The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1880-12-10
mistellanrnus.
A Wonderful Mother.

The winter of the year 1900 was one of ex-
IRENE cold. Never was colder winter
known in Europe. In France many people
| froze to death in their beds, not only among
| the mountains, but even i'll the villages and
| cities. The hottest fire was not sufficient to
| keep q room warm. While the stoves were
| red hot, the water would freeze but few feet
from them. The trees in the forest by the
roadside became so frozen that some of them
burst, and made noise as if small mine had
exploded.
Sparrows and crows and ,jackdaws some
times fell down dead while flying in the air.
Large tlocks of sheep and cattle froze in the
barn yards. The bats, which usually sleep
during the winter, were awakened out of
their torpid slumbers, tluttcrcd around little
while, and fell dead on the ground. The deer
in the forest could no more run swiftly, but
crept slowly out of the woods and came near
the dwellings of men. Finally spring came,
and a multitude of them were found dead in
the woods, The little lakes and brooks and
rivers, after they had been thawed by the
sun, emitted a very unpleasant odor, because
nearly all the fish in them had been frozen to
death. The people suffered from extreme
poverty, for the cold had destroyed many of
their means of support. The wheat that had
been sown in autumn, their Sheep fowls, fish,
and vegetables that had been buried in the
ground, were completely destroyed by frost.
During this winter poor little Savoyard
boy was wandering the streets of Luneville,
in Lorraine. He was pitiable orphan. His
older brother, who had taken care ofhim, had
now gone on message to the City of Nancy,
to earn few francs. But he suffered the
fate of many travellers, and was frozen to
death. Many of the passengers on the stages
and on horseback were frozen to death,
though covered with furs and coaks. The
drivers lost their lives, and still held the rens
in their stiff hands,
The little Savoyard boy wandered about
from house to house, to get little employ
ment or piece of bread. He was glad to
blacken boots or shoes, dust clothes, clean
dishes in the kitchen, or do anything that
would give him sou. But when night
came on, his suffering became intense He
had slept with his brother in carpenters
shop, where the two had covered themselves
with an old foot cloth, on which they piled
shavings very high. They lay very close to-
gether, and by thismeans managed to be pro-
tected from the severity of the cold. But
now he was alone, and he would freeze if he
should attempt to sleep in the carpenters
shop. The wife ola hostler took compassion
on him. She showed him little sleeping
place in one of the stalls in the stable where
tilC UOlSCo VI u CCltulh DlluCC WCIt hCDl. Ill
this stall there stood an iron cage, in which
a large brown bear was confined, for the beast
was very wild and angry The little Savoy
ard boy, who had come in darkness of the
night into the stable, neither knew nor cared
for any wild beast that might be near by
He lay down some straw, and stretched out
his hand to pull more. AS he stretched out
his hand he put it in between the wires of
the cage in which the beast was, and found
that large pile was there. Thinking it was
better to get in where the straw was, he
crawled up to the cage, and squeezed through
the iron bars. The bear grumbled little, but
did no violence. The little boy offered to
God prayer, which his departed mother had
taught him, and then committed himselfto the
keeping of his heavenly Father He asked
protection from the cold, and he was protect
ed both from the cold and from the wild
beasts.
The bear took the little stranger between
her paws and pressed him near her warm
breast, and against her thick skin, so soft
and comfortable, that he who had not slept
for many nights with any comfort now for
got all fear, and soon fell into sweet deep
| sleep.
In the morning the boy walked mp with re-
newed strength, and crept out of the cage,
| and went forth to the city to attend to his
DtSlleSS anu u Seek Ills uully DreaQ. AT
| night he returned to his strange mother. Be-
side the bear there lay a great many pieces of
| bread which had been brought from the ia
| BILE of the prince, but the bear had eaten all
she wanted, and these were left. So the lit
tie Savoyard helped himself to all he needed.
He then lay quietly down between the paws
of his thick clad mother, who pressed him to
her, as she had done before, and he slept there
as if in the warmest feather bed
In this way he spent five nights without
anybody knowing it. On the morning of the
sixth night he oversight himself, so that, when
the hostlers went round with lanterns in the
early morning to attend to the many horses
in the stable, they saw the boy lying between
the paws of the great bear. The old bear
grunted little, as if she were very much Of
Tended at any one seeing her taking care of
her little favorite. The boy sprang up and
squeezed through the cage, to the great as
constituent Of the bystanders.
This strange affair became widely known,
and created much wonder throughout the
city. Although the modest little Savoyard
was very much ashamed that anybody should
know that he had slept in the arms Of q bear,
he was ordered to appear in the presence OF