Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-02-15

No heart Is so bereft Of goodness,
or wed 10 sin.
But kindness BY some gentle shrewdness
May enter in
And rescue by persistent mercies
| The stranded will,
Which, none may know by what adyerses,
! Succumbed TO Ill.,
Tho Virtue wilt it doth not wither,
! But must revive:
Tho tossed by storms hither and thither
'1is kept alive
By that from which it emanated.
Faint heart for help though long thou hast
waited.
It shall be- thine.
-Boston .IpurinL
MISS P1p1.
Every morning when the miners employ
ed in the mines at Barnard assembled
around the shaft to answer 10 the roll call,
there could be seen, arriving last of ALL a
tall, sturdy looking fellow, who led by the
hand little girl, seven or eight years old.
They were Michel Pierron and his daugh-
/ ter.
Before setting his feet 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, "Gool by papa
When the signal for 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,
whore 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
| applicable Her father was everything to
] her Her mother had leen dead "a long
/ time she had scarcely known her she
/ had only him. All the memories of her
/ childhood were filed with him. To her
/ his great rough hands had been as gentle
as a womans. For her, his hard grimy
face had always worn tender smile. For
/ her. this man had become woman and a
/ child at the same time
All 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 miner held her over the mouth
Of the shaft and she had gazed down into
the dark depths. Uttering a cry of terror,
she drew back
Papa goes down there. she thought
"Oh, if he should never come up
And that day when Michel took her in
hi. arms as usual and kissed her, she clung
more tightly than ever to his neck, and
said to him
"lou will come up, won't you =
"Of course, my little one. -
is there any danger tell me, papa -
Why no, little coward.
Does any one-can any one-die down
there -
Have no fear replied Michel laugh
ing. II 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
reassured.
But the memory of that black gulf into
which her eyes had plunged could not be
effaced. and from that time she afraid
every morning and trenbled every even
ing she feared that her father would new
er return from those mysterious depths in
to which she had seen him descend.
Was it d presentiment Who knows
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 locking 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
cumprrhended
.l.i -haf
explosion was 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
| strcWn with them when she arrived that
. evening, to meet her father.
She was stupehed for a moment, and
then the truth suddenly flashed upon her
she had seen those men go down there liv-
ing, those men whom she knew well, who
had kissed her many time and now they
were brought up 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 Papa - but no one
they drove back. but no one could be found
to drive her away. They let her run, poor
child, from one body to another, sometimes
stopping before a distigured face, hesitat-
ing for moment as if she feared that she
might recognize her father
No, he was not among the dead. She
grew calmer, and sought among the living.
lie was not there She questioned every
one but no one had seen him.
Of the sixty miners who went down in
the morning forty five had come up alive,
fourteen 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 ioyousy, as if they had said to her
He is all right You will see him again.
All how she hoped to see him. Then she
suddenly recollected the morning on which
her father had said to her:
Il will not die without letting you know.
1t needed only that to give her the GER
/ tainty that he was living.
4 child's faith is strong. 1t is not easy
/ to drive ont an idea which has once taken
root in its mind So when the morning
came-she had remained there all night
they tried to make her understand that
l there was no hope, that she would never
( again her father that they had eX-
a plored all the galleries. searched every cor
e ner and had not found him, she shook her
/ curly head and began to weep, saying
Seek for papa.
: They paid little attention to her. For
S forty hours had they not exhausted every
p means There was doubtless something
strange in this disappearance. Living OF
t dead Michel ought to have been found, anc
d ] they had not fOund him
The chief engineer had himself directed
the search, but all in vain. In the opinion
of all nothing could be done, and it wal
possible that, by the force of the explosion
. the unfortunate man had been buried by
falling debris but it was impossible 10 tel
n how or where
For forty-eight hours little Miss Pap'
' waited anxiously, but without manifestinl
the slightest uneasiness. At every human
:, form which appeared at the opening sh
, started forward, and, not recognizing hin
- whom she awaited, she sank back upon tn
ground with deep sigh They tried b
y take her away, and she uttered such pierre
. ing cries that they considered it best l.
:, leave her there. They thought she mus
y. soon yield TO fatigue.
- Whence comes TO the weak and feebl
Il such strength in the great crises of life
= Ask God it is His secret
:, The third day the child was still at Il
/" shaft.
=, II must put an end to this, said tn
~ chief engineer, approaching her. Com,
- my little one, he reasonable" "
~ Papa seek for papa '
- ALAS he is dead.
~ mo
~ She uttered this "no' with such energ
, that the engineer was struck by il.
4 l.. L.. L