San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-20


dignified way was to run to the Bon Marche
and try to match the stuff. Eight yards at
fifteen francs came to l20 francs-a formida.
bic breach in the money box and the savings
for the iourneyI Well, it was done now,
and the sea baths must be given up for this
year The dresSmaker kissed Little Cab and
again set herself to work.
In the winter that followed they stIug-
gled hard in Little Cabs household The
autumn had been rainy and Cabs health
had felt the effect of it. His bones ached, he
had feverish disturbances and headaches
The doctor, sounding the boys lungs, shook
his head and insisted again on their sending
the child to Berck Immediately on the re-
turn of the pleasant weather. This time it
was settled that he should go; cost what it.
might, they would set out for the sea baths
about the last of May; and the sewing ma
chine began again i'll still greater hurry its
grasshopper rattle, and the evenings OF
work were extended still farther into the
night. They bought for Little Cab book
in which there were pictures only Of the sea
views of harbors with their forests Of
masts set along the piers, steep crags washed
by foamy waves, fishing boats, scattered
apart, in the offing, like flock of white
but the sea; he saw it in his dreams, and
sometimes even in full daylight, through
the gray fog which filed the inside yard, he
had unhealthy decisions of shores beaten by
the waves, and great watery spaces, crossed
by ships with distended sails.
Sometimes he took from the mantelpiece q
large shell; he placed it against his ear, and
with his neck sunk into his shoulders, and
with thoughtful eyes, he listened for hours
to this roar of the sea, which seemed to come
from far, far away through the shell.
The winter was exceptionally damp and
cold and did not again encounter Little
Cab under the porch. The doctor had ex-
pressly forbidden them to let him go out.
From time to time saw him at the window,
one of the curtains of which was raised.
Ills eyes, sad and downcast, stared into va
cancy. and on the clear window glass his
thin fingers traced vague form of ships.
Then suddenly his glance would be fixed on
the easement where was making my obser-
vations, and, feeling that he was watched,
with timid gesture he would draw down
the muslin curtain. Towards the middle of
March | no longer saw him near the window
pane. His bones made him suffer more and
more, his too feeble legs could no longer carry
him, and his headaches were redoubled. He
now passed whole days lying on his little bed,
turning over for the hundredth time the
leaves of the picture book Were were seen
the sea and the big ships with their white
sails He had not given up the idea of his
journey. when will we goF' he asked of
his sister; and when the latter had explained
to him that they must wait for fine weather,
he replied in his sharp, thin voice, ut is
because an i'll a hurry; | want to get well
quickly, very quickly, SO as not to see you
cry any more" And he began to repeat to
himself the names of the towns through
which they would pass. He already knew
them by heart-Chantilly, then Clermont.
Amiens Abbeville and at last the sea.
"Once that we are yonder," said he, 81 am
sure that my bones will not pain me any
more" While waiting he wished to have
the big pink shell from the mantelpiece b.
him, and, his ear placed against its pearly
valves, he listened atCentively to the distarY
noise of this sea that should deliver him freq
all his sulferings
Towards Easter heard no longer the dull
rumbling of the sewing machine There
was no more working in the little home, and
yet light from lamp gliding one of the
windows well into the night, showed thai
they were always watching there near tn
bed of the sick child. "He is much worse"
murmured the porter's wife, pressing in.
stinctively against her skirts chubby little
boy; "he has not long to live. The poor soul
it will be a released"
One morning l passed under the porch a
little coffin carried by two undertaker's men
and followed by the family 1t was Little
Cab, who was at last setting out on his jour
ney towards the unfathomable sea of the un.
known.-Translated from the French for The
Boston Transcript.