Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-10-25

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 very unpleasant odor,
because nearly all the fish in them
had been frozen to death. The peo-
pie 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, fish, fowls and vegetables that
had been buried in the ground, were
completely destroyed by frost.
During this winter, poor little
Savoyard boy was wandering in the
streets of Luneville, in Lothringia.
He was a pitiable orphan.
His older brother who had taken
care of him had now gone on a mes
sage to the city Of Nancy, to earn a
few francs. But he suffered the fate
ofmany travellers and was frozen to
death. Many of the passengers of
the stage and on horseback were
frozen to death, though covered with
furs and cloaks. The drivers lost
their lives and still held the reins in
their stiff hands.
The little SavOyard boy wandered
about from house to house to get a
little employment or a 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 a sou. But, when
night came on, his sufferings became
intense. He had slept with his
brother in carpenter shop, where
the two had covered themselves with
an old fOot-cloth, on which they piled
shavings very high. They lay very
close together, and by this means
managed to be protected from the
severity of the cold. But now he
was alone, he would certainly freeze
II he should attempt to sleep in the
carpenter shop. The wife of a hostler
took compassion on him. She showed
him little sleeping place in one Of
the stalls in a stable where the
horses of a certain prince were kept.
In this stall there stood an iron cage,
in which large brown bear was con-
fined; for the beast was very wild and
angry. The little Savoyard boy who
had come in the darkness of the
night into the stable, neither knew
nor cared for any wild beast that
might be near by. He lay down up
on some straw, and stretched out his
hand to pull more. AS he stretched
out his hand he put it between the
wires of the cage in which the beast
was, and found large pile,,was there.
Thinking it better to get in where
the straw was, he crawled up to the
cage and squeezed in through the
iron bars. The bear grumbled little
but did no violence. She took the
little stranger between her paws and
pressed him near her warm breast,
and against her thick skin, so softly
and comfortably that he who had
not slept for many nights with any
comfort now forgot all fear and soon
fell into deep, sweet sleep.
In the morning the boy walked up
with renewed strength, and crept out
OF the cage and went forth to the city
to attend to his business and seek his
daily bread. AT night he returned
to his strange mother. Beside the
bear lay a great many pieces of bread
which had been brought from the
table of the prince; but the bear had
eaten all she wanted and these were
left So the little Savoyard boy
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 around 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
a little, as if she were very much
offended at any one seeing her taking
care Of her little favorite. The boy
sprang up and squeezed through the