Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-12-05

MISS PAPA.
Every morning when the miners en-
ployed in the mines at, Berard assem-
bied around the shaft to answer the
roll call, there could be seen, arriving
last of all, tall, sturdy looking fellow,
who led by the hand a little girl seven
or eight years old. They were Michel
Pierron and his daughter.
Before setting foot upon the platform
of the car to descend, the man took the
child in his arms and kissed her, and
then replaced her on the ground. The
little one cried, Goodbye. papa"
"When the signal for the descent was
given she clasped her hands and kept
repeating the single word, sspapa," un-
til she was sure that papa could no
longer hear her. Then she went on to
the schoolhouse close by, where she
spent the day.
When the evening came she was al
ways the first at the opening of the shaft,
and Michel Plerron was always the first
who came up. AS at his departure, he
lifted the child IN his arms, and she
threw her arms around his neck crying,
t'papa."
The miners had heard her repeat
these two syllables so often, and had
been so struck by the strange passion
which she put into them, that they
gave her the name of Miss Papa.
And certainly no name was more ap-
plicable. Her father was everything
to her. Her mother had been dead a
long time; she had scarcely known her;
she had only him. All her memories
of childhood were filled with him. To
her his great rough hands had been as
gentle as a Woman's. For her, his hard
grimy face had always worn a tender
smile. For her this man had become a
woman and child at the same time.
All how she loved her father, and
how terrified she was every morning,
when she saw him descend into that
great black hole to which no one
could see the bottom.
One day miner held her over the
mouth of the shaft, and she had gazed
down into the dark depths. Uttering
a cry of terror she drew back
"Papa goes down there" she thought.
@Oh, if he should never come up I''
And that dav, when Michel took her
in his arms as usual and kissed her, she
chung more tightly than ever to his
neck, and said to him:
"You will come up, won't you :"
"Of course, my little one"
Is there any danger, tell me, papa"
Why, no, little coward"
Does anyone = can anyone-die
down there ?"
"Have no fear" replied Michel,
laughing; II win not die without letting
you know"
'.Ah Good bye, papa"
ALI that her father said was gospel
truth to her, and she went to school
completely treasured.
But the memory of that black gulf into
which her eyes had plunged could lot
be effaced, and from that time she was
afraid every morning and trembled
every evening; she feared her father
would never return from those mysteri-
GUS depths into which she had seen him
descend.
Was it presentiment Who knows
One day the report suddenly spread
that an explosion had occurred in the
mine. In q moments time a crowd
had gathered at the shaft. From all
directions people, wild with terror came
focking to the spot. Of all those buried
far below there how many would ever
see the light again ?
Michel's daughter was at school, She
knew nothing of it, and besides if any,
one had tspoken of it before her
would she have comprehended?
Could she know, poor little one, what
an explosion was ? No. But at her
age one knows already what death is;
one understands, at her age, when one
sees inanlmate, nutilated bodies ex-
tended upon the ground; and the APP
proacheS 10 the shaft were strewn with
them when she arrived, that evening,
to meet her father.
She was stupe fed for a moment. and
then the truth suddenly flashed upon
her; she had seen those men go down
living those men whom she knew so
well, who had kissed her many a time;
and now they were brought up dead.
Would they bring up her father like
them?
This thought distracted her. She be-
gan to run wildly among the debris,
which they had brought up from the
mine. crying: Papa papa papa %
There were, it is true, many others
who cried and called Papa |" but no.
one In such despairing accents The
others they drove back, but no one
: could be found to push her away.
They let her ran. poor child, from one
body TO another, sometimes stopping
before a disfgured face, hesitating for
moment as it she feared that she
I AnAsIb FeCDgnlZe I6T IaLDCr.
No, he was not among the dead. She |
grew cslmer and sought among the liv- |
ing. He was not there. She ques-
honed every ONE, bat no one had seen
him.
Or the sixty miners who went down |
In the morning forty five had come up
alive; fourteen were dead. There re-
manned but one to be accounted for; that |
one was Michel.
She had made them explain all that !