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

the brim, and stirred IL round and
round with a little stick to make the
coffee. witch was floating IN the top.
sink. She let it draw for q while by
the hearth, and then, when Peter had
slipped his first cup slowly and comfort
ably-''the stuff was vilely hot and
had a second cup poured out, herubbed
his hands gleefully, and said it was
right good.
II had q very strange dream last
night, Peter" began his wife, when she
was able to sit down at last. (which I
must tell you. I dreampt that a man
came into the kitchen here, dressed in 3
shining white garment, just like the one
the angel over the font in the church
has on. In my fright l didn't notice
whether he had wings, and I forgot if I
offered him q chair, but heardhim say
distinctly: "Woman, you must die, and
Peter must de too, SO set your house in
order When l heard that / felt as if I
must sink into the earth. and I said:
'For Gods sake! who will take care of
our poor childten?' l began to cry in
my dream, but the angel said, with
such a friendly smile: .Aind people will
take care of your children when you are
gone, but as Ye would that men should
do unto you, even SO do We unto them.'
Then l awoke Peter, and l began to
think over the dream. and I remem-
bered suddenly that everything hump-
backed Christina left is to be sold to-day
by that skinflint heir of hers, and I
thought of the man in the white al
ment and of Cradle-Mie, end you see,
Peter"
"And you thought we might take the
poor girl to live with us ?" interrupted
Peter.
eyes," replied his wife. s'for, as I
said to myself, that dream means two
things; it assures us both of a long life,
and it bids us care for that pool child
as ii she were our own"
So the kind-hearted people, who were
pretty well provided with children al
ready, agreed to add the founding girl
to their w five or six, firmly assured
that it was Gods will, and that He
would reward them for it in His own
good time.
Before Peter left the house they had
also decided that he. should buy the
iron cradle at the auction with some
little money his vile had contrived to
lay by, 'for the basket-work cradle was
a rickety old thing, and it might be
wanted again before long" Cfcourse,
honest Peter had no objection to the ar
rangement.
The snow was lying a foot and q half
deep; it looked like a white shroud
spread over dead nature. The trees
which had been bare and lea1css the
day before had got a new and splendid
covering during the night; there was q
fingers depth Of snow resting on even
the smallest twigs. 1t was an unwont-
ed and a most beautiful sight, but if one
looked at it too long it made ones eyes
ache. The village street had been par
TALLY cleared, but all the same it was
hard work for the horses to drag the
heavily-laden wagons along, and the
miller, whom Peter met on his way to
the auction, had two horses to his meal
cart.
), Frau + Jansen GSn $ had been right, allhum p
be sold that morning to the highest bid
der by, the %auctioneer who had come
from the neighboring town for the pur-
pose.
Misery stofel Homes of K and
his sister, long Greta, were the only
heirs. No one, however, had the least
doubtthat if God had not called hump
backed Christina away so suddenly
they would have got nothing Cradle
Mic would have had everything, and
they would have gone without.
The whole of the furniture and the
household utensils, which had belonged
to the dead woman, had been collected
and ticketed with numbers. The auc-
tioneer and his clerk were seated in the
kitchen, to take down the names of the
purchasers and the prices fetched. The
snow had been swept away in front of
the house, and a sheet had been
stretched like an awning above the
windows on the right hand side of the
door and a table and one of two forms
had been placed under it. A few Jews
and some farmers and farmers wives,
who had come there either from curios-
ty or IS intending bidders, were sitting
on the forms. Lippes, the crier, was
standing on a bench close beside the
window, through which the various ar
ticles were handed out to him, and he
was endeavoring by sundry stale jokes
to palm the old lumber off on the peo-
pie.
These, however, evinced little inclin-
alton to buy. They laughed at the
crier's witticisms and personalities, but
bid they would not. Mostof the things
were bought by Samuel, the second
hand dealer, by the shape of whose nose
one could tell a hundred PAGES off that
he was of the seed of Abraham.
"There's nothing of yours here"
roared Stoffel Holmes harsh voice sud-
denly. eyes. like that /! to want to
take the cradle away with you, you
grab-all of a girl! Didn't you live on
Aunt Christinap and weren't you a
burden to her long enough?" At the
same instant Peter, who had been stand
ing at a distance with his hands in his
pockets, looking on at the sale, saw
the greedy heir take Cradle-Mie, the
favorite of the whole village, by the
arm and fling her out of the house in
which she had been a welcome
inmate for nearly eighteen years.
There was an angry shout from the
little crowd of bidders, and it was well
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