San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-02-28
MISS PAPA.


in the mines at Berard assembled around the
shaft to answer to the roll call there could be
seen, arriving last Of all, a tall, sturdy look
ing fellow, who led by the hand a little girl
Tor years old. They were Michel Pierron
and his daughter.
Before 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 one cried, Good
by, papa"
When he was upon the car she gazed at
him with two little anxious eyes, and re-
peated, "Good-by, papa"
When 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 she
went on to the school house close by, where
she spent the day.
When evening came she was always the
first at the opening of the shaft, and Michel
Pierron was always the first 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 APP
plicable. Her father was everything to her.
Her mother had been dead long time: she
had scarcely known her; she had only him.
All the memories of her childhood were filled
with him. To her his great rough hands had
been as gentle as wOman'S For his hard,
grimy face had always worn a tender smile
For her this man had become a woman and
child at the same time.
Ali 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.
One day a miner held her over the mouth
of the shaft, and she had gazed down into
the dark depths Uttering cry of terror,
she drew back.
"Papa goes down there" she thought
"Oh, If he should never come upr"
And that day, when Michel took her in
his arms as usual and kissed her, she chung
more tightly than ever to his neck. and said
to him:
You will come up, won't youF'
"Of course. my little one"
as there any danger, tell me, pGpar'
"Why no, little coward"
docs any one-can any one-die down
therer'
Have no fear" replied Michel, laughing;
81 will not die without letting you know"
"Ah! good-by, papa"
All that her father said was gospel truth TO
her. and she went to school completely reas-
sured.
But the memory of that black gulf into
which her eyes had plunged could not be eff
faced, and from that time she was afraid
every morning and trembled every evening:
she feared that her father would never re
turn from those mysterious depths into
which she had seen him descend
Was it a presentiment9 Who knowsl
One day the report suddenly spread that an
explosion had occurred in the mine, In a
moments time a crowd had gathered at the
shaft From all directions people, wild with
terror, came fOcking to the spot. OF all
those buried far below there how many would
ever see the light again.
Mlchels daughter was at school, She
knew nothing of it, and, besides, if any one
had spoken of it before her would she have
comprehended?
Could she know, poor little one, what an
explosion waSl No. But at her age one
knows already what death is; one under
stands, at her age, when one sees inanimate
mutilated bodies extended upon the ground
and the approaches to the shaft were strewn
with them when she arrived that evening to
meet her father
She was stupefed for moment, and then
the truth suddenly flashed upon her; she had
seen those men go down living, those men
whom she knew aell, who had kissed her
q 81,
dead. Would they bring up her father like
them?
This thought distracted her. She began to
run wildly among the debris, which they had
brought up from the mine, crying: Papa!
papa! papa!"
There were, it is true, many others who
cried and who called "Papan but not one in
such despairing accents. The others they
drove back, but no one could be found to
push her away. They let her run, poor child,
from one body to another, sometimes stopping
before dislgured face, he8tating for mo
ment as if she feared she might recognize her
father.
No, he was not among the dead. She grew
calmer, and sought among the living. He
was not there. She questioned every one,
but no one had seen him.
Of the sixty miners who went down in =,
morning forty-five had come up alive: four
teen were dead There remained but one TO
be accounted for; that one was Michel.
She had made them explain all that to her,
and she understood. She clapped her hands
joyously, as if they had a id 20 her: HE is
all right. You will see him again" Ali
how Re hODed to see him. Then she suddenly