Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-05-16

.Iraale-Mle is nowp Heaven he thanked
mat we are strong and Welt"
Inc honest couple sat talking a while
longer, but when the clock in the church.
tower struck ten they were already snug
in bed and sleeping peacefully on
toward the coming day.
Every one in the village knew that
hump-backed Christina was dead, and
every knew, also, hat the so-ca,led
Cradle-Mie was alone row in the wide
world; every one pitied the pretty young
girl, who had no human beng left to
care for her, but no n thought Of being
the first to help her.
No one knew who Cradle-Mie really
was; but the landlord of the ..Horse-
jockey could tell how she had come by
her singular name better, perhaps, than
any n in the village.
1t was natural that he should, for he
and the Hermans had always been close
friends; and he remembered, as we'll as
if it had happened only yesterday,
though it was seventeen years ago last
midsummer's day, how Clas Hermsen
had come running to him at six o'clock
in the morning, just as he was feeding
the calf in the barn. He remembered
quite well Clas saying, breathlessly.
"Listen here, Christian, I've got q
strange thing to tell you;'' and how per-
turbed Clas had looked, and how they
had gone into the little kitchen behind
the large taproom. and Clas had begun
again, ''Christian, you're a man whom
one can depend on; Just think that
this morning." But then Clas had
looked at the door. as if he were
afraid that some one We're standing out
side listening; and not till Christian
had assured him that he might speak
out safely, had he gone on. Il put my
horse into the cart at three o'clock this
morning to draw manure. I had got
the cart full, and was driving it out to
the field at Kuhkampe, when just as l
got outside the village I saw-it looked
odd, man, l can tell you, a little iron
cradle covered with a green cloth,
standing in the middle of the road, close
by the old budapest. Invent up to it
and lifted off the cloth, and there was a
little child in it. with q face like an
angels, fast asleep. You can guess.
Christian how I stared" Clas had
proceeded, "when I saw the child lying
there. 1t began to cry, and l didn t
know what I was to do. At my wits
end, 1 put the cradle in the ditch and
brought the load of manure out to Kuh-
kampe as fast as my horse could trot.
When l got back the cradle was in the
same spot. I took it up, with the child
in it, and put it in the cart and drove it
home. When 1 got home my wife was
making up the butter, and when she
saw the cradle and the child in it she
set up such a screaming that I was
afraid she would get cramps. I told
her in plain terms what had happened,
and that she ought to be ashamed of
herself for having such an evil mind;
and then we talked the matter over,
Christian, and agreed that we ought to
give the Mayor notice of my having
found the child. / did so; and the
Mayor, and Sprick, his Secretary, have
been at our house, but they could find
nothing in the cradle except the child,
an armful of hay and a sealed letter, on
the cover of which was written:
''This child is commended to the care
of whoever may find her. God will re-
ward him for his kindness to her. The
child has been baptized; her Christian
name is Marie. This cradle must re-
main in her possession, and this ~letteris
not to be opened by hel until she is of
age"
The Mayor had readily given Clas
permission to adopt the little waif and
bring it up as his own, for his wife had
had no children in the thirteen years
they had been married, and she was
not likely to have any now.
The landlord. who was looked upon
as an unusually clear-headed fellow, re-
membered all this quite distinctly; he
knew too that in the night previous to
Clas Hermsen's finding the child, a car
rage had stopped at his house. The
coachman hal reused him up out of his
bed; he had drunk a glass of brandy,
and had said that he was on his way to
b. Christian, however, had discov-
cred afterward that the coachman had
only said it in order to put him on a
wrong scent, for the next morning the
carriage had passed through T. in
quite a different direction. No one had
seen the carriage again after that.
The Hermsens brought up the desert
ed child with as much a r and love as
if she had been their own, and owing to
She manner in. which she had been
found, she was always known in the
village as ''Cradle-Mie."
A month had gone by since the even
inc on which we saw Peter Jansen and
his family at their evening meal. 1t
was still early in the morning, and as
the sun does not make its appearance
at the end of November till nearly eight
O'Clock, it would have been quite dark
if the moon had not shed its wan light
down upon the earth.
Peter Jansen jumped out of bed and
opened tho shutter.
said. ..Wh by, it has become winter all
of a sudden during the night. Come,
wife, get up" he continued, casting an
other Glance back at the warm nook he
had lust left. "Getup, Meta; the SHOWS
. foot deep or more; you'll have to
sweep it away from the door as fast as
The good woman did as her husband
IC.,J ,vhan she had SW0DE