The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1883-12-01

LnC CuAlAIOM Rabn6Tcu uAShh1 20 -A
twilight came OBJ, AMI sitting there wait
ed for their father to come. Gradually
silence fell upon them all. broken only
by the subdued roaring of the fire in
the stove, and the bud ticking of the
clock on the mantel-shelf.
AS Dear listened, how wildly came
back that sorrowful night when she
stood and heard the clock ticking loud
er and louder, as Tiny gently breathed
her life away; and it seemed to Dear
that she would never again hear the
clock ticking in the night without think
ing of that scene. She glanced at her
mother, and did not wonder that she
had no heartfor Thanksgiving this year.
Indeed. she thought they all had more
cause for complaint than Thanksgiving.
Half blinded by tears. she started up,
and, going to the window, looked out.
It was afrosty starlight night. There
was no snow on the ground, but here
and there patches of ice we're forming
over the pools of still water left by the
heavy fall rains.
"Why don't papa Gomez" said Tiptop,
fretfuiiy
"He will come Soon" said the mother,
| soothingly, and in obedience to an old
habit, began absent-mindedly humming
! Greenville. the one tune she knew, and
by whose aid she had year after year
hummed the Gates babies to sleep.
"Is papa at the shop!" asked Dear, in
| the first lull in the humming.
mo; be went down to the cotton.mill
with a load of bobbins, and he ought to
be here by this time"
"May l go a little way and meet him?'
asked Dear.
Eyes" remembering that Dear had
been in the house all day-"only first
light q candle and make the tea, and put
more wood in the stove, and bring me
Tiptop's night-dress, and unite the boys
| shoes, and YEA your hood and don't be
gone long"
Dear had closed the outside door,
ready to start on q run; when she heard
| old Fans whinny in the direction of the
barn. "Papa has come, and is unhar-
Messing Fan" thought she, feeling q lit
tie disappointed that she could not meet
him and ride home. Instead she
turned to the barn.
At the stable door stood old Fan,
steaming as If she were having a vapor-
bath. Papa had q load home," thought
Dear as she went up to pat Fan. But
what was that she stepped onp A thill?
Yes q broken thill, still hanging TO the
harness. Startled, Dear glanced around
the yard. The wagon was not there,
and now she saw that only a part of the
harness was on the horse, and hat was
trailing on the ground.
Dafo-o xkSa Fan1sv,x - haw Lao - I,oI kSraa
to take shape, Dear opePed the stable
door and let Fan in, and, carefully clos ng
the door, ran fertile street. The road over
the hill lay, like three narrow foot
paths, with straight ridges Of turf be-
tween, and along these narrow paths
Dear sped with flying feet, stralning her
ayes to see she dared not think y. hat.
At the brew of the hill she paused and
looked down. This road wound like q
brook down the long hillside, turning
to the right and to the left. with here
and there steep pitches and many bars,
till it was lost in the darkness far down
toward the valley. AS far as her eyes
could reach there was nothing unusual
to be seen; but at her feet lay a broken
harness strap. Up that road Fan had
come, and downfall road Dear must go.
On and on, over bars and pitches,
scarcely touching the ground, loose
| stones hit by her feet iying before her,
ttill, suddenly, halfway down the steep
est pitch, she came to place in the
road where the stones and the gravel
had beer plowed up as If by the plung-
ing Of a horse.
Here lay the wagon-seat. A little far
Their on lay two or three planks across
the road, and at the foot of the steep
pitch lay, on its side, a wrecked lumber
wagon, which had run backward till it
capslzed; and across the steep gutter by
the roadside lay a load of plank which
had slipped from the wagon as it
went over. Here was a part of the bro
ken reinE, belonging to the harness
with The ends under the load of plank.
The wagon was her fathers. Dear
knew that; but where was her father?
She stood and looked on either side. up
the hill and down into the valley. Moth
ing moved; there was not even wind
enough TO bend the tall dead grasses by
the roadside, and no sound was to be
/ heard in sill the still night but the gurg-
ling and babbling of the little brooks
that had quilted deep channels in the
water ways on either side ofthe road.
Dear could bear this silence no longer.
Papa, papa, where are your" and the
wild cry went up the hillside and down
into the valley bringing no answer
20 papa, papa what shall | do2" she
called again, and as she listened with
straining ears, she heard, or thought
she heard, q low moan near her. She
dropped on her knees. Papa, papa,
are you here?" It was a prayer nowl
Surely she heard a sound asif In answer
and it seemed to come from the plank
that had slid over the gutter.
In an instant Dear was yer there,
peering among the planks. She could
see nothing but she could hear q sound
plainly now. She tried with frantic
not strength enough In her small arms
for that, and almost without thought
she dartnd. 10 up the hill to her moth