Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-02-15
BOUM-BOUM.

pale, and looked with eyes made all the bigger
by fever straight before him, steadily, and
with the strange fixedness of the sick who
already perceive what those who are well
cannot see. The mother, at the foot of the
bed, biting her fingers so as not to cry out,
anxious and tormented with her suffering,
watched the progress of the disease over the
poor, thin face of her little boy, and the
father, fine fellow, though he was only a
workingman, held back in his eyes the tears
that burned on their lids And the first light
of the dawn, clear, gentle, the light of a fine
morning in June, came into the narrow bed
room on the Rue des ADDRESSES, where lay
dying the little Francois, son of Jacques
Legrand and of Madeleine Legrand, his wife.
He was boy Of years A blonde and rosy
little chap, who, not three weeks before, had
been as lively and as clipper as sparrow
But fever had seized him, and they had
brought him home, one evening, from school,
with his head so heavy and his hands so hot.
And ever since he had been there, on his bed,
and sometimes in his delirium would say,
looking at the nicely polished shoes that his
mother had carefully set in corner: you
can throw them away now, little Francois
shoes Little Francois will not wear them
school again-never, never"
Then the father would cry out, "Will you
be quiet?" and the mother would go and
hide her face in her pillow, SO that the little
Francois would not hear her weep. Through
the night that had just passed the child had
had no delirium. But for two days he had
bothered the doctor by strange sort of de-
spondency, which resembled a surrender to
death, as if, though but years old, the
sick boy had already experienced the weari-
ness of life. He was tired out, apparently,
silent, sad, idly tossing his weak head back
ward and forward on the pillow, unwilling
to take anything; having no longer a smile
on his poor, thin lips, and with his haggard
eyes searching, seeing no one knew what,
far off, far away. There, above us, per-
haps," thought Madeleine, who shivered at
the thought. When they wanted him to
take his medicine, some syrup may be, or
little beef tea he refused everything.
"Do you want anything, Francois"
mo, want nothing"
you must get him out of this" said the
doctor. This torpor alarms me. You are
his parents, you should know your child.
Think of something which may animate this
little fellow, bring back to earth the mind
which is roaming among the Clouds" And
then he went away.
Think of something" Oh, yes, beyond a
doubt, they knew him well, their Francois,
these good people. They knew how much
he was amused, the little fellow, when on
Sunday he would 60 and forage in the
hedges, and would come back to Paris on
his fathers shoulder, loaded with hawthorn
Jacques Legrand had bought for Francois all
sorts of images, and he put them on the
childs bed, and made them dance before the
wandering eyes of the little fellow and, all
ready to cry, tried to make him laugh.
''Now, do You see, It's the Broken Bridge.
Tra-la-la. And here is general. You re-
member we saw general once in the Bots
de Boulognel Ii you viii take your medi-
cine | will buy real general for you, with
a cloth coat and gold epaulettes Do you
want him-the generall Tell me-"
No" replied the child, in the dry voice
which fever produces.
"Do you want pistol' some marblesa
bow and arrows2"
NO answered the little voice, almost
cruel in its distinctness.
And to all that they said to him, to all the
jumping jacks, to all the balloons that they
II OIiIISSu NM, tlio liLtlc NbItt-bUc pdgtHbS
all the while looking at each other in despair
answered, mo. no! mop
But what do you want, then, my Fran
coisF asked the mother. Come now, there
must be something that you would like to
have What is it? Tell it to me. your
mammal" And she laid her cheek down on
the pillow of the sick boy, and she whispered
her request in his ear, as if it were q secret
between them. Then the child, rising in his
bed and stretching out toward something in
visible an eager hand, replied suddenly, with
a strange accent and in an earnest tone, that
was at once supplicating and imperative:
Il want Boum- Boum!"
Boum-Boum
The poor Madeleine threw a frightened
look at her husband What did the little
one say Was it the dslirium, the terrible
delirium come backl
Boum- Boum!
She did not know what it meant, and she
was frightened at these queer words, which
the child now repeated with the willfulness
Of a sick person, as if, not having dared until
then TO formulate his dream, he would cling
TO it now with an invincible obstinacy.
Eyes, Boum- Boum! Boum-Bou Iwant
Boum- Boumm
The mother had seized in her nervousness
Jacques's hand, and said in low voice. as
though she were out of her wits, What
does that mean, Jacques: Obi it is all over
with himn
But the father had on his rough face a
smile that was almost happy And a Devil
dered smile, ralso-the smile of condemned
man who detects q possible chance for lib
erty. Boum- Boum! He we'll remembered
the Easter morning when he had taken
Francois TO the circus He had still in lis !
ears the ehild's great bursts Of JOY, his |
hearty laugh-the laugh of an amused !
youngster-when the clown, the splendid |
clown, all spotted with gold, with spark /
ling, many colored dress. on the back OF ,
which was set big brown butterfly, per-
formed his antics in the ring, PLAYED tricks |
IN the riding master. or held himself motion |
less on the ground, his head down and his |
feet IN the air, or threw up to the chande-
Ter his soft felt hat ami caught it adroitly on |
MS head, and where the men formed pyra-
mid; and at each trick, like the refrain of a |
song, lighting up his big, dron, bright face. /
he clown uttered the same cry, repeated the
same word, accompanied sometimes by roll |
If drums-Boum-B oum
Boum- Boumi and every time that it came
'ound, Boum- Bouml the whole circus burs,ed
,ut in braves, and the little one laughed
leartiest. Boum- BouIa. 1t was THU
SCUM BouIn, the clown of the circus, the
nan who entertained a good part of the city.
hat he wanted To sae-the little Francois
md that he might not have and might not see,
because he was there, sick and weak, in his
White bed,
That evening Jacques Legrand brought 20
be child jointed clown, with Spangles
ewed on all over, that he had bought at
Ugh price-the price, n fact, of four days