your little warm arms
around my neck again, and ask in your
sweet little way, Mamma, doth you
lug me?' and wait for the answer Of
kisses, which was always yours ; for, my
darling, did love you God knows T
loved my baby boy! but why-why did
I ever leave him? IF I had stayed with
my babies, God would never have sent
this cruel punishment /"
So she talked and moaned the whole
night through, holding fast to the little,
lmeless form-all efforts to take him away
proving unavailing-and not until the
first day-dawn did the bright, glittering
eyes once close; then, suddenly, came
the blessed swoon, and she lay passive
and helpless III her husbands arms. un-
conscious OF her sorrow and the agony
with which his own heart was well-nigh
bursting, but smothering for her sake.
and, in the months that followed, when
her life was given back after the raging
dilirium of the long weeks Of brain
fever, and.she moved about the house a
mere shadow Of herself, she learned to
lean upon the strong arm of kind
Father, who, though He chasteneth, still
loveth, " aud, in time, she grew the same
cheerful, smiling Minnie of old, and she
thought of her little one only as an in
mate Of that bright, beautiful city where
"Never sets the sun nor fades the leaf"
Though she still pales slightly and an
swers tenderly, 81 can't leave my little
ones, - if asked by a stranger to her ex-
perience if she contemplates q summer
trip.
BUSHNELL. Ill.