Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-04-08


shot had gone into her right leg a lit
tie below the thigh, shattering it to
pieces, and the surgeon had had to
| cut it off.
ut might have killed her; let us
think how much more unhappy we
might have been," Mr.. Foster said,
| as he held hi1 wife in his arms, and
tried TO comfort her. eff she lives we
can bear all the rest Thank God!
Thank God"
The father and mother were alone
together in Elsie's room; they had
neither OF them yet spokento or even
seen Norman.
Where's he?" Mr.. Foster asked aft
er long while, and the poor mother
almost shuddered as she answered;
81 don't knowl / know nothing
about him" she hurriedly said.
Can you tell me where Norman is?"
he went out presently, and asked one
OF the servants.
81 think he is in the garden sir" the
woman answered; and then Mr.. Fos-
ter went into the garden and called
him. He knew that it was his duty to
see the lad and talk to him. aNor-
man." he called loudly, but it was
only after he had repeated his name
twice that the unhappy, boy came.
| lie came not daring to look into his
fathers face, and the father in silence
put his hand upon his shoulder, and
led him back into the house.
He took him into his study and
closed the door. 81 must punish him,
but how can punish him?" he YVES
thinking to himself. II must speak
to him, but what can / say?" 1t
seemed so useless, almost like mock
| cry, to use words of ordinary rebuke
to him-to treat him as if the feeling
towards him in his heart was one OF
| common anger.
For few moments he stood silent
with his hand still on Norman's
shoulder; then he tried to begin to
| speak, but knot came into his
throat, and the words would not
come. There only came instead OF
them the sound of great rising Sob
The boy looked suddenly up in great
terror and anguish; he had never in
his life before seen his father weep.
He looked up almost wildly into the
white and quivering face, his own all
| qulvering too; and then something all
at once swept away from each OF them
all anger and fear, and in their COM
mon anguish they clasped each other
] in their arms, and on his fathers
breast the lad wept his heart away
We learn by experience indeed; but
how much the happiest are they who
gather wisdom without her sharp and
bitter teaching
From the day on which he shot his
little sister, Norman Foster was never
an entirely ht.hearted boy again.
How could he be wholly Happy any
more when his reckless play had taken
the light and g,adness out OF that 9TH
or little joyous life?
The look of Elsie's shrunken face in
her little bed seemed half to break his
heart when he saw it first, the sight of
the two little clutches she was to use
well, that took them all down. think
All of them at least, except Elsie her.
self
She looked at them with big, round
eyes, and laughed, and said it would be
so funny to walk about on those two
| sticks. "'You walk with them now,
| Norman, and let me see, !" she called,
eagerly, from her bed, where she was
propped up with pillows. But Nor
man did not do what she asked him.
! He could not, but ran out ofthe room
with great sob.
| She had become, even by that time,
the dearest thing in all the world to
him, and she remained dearer to him
than all other people as long as he
/ on ~,
ness and blessing came out of the in
jury that he had done her, that to
make up to her for what he had rob-
bed her of, he gaveher the devotion of
! his whole life
+, He had been rough and willful and
reckless until now, but the thing that
he had done to her changed him,
through the suffering and remorse it
brought with it. into another Great:
ure. He became perfect knight to
| this fragile little sister-patient and
| gentle, wise and tender.
She never grew very strong; the
shock she had borne had been too great
for her even to rally wholly from it,
and in her weakness he used to care
for her and wait upon her with a love
| that never tired.
| lie had almost taken her life away,
and so he gave his own life up to her,
| and they grew to love each other
with a love that was passionate in
| its greatness.
When many years had passed, and
| they were left alone, they neither OF
| them were married, but lived togeth-
err till they grew almost old. She was
a little delicate thing, and he was tall
and strong. He used, even when she
was quite q woman to carry her
about in his arms.
They came to have the same
thoughts about most things. They
We're very happy, though he perhaps
WAS little graver than other people.
But she was as bright always as a
| bird.
'What have | to be sad about?"
she sometimes said 60 him. 81 might
haveall kinds OF trouble if had been
! like other women; but now | have
none. You never let me bear any
thing; you never let me want for any
thing; ! have only to live and enjoy
and be content"
And so she did liye-all her innocent
quiet life-hardly ever seeming to miss
the things that she had lost, like a
Gagged bird that does not know the
world, and has no longings to spread
its wings.
"She was the center of all the world
to me-" Norman Foster said once
when death came at last and parted,
for it was she who went first. "She
was everything to me-mother and
sister and wife and friend in one"
He was not thinking OF the bitter
ness that had mingled with his love
/ for her once when he spoke so; he had
ceased perhaps then to dwell on the
harm he had once done her, and had
come only to remember that they had
walked all through their lives togeth.
err, like children, hand in hand.
A Russian Court FavOrite.