The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1883-12-21
ROSE BELLS CHRISTMAS.

RONE BELL ; ChRlSlMAS.
Dainty lace hangings, riyalingthe frost
work that would be on the window by
morning, framed in the fair face Of a
girl, who stood tapping drearily on the
window pane am looking at the storm
and the people hurrying by outside.
Her face was cIouded, and her gray eyes
had grown a shade darker with trouble.
There was snow everywheFe-under
foot, overhead and all around, h%urrying
and s~currying into peoples faces and
lodging in the folds of every garment.
The traditional Old woman must have
been piucking an extra quantity of
geese-for the feathery flakes were fly
ing hither md tither, hiding all the
ugliness OF the street under their dainty
coverings; making beds of down of the
freshly raked piles of dirt still on the
street; Speeding a snowy sheet over
sidewalk and giving ermine-like edges
to door-frames and window lodges;
pattering softly against the glass in the
prettiest and most provoking way TO the
girl looking through them. 1t was a
sudden storm, stealing swiftly at the
heels of indian-summer-like weather
that had made every one quote the old
saw: "a green Christmas makes 81 full
graveyard" and no one WAS ready for it.
With thoughts miles away, the girl stood
looking sadly and dreamingly on. noting
everything, from the old woma bend
ing under a load of wood on her back,
which she had literally fshed out of
the lake, and which caused the girl, an
shrined amid comfort and plenty, TO
SILVER and whisper, "God pity the poor
this wretched night" The poor old
creature With the burden on her weary
back. and a burden III her cary heart
that would never in this life grow bright
er, p~assedIout of sight. AIportly, warmly
clad business man briskly followed,
wrapped in fur coat and gloves, his heart,
~perchance colder than the shivering
form of the tiny blue veined child that
jostled his footsteps as it was h%urrying
through the binding snow, yainly draw
ing the threadbare shawl closer. Weary
eyed working women, tired business
men, sleek-looking young America, and
naughty danes, hurried along In the
gathering dusk; T:ilk-meE whipped their
horses, glad thai the days work was
over. and ~snow-covered police left the
. city to take care of itself and sought the
warmth OF barroom fire. Nightsclosed
in, the lamplighter was running about
with his ladder, and presently the lights
began to CLEAN like stars in the dark
ness. 1t was growing colder, bur still
Rose Bell stood looking out on the night.
Presently a couple under an umbrella
sauntered slowly along, and as they
passed in the light of the lamp she saw
the tall form of a man with beard so full
of snow that he looked a veritable
Santa Claus bent toward the girl leaning
on his arm, and though the girPsface was
merry, and her answer a merry one, Rose
knew That they we're lovers, scarce con-
scious of the snow or cold, or o fanything
but that they we're together, hidden as
it were by the storm, and all the nearer
forit. The.sight made Rose draw the cur
tains and sigh as she turned away, shiv-
ering, to tie fire throwing herself down
on the rug and burying her face IN her
rms.
Out on the lake the storm was fiercer
than on the land. and a cold, cutting
wind was blowing. The cold water of
the lake heaved dark and merciless, as
a disabled schooner drifted helplessly
about, every now and then the floating
ice grating against her hull and making
the f~ainting hearts of her crew quake
with fear. Every hour the cold became
more intense, and the ice was getting
closer and thicker near the shore. The
crew freezing almost in sight OF home.
What dreams of warm firesides, of low
ing, faithful hearts waiting their COM
ing, must have filed the hours of the
dreary night watch. What q night it
was to cling to rigging as the schooner
became wedged and half sank be-
tween the ice the stilled voices will new
0r tell.
The next morning the snow had
ceased to fall, and the helpless schoon-
or, with its crew still c~linging to the rig
ging, could be seen from land. AS soon
as possible a sturdy tug was got under
way and went putting iiercely, but slow
lv cutting its way through the ice. In
tense rs was the cold, q crowd soon