Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-30

rotten as sand. I'm awfully sorry I
took you up therc!"
I'm not! l like it better 1 thought
l should. l can see-Harvey, don't 90
are you going?" The little face /
under the widows cap was very grave
and anxious.
Yes, Harvey was going. She was to
be lett alone on the island.
"lon must keep perfectly still till 1
come back he said. 81 don't dare to
wa't-it'n be dark before long. Iwasa
thoughtless boy to do this thing. 1
wanted to give you a treat. But I
might have known girls"
Bobette's eyes flashed. "I won't be
called girls!' she cried. eff 1 wished
TO- "a get down in q minute, but I
"How?"
Climb down, same way all the boys
do, lcould!"
don't you dare to try it, Bobette!
The child smiled mischievously.
"Please, Bobette, say you'll sit down
and be quiet till 1 get back?" Harvey
asked, pleadingly.
But Bobette would not, and he had
to 60 without the promise. She stood
motionless until he was out of sight. |
She thought then of eating a cookey,
but remembered that the reason she |
felt SO hungry was that this was fast
day; she thought of mamma and laid
it down untasted.
She looked down the side of the tree
where Harvey had climbed up. It was
a dizzy height, but her little head was a
steady one. Should she venture. She
would have done exactly as Harvey
wished if he hadn't called her "girls!n
She let herself down cautiously overthe
edge and clung to the branches, digging
her little shoes into the holes IN the bark
as Harvey had done.
The sun had just set, and the cloudy
sky grew dark rapidly. Clinging fast,
Bobette got clown out of reach of the
branches; but now she was seized with
sudden fear. She thought she would
give it up. Her short arms could not
reach round the trunk. and in her ex-
element she could find no place to
plant her foot to raise herself an inch.
Small as she was, she knew her only
chance was in keeping cool. Slowly and
cautiously she let herself down again,
little by little, but the dear, safe ground
seemed hopelessly far away. Again her
strong will helped; she knitted her
small brow, chung tight to the bark, and
reached down her foot. There was a
slip! A painful bruising of the skin on
the little hands and knees, a fearful
rush through the air, and Bobette struck
the ground. For a moment she lay
stunned, then was conscious of a strange
dull pain in one foot, doubled back be-
meath her. 1t became intense when she
tried to move. Still Bobette kept a
brave heart. Her clothes were hanging
in tatters around her, her cap was gone
altogether, and part of the blue shawl.
Poor Bobette! She could just reach the
r~ose-colored skirt; she dragged it wei
her to hide the rents in her frock.
Hard it was to sit and wait. It was
almost dark on the water, and when, at
last, there was a sound of oars, and
Harvey called anxiously: .'Bobette, are
you there-safe?" and she tried to
speak, her voice wa choked with tears,
and the answer was just a sob.
But when she saw the boat she sud-
denly Gained; for the stranger whom
she had seen on the beach was rowing
with Harvey, and in the stern sat Mrs.
Gillespie and Mr.. Albert! g.
Yet could it be mamma who r
out so lightly? There was no widows
cap hiding golden hair, nothing but a
shawl she had caught up in haste, and
there was the color Of wild roses on her
cheeks. .
"Bobette, darling, how did you get
down? Are you hurt?" = torrent Of
questions came.
Still, Bobette, budding under the
rosy silk, was speeches.. Her mother
fell on her knees and put her arms close
round her child. "Bobette," sho owhis-
pered, .Bobette, God had heard our
prayers-he has come!"
"Papa?" cried the child; then the
strange, dull pain swept over her and
her eyelids dropped.
All that night lights burned in Giles
pies Tower. Little Bobette's broken
ankle had been set by her papa's own
dexterous hand, and she was now, at
last, sleeping ftfully.
Mr.. Albert had waited until he was
sure that his little friend was safe, then
he stood a moment longer with old
Betsey at the lower gate. She had
been all the afternoon longing for a
| listener to whom she could free her
mind.
"Yes, it's all come out right" she
admitted, ''but, as 1 was about to say, I
never really thought he was drowned
dead-and no more he wasn't. He do
say he was shipwrecked on a desert
island, and all that. It's mighty queer
if it is true. and she's nearly worried
her life out, appointing a day to weep
and mourn on, for to be his death-day,
which she couldn'thave certainly known
to be right, anyway, you know. And that
Bobette did need a father over her, if
ever a child did!''
But, finding that Mr.. Albert was out
of hearing, old Betsey closed and bolted
the door.-Mary N. Edmunds, in Vide
AWate.
Killed by an Imaginary Cobra.