Connecticut western news., 1888-12-12
MISS PAPA.

Every morning when the miners em. ployed in the mines at Bsrard assem- .bled around the shaft to ans wer to the roll call there could be seen, arriving last of all, tall, sturdy looking fellow, who led ly tho hand little girl. seven or eight years old. They were Michel Pierron and his daughter.
 B,fore 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 ono cried, "Goodby, papa.''
 When he was upon the car she gazed at him with two little anxious eyes, and repeated 'Goodby, papa"
 Whom the signal for the descent was given she clasped her hands and kept repeating the single word "papa," until she was sure that papa could no longer hear her. Then sho went on to tho schoolhouse close by, where she spent the day.
 When evening came she was always the first at the opening of the sha it, and Michel Pierron was always tho fr,t man who came up. As at his departure, he lifted the child in his arms, and she threw her arms around his neck crying, "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 ever more applicable. Her father was everything to her. Her mother had been dead a long time; she had scarcely known her; she had only him. All the memor ies of her childhood were filled with him. To her his great rough hands had been as gentle as woman's. For her his hard, grimy face had always worn tender smile. For her this man had become a woman aud child at the same time.
 An! how she loved her father, and how terrified she was every morning, when she saw him descend into that great black hole, of which no one could see the bottom.
 O.e day a miner held her over the mouth of tho shaft, and sh, had gazed down into the dark depths. Uttoring ( cry of terror, sho drew back.
 '.Papa goes down there, 7" sho thought. "Oa, if he should never come upr"
 And that day, when Michel took hc1 in his rrms as usual and kissed her, she clung more tightly than ever to his neck, and said to him:
 ''You will como up. won't youl'
 ''Os course, my little one."
 'Ts there any danger, tell me, papa7'
 'fWhy no, little coward"
 ''Does any ono-can any one-.-d die down therc2'
 1.-Two no fear" replied Michel, laughing; q will not di, without let ting you know"
 "Ah! Goodby, papa"
 All that her father said was gospeI truth to her, and she went to schoo completely reassurcd.
 But tho memory of that black gull into which hcr eyes had plunged could not he effacod, and from that time sh. was afraid every morning and trem ble every evening; she feared that hel father would never return from those mysterious depths into which she had seen him descend.
 Was it a prcsentiment7 Who knows
 One day the report suddenly spread that an explosion had occurred In the mine. In a moments time crowd had gathered at the shaft. From all direc tions people, wild with terror, cam focking to the spot. Of all those bur jed far below there how many would ever see the light againa
 Micheps daughter was at school. sh, knew nothing of it, and, besides, if an, one had spoken of it before her would she have comprehendcda
 Could she know, poor little one what an explosion wasa NJ. But a her age one knows already what doatl is; one understands, at her age, wher one sees inanimate, mutilated bodie extended upon tho ground; and the ap breaches to the shaft were strewn witl them when she arrived, that evening to meet her father.
 She was stupefied for moment, ant then the truth suddenly flashed upol her; she had seen those men go dowr living, those men whom she knew well who had kissed her many time; nne now they were brought up dead Would they bring up her father lik thsmi
 This thought distracted her. sh,