Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-11
that there is no knowing what
maftara he miuhtdiscloSo Won

him, that there is no knowing what
private matters he might disclose. You
must care for him: to you 1 contide
him. In a few weeks we shall be back
to take with us this merchandise you
see around. If he is well by thGi1 we
can take him on board. Paul has set
the broken bones, the fever will be
over in a few days. and, once his head
begins to heal, he'll get on. / must be
off now. You can get back over the
rocks us soon as day breaks. 1 have
seen you climb more .perilous paths.
Your chief care must be to attract no
notice."
Then Jacques, having trimmed his
lantern. departed. A minute after
ward Marie heard the boat CRATE
again over the sands, and she was
alone-alone with q man raving in
the delirium of fever. alone with a duty
ITO be performed, q burden which her
known. The young girl sat down
with o heavy feeling at her heart.
What ought she 70 do? She had never
been in the presence of illness before.
much less tried to nurse q desperately
wounded man back to life. She could
only ltston attcntively to the mans
mutterings, hoping that they might
perhaps give her q clew to his wants.
At last she fancicd she caught the word
water" and then she remembered
having seen her grandmother lay wet
rags upon a sprained ankle.
Surely, she thought, the same could
do no harm here? She quickly took the
kerchief from her neck, and, tearing il
into strips, folded it, dipped it into a
jar of water which stood near the suf-
ferer and laid it on his burning brow.
This she repeated again and again;
and soon his restless tossings ceased,
his eyyelids grew heavy, then closed.
and his gentle breathing showed that
he sept.
Every morning for weeks afterwara
Marie might have been seen descend
ing the rough, uncven sides of the cliff
at sunrise, q little basket containing
food for her patient slung round her
neck so as not to impede her progress.
The inhabitants of Gillette, good,
sleepy folks, We're too accustomed to
see her scrambling about in this way to
think it anything unusual now.
AT first the girls duties were very
hard to perform, for her patient was
often as fractions and impatient as a
spoiled, and suffering child, and her
tender heart ached to see the misery he
had to bear. Sometimes he lay so ex-
hausted from pain and weakness that
she, thinking he must be dead. would
stand spellbound in an agony of dread
and horror until he moved again.
Once, when he was even more restless
than usual, she lad hercool hand upon
his brow, and in amoment he was still,
presently murmuring in Spanish:
''That is good. mother. Now sing to
me-" Marie, who had a retentive
memory. loved singing the songs she
dlmly remembered hearing when she
lay in her infancy or the breast of the
sweetmother who seemed but like a
lovely dream. All lullabies and sweet
love- songs they were, with which
the gentle Spanish mother, herself but
a child, had hushed her babe to sleep il
the vine-clad cottage in sunny Iberia,
Now Mare sang them to the hand
some. youth in sweet, cooling tones
henceforward her remedy failed
So she would sit. by the hour, and
when the Spanish songs she knew wer'
all sung, she would sing them through
and through again. The new moor
came, rounded to the full, and bcgar
to wane, and then the sufferer, nov
himself again, began in his turn to tel
her tales of the beautiful. bright worle
outside Gillette, of which world she
knew SO little. She listened; at frs
with q wistful, doubling look on he1
sweet face, but presently that cleared
away and her eyes began to sparkle
with new thoughts as a new world
opened to her heart.
u Philippe Alvarez was no common
sailor; his dark, refined face showed tn,
'sangre azul' of an historic race
Poor, but proud, unused to usefu
labor, he had joined the band of snug
glers of which Jacques Pouteaux was
the chief from chance and remained il
it from very love OF adventure. Once
in the tolls there was no retreat, fol
his father, N thed day he heard of his som
!, nefar:ous mode of living, drew a darl
line through hs name in the famil,
register, and forbade the members O
his household EVER to mention the out
cast in his pre- sence again. 10 tina
? father he was as one already dead.
!, The bright days of that summer
month passed away; to Marie they flee
all to quickly, for she dreaded, now
the thought Of returning to the old lif,
of loneliness. Tears filled her eyes ant
her heart seemed, she knew not why
to stand still at TIE thought. Yet he
work was nearly done; she had nurset
the sailor back to life and strength. 4
few days more and..the little COW would
be left again to the wild sea-birds ant
Philippe would have returned to hi
own bright lalA.
One afternoon the sun shoae bright.
down upon the yellow sand, and upol
the still weak but convalescent Philippe
stretched at full length under a pro
) jecting rock. Perched like a sea birt
, on another was Mare, her hand
, clasped behind her head and gazing il
soul-dreams out DER the danc;n!
waves.
"Come down, Marie, and sit besid
me. l can not go to you o can
talk to you from here"
The girl left her perch and took tn
: seat offered her on q large stone. wher
Philippe, from his resting-place. coul'
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