Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-09-08
MATHURlNE'S THREE BONNETS.
(From the French of Paul Celieres. |

"Ding don! Be silent, bell Ding!
don! Be silent! Thy sound makes me
think again of wicked Noun, the ringer,
and of Lisa, his daughter. Dingl don!
[ think [ would like to see them both
suspended from thy rope. Ding! don!
All! they sneer; they are plotting evil
against mel Oh! Noun! Oh! Lisa!
Ding! donl I tell the bell, cease thy
ringingw Thus ran the thoughts of
Mathurine, and all the time the church
bell rang she kept her hands clasped
tightly over her ears, to deaden the un-
welcome sound.
There are impressions made in child
hood which time cannot efface. There
are early terrors which all our lives
long do not lose the power to alright us.
Mathurine was thinking of day long
ago, when she was yet a little child.
Noun, the ringer, had taken her roughly
by the wrist, and forcibly led her to
mass, calling her a little wicked child
and an imp of the devil. On this never
to-be-forgotten day she heard the bells
ringing full loud peal over her fright
ened head, and this noise, more than the
large eyes and gruff voice of Noun HIM
self, had filled her with terror Ever
since she had been filled with a bitter
hatred for the church, the bells and the
ringer. Oh! above all for the ringer.
Noun and Lisa were, however, only part
OF many other miseries; for all the peo-
pie III the village seemed to the poor girl
to care for nothing but her discomfort
and chagrin, but nevertheless it was
Noun and Lisa whom she hated most.
1t must not for moment be imagined
that Noun was bad man, for indeed he
was not. Small and stout, his head COW
cred with thick gray hair, there was
nothing Thanksgiving In his appearance
He was generally agreeable, sometimes
perhaps trifie malicious in his pleasant
try, but IN spite of this favorite with
the villagers. Why, then, was he the
cause of so much misery to Mathurine ?
All! it was only because Noun thought
that drones were of no use in the hive,
and that useless things were always
harmful Mathurine did nothing; Math-
urine earned nothing; Mathurine spent
the whole day, and sometimes the whole
She lived by public charity, and Noun,
the ringer, thought that the community
would gain unspeakably were she never
to return from one of her long rambles.
She was old enough to work, to earn,
to establish herself in some way, being
already past her 18th year, although she
appeared much younger. Small in
stature, slight and very brown, her dis
ordered hair escaped in thick tresses
through the tatters of a horrible black
bonnet, which she had worn ever since
her childhood; no one could remember
that she had ever possessed another.
She was a strange looking object III
her rags; something more than strange
as she was seen approaching from dis
lance. Like an animal often whipped
she came with dropping head, and an all
of fear seemed to prevade her whole
presence. She would rarely approach
closely to any one, but If by any chance
she did so, she would raise her eyes with
an anxious and astonished gaze, the1
suddenly bending her head, and laugh
ing loudly, would run heetly away, with
out uttering word.
Who, then, was this Mathurine? NJ
one in the village could answer thi.
question.
She had been found one morning OF
the steps of the church, where she hal
been abandoned during the night. b.
whom? Probably by some smuggler o.
peddler. Few people pass through the
village, which is small, containing bu
fifty houses, and is perched like birl
upon one of the crests of the Jura
travellers seldom visit it; the great roads
do not ascend so far.
The finding of Mathurine formed the
subject of six months wondering gossip
and then was almost forgotten, an6
would have been altogether so had it not
been for the presence of the forlorr
child, who was placed III the charge OF
an old woman of the village.
AT eight years of age she had become
a strange and savage creature, who would
see no person if by any means she could
avoid it, and who held her hands over
her ears to silence the ringing of the