The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-02-14
MISS PAPA.

Every morning when the miners en-
ployed in the mines at Bernard assem-
| bled around the shaft to answer the
roll-call, there could be seen arriving
last of all tall, sturdy-looking fellow,
who led by the hand little girl seven
or eight years old. They were Michel
| Pierron and his daughter.
Before setting foot upon the platform
of the car to descend the man took the
little child in his arms and kissed her,
and then replaced her on the ground.
The little one cried: "Good-by, papa. :"
When the signal for the descent was
given she clasped her hands and kept
repeating the single word papa" un-
til 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 the evening came she was al
ways first at the opening of the shaft,
and Michel Pierron was always the
first who came up. As at his departure,
he lifted the child in his arms, and she
| threw her arms around his neck, cry
ing, 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 more
applicable. Her fatherw was everything
to her. Her mother had been dead a
long time; she had scarcely known
her; she had only him. All her men,
| ories of childhood were filled with him.
To her his great rough hands had been
as gentle as a woman's. For her, his
hard, grimy face had always worn a
tender smile. For her, this man had
become a woman and child at the
same time.
Ah! how she loved her father, and
how terrified she was every morning
| when she saw him descend into the
| great black hole to which no one could
| see the bottom.
One day miner held her over the
mouth of the shaft, and she 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
up"
And that day, when Michel took her
in his arms as usual and kissed her,
she clung more tightly than eyer to
his neck, and said to him:
you will come up, won't you?"
"Of course, my little one"
''Is there any danger, tell me, pa
paP"
why, no. little coward"
docs any One-can any one-die
down there?"
Have no fear,n replied Michel,
| laughing; II will not die without let
ting 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
was afraid every morning and trem-
bled every evening; she feared her
father would never return from those
mysterious depths into which she had
seen him descend.
Was it preseutiment? Who knowsp
One day the report suddenly spread
that an explosion had occurred in the
mine. In moments time a crowd
| had gathered at the shaft. From all
directions people, wild with terror,
! came flocking to the spot. OF all
those buried far below there how many
would ever see the light again?
Micheps daughter was at school.
She knew nothing of it, and besides il
any one had spoken of it before her
would she have comprehended?
Could she know, poor little one
what an explosion was? No. But al
| her age one knows already what death
is; one understands at her age when
one sees inanimate. mutilated bodies
extended upon the ground, and the ap
| proaches to the shaft were strewn with
meet her father.
She was Supplied for moment, and
then the truth suddenly flashed upon
her; she had seen those men 60 dowr
| living. those men whom she knew sc
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. Sht
began to run wildly among the debris
which they had brought up from thu
mine, crying: Papa! Papa! Papa!
There were. it is true, many other.
who cried and called "Papa!" but no
one in such despairing accents. Th'
others they drove back, but no ONT
could be found to push her sway
They let her run, poor child, from ont
body to another, sometimes stopping
before disfigured face, hesitating fo
a moment as if she feared she Nigh
recognize her father.
No, he was not among the dead
She grew calmer and sought among
the living. He was not there. Sh
questioned everyone, but no one hat
seen him.
OF the sixty miners who went dowI
in the morning forty-tive had come ~
alive; fourteen were dead. There re
mained but one to be accounted for
that one was Michel
She had made them explain all tha
to her, and she understood. Sh
clapped her hands joyously, as if the,
had said to her: He is all right. Yol
will see him again" All! how sh