Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-24
} the house, still grumbling and COM

one 10 tuiuh Oh III LOT MIN. ne SOb q sauce
pan and some vegetables in a basket,
seated himself on low stool, the basket
between his knees, and began to prepare
his own supper. While with awkward eff
forts he slowly peeled some potatoes; he
began to think of all that had jus! hap
pened.
She was gone! Well, so much the bet
teri With her little hands and her little
feet, for which there were no sabots small
enough, she was a miserable servant.
What one wants on farBn is stout girl
with big hands and big feet, who will not
bend under the heaviest pals of milk.
And then, she was headstrong, this
'Melia. It didn't take much to make her
angry. If you SO much as spoke of her
birth, she got as red as a turkey cock and
her eyes shone like fire. She was not
born for servant, surely, for she did not
know how to bear scolding.
So all at once she was gone-God
knows where. Wouldn't il have been
better quietly to go about getting the
supper? But she always had devil of a
temper.
Always? No. What gentle little
creature she was when she was little
thing; when she sat in his lap and Gale
him Papa James. She was very good
then, and long afterward. In that sick
ness which ne had, she had obsyed the
doctors instructions like little woman,
so that one day the doctor himself had
stroked her head and tod her that it was
she who had saved the old mans life.
How old was she then! About II or Ii
years. It was at that time that James,
who had neither children nor near rela-
tions, had thought about making Will
and leaving his property to his little
maid. But he had never told any one,
for they say it is bad luck to make a will,
and James didn't want to die before his
time.
Was it after that sickness that she
had grown so pretty? 1t must have been
after that, for when the doctor had
praised her, she was very pale and thin.
WEAKNESS no doubt, for she bad not
slept for 15snights, and she did not get
over it until the next winter. Yes, she
grew very pretty; if the yoang men had
noticed her, James might have had
trouble enough, but the young men paid
no attention and that is easy to under
stand. A founding.
Woulo hCfCl vi Sou! 90
Who the devil had been court1pg her
Well, it made no difference now that she
was gone. Gone? BAIL E ,lks say that
they are going, but then, they think bet
ter of it when supper time comes. She
would soon come back.
The minutes rolled on. Father james
went on peeling potatoes, and naturally
be peeled enough for two, since she must
be coming back. When he thought that
he had enough he listened, expecting to
hear the latch lifted. But nobody came
"She is outside the door," he said to
himself, "afraid to come in. Bah! We
must put up with the faults of youth
and she must be cold" He got up, shut
his knife and put it it in his pocket, an
old habit with a peasant; then waited g
moment longer.
''She won't come in Alone" he mutter.
ed. "I'll open the door for her" He
stole to the door as softly as his wooden
shoes allowed, and opened it.
There was nobody there.
lie recoiled in alright as if he had seen
ghost, and an mex plicable fear made
his gray hair rise under his wool hat
He was not coward, however, and he
took two steps forward, His tracks made
IN returning from town were almost
effaced by the snow; other fresh tracks
took the same road In the opposite di
rection. They were Amelia's, recognized
ty the smallness of the print; for the
snow had ceased TO fall. They were
rather wide apart, deep, the heel we'll
marked like those of person running.
The old man rubbed his eyes, and said
aloud:-
"She must be somewhere in the viii
Iage." He turned his head toward the
houses, but no track was to be seen in
that direction.
In spite of himself, denying the evil
dence, he exclaimed, at cannot bel"
Day had already disa ppeared, but the
gray sky, full of snow, was not dark, and
the wilderness of the earth made the least
track easily recognizable. Forgetting to
shut the doo- of his house behind him,
poor Father James followed the marks of
the little feet, bent a little forward, like
a man who is looking for something.
After few strides the track took a
reasonable pace again. Amelia had
stopped running, without much slacken-
ing her steps. One after the other the
pretty little feet, so unfit for the heavy
tasks of the fields, had taken their way
through the snow, following the BAD to
the town.
Wnen he had gone nearly a mile, Father
James stopped for q breath of air. A
flake of snow fell on his beard and anoth
er on his hand. Raising bis heal and
looking before him, he cried, "LittIe
Onep'
That was what he used to call her when
she was more of playtning than ser
want to hin; it was pet name which she
always answered with a smile.
Little One!" repeared the old man, and
he thought with con tidence, 'She will IN.
darstand at once that forgive her"
There was no answer. He pressed on
following the little feet printed in the
snow, which seemed to go on before HIN
toward some unknown destination. Blu
the fakes began to fall again, thicker AND
thicker; the sky became blacktr. and
shut down upon the earth; night was com
ing on, Night; that was nothing. Bui
the storm!
The foot prints, at first go plain, ever
at distance, were filling mp with new
snow; there was now onlY faint marks &c
be seen. The Ole man walked slowly
bent almost double in order to distinguish
these faint traces; from time to time he
Strengthened himself up and cast toward
tbs low, black sky his no longer confident
but despairing appeal, Little OneW
AID the thick air gave no response
not even an echo!
Still scar ching out the little footprint:
under the snow by an effort which made
mis- head swim, he reached the high road
that which ne had left two hours before
where the stage ought to have passed no
long since on Its way to the city. Blu
there-nothing to be seen! The little fee
were lost under the thick bed of snow; the
flakes, more and more Numerous, thicker
and thicker, fell slowly, forming before