Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1888-03-16

not know; and when they said to him:
THAT is Boum- Boum!" he fell back
slowly, sadly, with his head turned to
the pillow and lay there with his eyes
fixed, his big blue eyes that saw beyond
the walls of the little bedroom and that
looked for, that were always looking for
Boum- Boum's spangles and butterfly as
lover pursues his dreams.
NO replied the child, with a voice
no longer dry. but distressed; ''no-
that is not Boum- Boum."
The clown, standing near the little
bed, bent profound gaze on the face of
the sick little man, grave look, but of
an infinite sweetness. He shook his
head, looked at the anxious father and
broken down mother and said, smiling;
''He is right; it is not Boum- BOum"
and he went out
81 shall not see; shall never see him
again, Boum- Boumr' now repeated the
child, whose voice seemed to be already
whispering to the angels. perhaps
Boum Boum is over there yonder, where
little Francois will soon GO"
And suddenly-he had not been gone
half an hour-the door was rudely
opened and in his black and spangled
suit, with yellow topknOt on his head,
a golden butterfly on his breast and
another on his back, his mouth opened
into an expansive grin, his good face all
chalked, Boum- Boum, the real BOum-
Boum, the Boum Boum of the circus,
the Boum- Boum of the little Francois,
Boum- Boum himself appeared And on
his little white bed. with a lively exul-
tation in his eyes, laughing, crying,
happy, saved, the child clapped his lit
tie thin hands, shouted bravo and cried
with all the joyfulness of a sevenyear-
old, bursting out suddenly like lighted
rocket: "Boum- Boum! IT'S he, it's he
this time. This is Boum-Boum, sure!
Hurrah for Boum Boum! Good morn
ing Boum- Boumn'
When the doctor came that day he
found, seated at the bedside of the little
Francois, a white faced clown who kept
the little fellow laughing all the time
and who said to the sick boy, stirring
lump of sugar in the bottom of a cup of
medicine:
''You know if you do not drink it,
little Francois, that BoumBoum will
not come to see you again"
"And the child drank it.
''Isn't it niece"
every nice, thank you, Boum- Boum."
"DOctOr," said the clown to the physl-
clan, ''do not be jealous. 1t seems to me,
however, that my antics do him as much
good as your prescription.
The father and mother wept, but this
time it was because of their happiness.
And every day until little Francois was
able to leave his bed carriage stopped
before the workman's home on the Rue
dies Abbesses, and there stepped from it
a man wrapped in a heavy overcoat with
the cape turned up, and beneath, dressed
for the circus and with jolly, chalked
face.
''What do owe you, SIR" said Jacques
Legrand to the clown at the end of his
visits, when the boy went out for the
first time; ''because in fact, you see, 1
owe you something.''
The clown offered to the parents his
two big hands. the hands of a sweet and
amiable Hercules. GA good shake of
your hands, he said. Then kissing both
of the child's cheeks, which had recov-
cred some of their rosiness, he added,
laughing: "The permission to print on
my visiting cards: 'Boum-Boum, aero
batic doctor, Physician in Ordinary to
the Little Francois. "-B0stOn Transcript.